IFFK 2009

THE FILMS I LIKED:

1.TRANSISTOR LOVE STORY:
Thailand/2001/35mm/colour/Thai
Direction,Screenplay:Pen-Ek Ratanaruang

The Thai Film by Pen-Ek is a blend of different genres like Romance, Music, Comedy and Crime. It narrates the story of a suburban young man named Pan and his journey through life. The film possess magnificent comic style and wonderful narrative skill. The musical interlude “Mai Leum” (Don’t Forget) adds to the beauty of it’s background. Featuring songs by Surapol Sombatcharoen, a popular Thai country singer from the 1960s, this bittersweet musical comedy won several Thai film industry awards in 2001.

2.BROKEN EMBRACES
Spain/2009/35mm/Colour/Spanish-English
Direction,Screenplay:Pedro Almodovar

In Broken Embraces,the film-within-a-film motif is head-spinningly sophisticated, though the theme of cinema itself within cinema is kept fresh and alive through Almodóvar's sheer energy. Pedro Almodovar has always managed to combine elegance and exuberance, and his latest movie is no exception: a richly enjoyable piece of work, slick and sleek, with a sensuous feel for the cinematic surfaces of things and, as ever, self-reflexively infatuated with the business of cinema itself. Broken Embraces is always conspicuously concerned with passion, but without being itself fully passionate. After the film is over, its images and characters may well vanish into the air leaving little or no residue in your memory, yet I feel that the film is far apart from a pleasure giving art form.

3.DREAM
South Korea/2009/colour/95’/Korean-Japanese

Screenplay,Editing,Direction:Kim Ki-Duk

Dream is a magnificent dream like movie.The key proposition of the movie is that the two main characters are connected through dreams in a way that blurs reality and fantasy. A butterfly emerges as the core image symbolizing the significance of dreams. In fact, this metaphor comes from a well-known ancient Chinese thinker, and its implication is rather straightforward: A person may dream about his life and discover that it's just a dream when he wakes up, but the possibility of reality being another dream still exists. The large crowd that rushed into the theatres is a proof of the film’s widespread recognition.

4.ANTICHRIST
Denmark-Germany-France-Sweden-Italy/2009/35mm/colour/
Direction,Screenplay-Lars Von Trier

“AntiChrist” was a much-criticized movie. It had already created an anxiety and horror impression in the mind of the people through reviews. Therefore it was very difficult to find a place in the long queue. The movie was repeated three times in the festival. People rushed into the theatres like a swarm of flies. It depicts the story of a couple that has lost their only child. Subsequently the mother suffers from terrible anxiety attacks. Her husband, a therapist, tries to cure her by taking her to their remote country cabin called Eden. The tough therapeutic struggle develops into a battle of the sexes. The excess use of violence and sex has made the movie rather confusing to the viewers.

FILMS I DIDN’T LIKE

1.DIVINE
Spain,Argentina,Mexico/1998/35mm/colour/112’/Spanish
Director: Arturo Ripstein
The film is said to be Ripstein's cheeky religious drama, with clear Buñuelian overtones, premiered in the prestigious Un Certain Regard at Cannes. Based on actual events that took place in Mexico during the 1970s, Mama Dorita (Mexican screen legend Katy Jurado) leads a cult with Papa Basilio (Spain's Francisco Rabal) whose love of film causes him to choose Hollywood Biblical epic costumes for the religious group. But what surprised me is that how a religious drama turned out to be a farcical interlude for the viewers. The story seemed to be dragging and the cinematographic techniques were quite boring.

2.THE LAND OF SCARECROWS
Korea/France/2008/35mm/colour/90’/Korean
Direction,Screenplay:Roh Gyeong-Tae

According to the reviews, “Land of Scarecrows” melds humor, melancholy, and an ethereal sense of spirituality in a way that elevates it far above the sort of pretentious, self-consciously arty films that are far too prevalent at film festivals.The film was said to be a movie on transgender theme, which interested the viewers.I’m still confused on what the movie was actually about. There was a lack of persistence in the scenes and it missed correlation.


3.NUCIGEN HOUSE
France-Romania-Chile/2008/35mm/colour/94’/
Direction,Screenplay:Raul Ruiz

The movie was a great tragedy for me. It was said to be an absurdist fairytale freely based on a Balzac story. People came to the theatres expecting a horror movie. But the film proved to be an utter failure. Instead of frightening scenes the ghosts and vampires made us laugh. As per the reviews it creates a world between waking and dreaming- or a nightmare. It actually proved to be a “nightmare” for the viewers who left the theatre even before the film completed half an hour.