CINEMA
Truly a `festival' experience
JANARDHAN ROYE
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The 50th London Film Festival opened its doors to more of the general public this year.
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TAKING MOVIES TO THE PEOPLE: Stills from "Last King of Scotland".
EVER since the cinematograph was put together in the late 1800s, viewers have been treated to the magical phenomenon of the movies. Presently, despite an array of competing entertainment options, cinema is enjoying a purple patch. Savvy marketing technique, technical sophistication, and finally market-friendly software fuel this upsurge.
To be sure, Film Festivals showcase and promote the new body of work. The Cannes, Berlin, Rome and Venice film festivals, for instance, have done much to highlight films from far-flung corners. Serious movie buffs have often wished that `Festival' films — particularly those with extensive media-hype — were available at theatres nearer home. There are others who miss out because the films are inaccessible to young audiences or the visually and hearing impaired.
Widening base
Breaking new ground on these matters was the recent The Times-British Film Institute's 50th London Film Festival, (October 18 to November 2). For one, the Festival opened its doors to more of the general public. This is, perhaps, the first time a serious film event has enabled physically disabled movie-buffs to get sub-titled and audio-described films, and sign language interpreted films. Then there are eight features picked from around the world for children and the whole family.
Says Amanda Nevil, Director BFI, "Over the past 50 years, the Festival has remained true to its roots, providing a cradle of inspiration and opportunity to emerging filmmakers, an eager audience for established filmmakers from all over the world and an unsurpassed experience to thousands of film lovers who come in anticipation of two weeks of premiers, gala screenings and events."
This year the screenings were spread in 50 different traditional locations and some in unusual places: recording studios, hospitals and, hold your breath, a prison! This was to ensure that "the true festival experience" is taken to a broad and diverse audience. Special guests attending the Festival included film industry personalities, journalists, critics and even stuntmen! Amid this crowd were global buyers carefully poring over the movies and hanging on to the critic's views and observing audience responses. The US is the dominant player in the market. Frequently the overseas box-office dwarfs the domestic one.
The Festival opened at Odeon, Leicester Square, with the Oscar-winning documentary director Kevin Macdonald's "The Last King of Scotland". The film revolves around a bored Scottish doctor who lands up in Uganda, hoping to fill his life with some worthwhile community work but ends up as physician to General Idi Amin. Before long he is advising the dictator on state matters ranging from city planning to foreign policy. Forest Whitaker dons the complex role of the bizarrely comical and cruelly macabre despot in this brilliant fictional take-off.
The Indian connection
"Inarritu's Babel".
For Indian film aficionados, a clutch of movies was picked for screening at the Festival. Mira Nair's "The Namesake", based on a Jhumpa Lahiri's bestseller, examined the issues of family bonds among Indians in the U.S. when confronted with a death in the family. Nishikant Kumar's "Dombivili Fast", Kabir Khan's "Kabul Express", with John Abraham, Chitra Palekar's "A Grave-side Tale" and Goutham Ghouse's "The Journey with Rekha" and Nana Patekar were the other Indian entries.
Larry Charles' "Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan" is a tour-de-farce of the U.S. A Kazakhstan TV reporter is out to find what makes a great nation. On arrival in New York, the Kazakh reporter (Sacha Baron Cohen) sees an old episode of "Baywatch" and flips for Pam Anderson seriously enough to want to marry her. So he is off, traipsing all over the U.S. in search of his love. "Broader, bolder ands indeed, funnier than anything he's done before," wrote critic Michael Hayden of Sacha's role.
On the closing night gala there was Alejandro Gonzalez "Inarritu's Babel" with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett playing an estranged American couple trying to reconnect on a Moroccan holiday. Their tourist bus is accidentally shot on a dusty hillside — thrusting them and their co-passengers into strange encounters across three continents. Says artistic director Sandra Hebron, "`... Babel' is a bold, confident and gloriously cinematic assertion that assumptions and prejudices are more divisive than language barriers or borders."
The Festival also hosted many movie-related events including award presentation, talks/seminars and experimental films movies, and unspooled freshly restored treasures from global archives. Notable among these gems is the superb anti-war satire, Stanley Kubrick's "Dr Strangelove: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb". With Pyongyang's underground test and Iran well on its way to join the company, the film never seemed more ominous than now. The "nightmare comedy" had stellar performances by Peter Sellers in a triple role.
Unique interactions
The Festival offered a unique opportunity for filmmakers and stars to interact with critics and audiences,. When I spoke to two-time Oscar winner, Dustin Hoffman, there was no sign that he was 67. He said he was very busy preparing for the Festival's onstage interviews and the screening of his latest movie — Marc Forster's "Stranger than Fiction".
Asked why we have not seen much of him recently, Hoffman said, "I stopped working for a few years. I wanted to direct, write... but I didn't get around to these things. Then my wife (Barbara Streisand) said something that made me kinda think. Now I am back. I am busier than ever before — playing a whole bunch of supporting roles. I get to pick scripts. It's great. It's fulfilling."
I remarked that he had made considerable contribution to cinema. That it would be wonderful to see one of his films listed in Sight and Sound's Top 10. There was no answer; he smiled wryly and walked away, much like Rizzo in Schlesinger's "Midnight Cowboy".
Unfortunately for Spielberg, his team and fans, a wrongly encrypted DVD of his latest film, "Munich", sent from the U.S. could not be screened at the British Academy of Films and Television Arts (BAFTA). It seems clear that it will not be nominated for the prestigious award.
Every 10 years the BFI conducts polls on the 10 best films ever made and publishes the results in Sight and Sound. The last such list, based on critics' votes in 2002, saw Orson Welles' "Citizen Kane" once again at No. 1 and Hitchcock's "Vertigo" in second place. Will "Munich" or a Dustin Hoffman film make it to this list? Will the new films at the present London Film Festival rise to such distinction? Only time will tell.
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