1st March 2009 ; Kurosawa's IKURU

IKURU

Film by Akira Kurosawa

Year 1952

Country : Japan

Japanese with English subtitles

Run time :143 minutes

1st  March  2009 ; 5.45 pm

Ashwin Hospital Auditorium

Call : 94430 39630

http://konangalfilmsociety.blogspot.com/

This  is Akira Kurosawa's 1952 film about a bureaucrat who works for 30 years at Tokyo City Hall and never accomplishes anything. Mr. Watanabe has become the chief of his section, and sits with a pile of papers on either side of his desk, in front of shelves filled with countless more documents. Down a long table on either side of him, his assistants shuffle these papers back and forth. Nothing is ever decided. His job is to deal with citizen complaints, but his real job is to take a small rubber stamp and press it against each one of the documents, to show that he has handled it.

Half of the film is told in the third person and half is his sacrifice as seen through the eyes of guests at his funeral. Kurosawa performs a tour-de-force in keeping a dramatic thread throughout and avoiding the mawkish. It is technically excellent with a telling Occidental-type musical score. It is also the most expressive in its cinematic style, and  one of the major postwar films from Japan.

Ikiru scrutinizes what little use the postwar generation has for its elders (though far from villainous, Watanabe's son is a self-obsessed lout), but its largest target is Balkanized local government. The portrait of buck-passing mini-departments and administrative double-speak verges on satirical.

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Kurosawa often flashes that cinematic style of sharp reportage and introspection of his characters that distinguishes his film. He patiently studies his people, gives them plenty of time to move and surrounds them with rich and meaningful details in composing the comment of a scene. As a consequence, you see more human nature and more Japanese customs in this film—more emotion, personality and ways of living—than in most of the others that have gone before.

(source : Internet)

Akira Kurosawa

Akira Kurosawa was the youngest of seven children, born in Tokyo on 23 March 1910. A talented painter, he enrolled in an art school that emphasized Western styles. Around this time he also joined an artists' group with a great enthusiasm for nineteenth-century Russian literature, with Dostoevsky a particular favourite. Another influence was Heigo, one of his brothers, who loved film and worked as a benshi, a film narrator/commentator for foreign silent films. 

Kurosawa’s early films were produced during the Second World War, so had to comply to themes prescribed by official state propaganda policy. It was Drunken Angel which was Kurosawa's first personally expressive work, made in 1948 and featuring Toshiro Mifune who became Kurosawa's favourite leading man.

Kurosawa  awakened the West to Japanese cinema with Rashomon, which won the top prize in the Venice Film Festival of 1951, and also a special Oscar for best foreign film. A golden period followed, with the West enthralled by his works. Seven Samurai, Yojimbo etc.

A true auteur, he supervised the editing of nearly all his films and wrote or collaborated on the scripts of most. His memoirs were published in 1982, titled Something like an Autobiography. In 1989 he won an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement. Kurosawa died in 1998.

A R Rahman wins Oscar . We Salute our little maestro !

OSCAR FOR  A R RAHMAN

Click here for AR RAHMAN's OSCAR 2009 Speech

  A R Rahman won two Oscars, one each for the Best Original Score and the Best Original Song categories. 

Rahman and Gulzar shared the best Original Song honours for Jai Ho.

Indian sound engineer Resul Pokutty won the gold statue for along with Ian Tapp and Richard Pryke for best sound mixing for the same film.

Source : http://news.outlookindia.com

Rahman's Oscar nomination was  received with  lukewarm response here in Tamilnadu and no positive comments were heard from the so called maestros of ego ridden Tamil filmdom and the state government . Not even from the leading figures in the Tamil  film industry and it's superstar actors. A kind of  silence was being  felt here  regarding Rahman's entry into the Ocsar fray.  It is strange  to see  such reaction from those who were salivating just to hear the name of oscar being spellt. Now  that Rahman has won 2 Oscars, let us see what happens. The government as usual will celebrate this soon - it has to - as  a routine. 

Rahman has proved them all  wrong. This  quite, self made  genius of a musician has definitely got more laurels and accolades coming his way . We salute you, our little maestro !

22nd Feb 2009 : Power Of Art

Documentaries on Art

Konangal will be screening a series of documentaries introducing some of the  great masters of Art  and their works once every month from next Sunday , 22nd of Feb onwards.

Power of Art

by Simon Schama

BBC LONDON

English with English sub titles

22nd Feb 2009 ; 5.45pm

Ashwin Hospital Auditorium

http://konangalfilmsociety.blogspot.com/

The power of the greatest art is the power to shake us into revelation and rip us from our default mode of seeing. After an encounter with that force, we don't look at a face, a colour, a sky, a body, in quite the same way again. We get fitted with new sight: in-sight. Visions of beauty or a rush of intense pleasure are part of that process, but so too may be shock, pain, desire, pity, even revulsion. That kind of art seems to have rewired our senses. We apprehend the world differently.

Art that aims that high – whether by the hand of Caravaggio, Van Gogh or Picasso – was not made without trouble and strife. Of course there has been plenty of great art created in serenity, but the popular idea that some masterpieces were made under acute stress with the artist struggling for the integrity of the conception and its realisation is not a "romantic myth" at all. A glance at how some of the most transforming works got made by human hands is an encounter with "moments of commotion".

It's those hot spots in which great risks were taken that The Power of Art brings you. Instead of trying to reproduce the un-reproducible feeling you have when you are face to face with those works in the hush of the gallery or a church, the series (and the book) drops you instead into those difficult places and unforgiving dramas when the artists managed, against the odds, to astound. "Every artist thinks he's Rembrandt", Picasso once joked, but there would come a time when he thought so himself! 

Caravaggio

Full Name:Michelangelo Merisi di Caravaggio

Born: 1571

Died: 1610

Michelangelo Merisi left his birth town of Caravaggio in the north of Italy to study as an apprentice in nearby Milan. In 1593 he moved to Rome, impatient to use his talents on the biggest stage possible. 

Caravaggio's approach to painting was unconventional. He avoided the standard method of making copies of old sculptures and instead took the more direct approach of painting directly onto canvas

 without drawing first. He also used people from the street as his models. His dramatic painting was enhanced with intense and theatrical lighting. 

Caravaggio's fate was sealed when in 1606 he killed a man in a duel. He fled to Naples where he attempted to paint his way out of trouble, he became a Knight, but was then imprisoned in Malta and then finally he moved to Sicily. He was pardoned for murder in 1610, but he died of a fever attempting to return to Rome. 

Simon Schama on Caravaggio

"In Caravaggio's time it was believed that artists were given their talent by God to bring beauty to the world and to put mortal creatures in touch with their higher selves or souls. Caravaggio never did anything the way it was supposed to be done. 

In this painting of the victory of virtue over evil it's supposed to be David who is the centre of attention, but have you ever seen a less jubilant victory? On his sword is inscribed "Humilitus Occideit Superbium", that is, humility conquers pride. This is the battle that has been fought out inside Caravaggio's head between the two sides of the painter that are portrayed here. 

For me the power of Caravaggio's art is the power of truth, not least about ourselves. If we are ever to hope for redemption we have to begin with the recognition that in all of us the Goliath competes with the David."

Bernini

 Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Born: 1598

Died: 1680

Born in Naples, Bernini was an exceptional talent from an early age and went on to dominate the art world of 17th century Rome. His w

ork epitomised the Baroque style and his sculpture, church interiors and exteriors and town planning could be seen everywhere. He was also a painter, playwright, costume and theatre designer. 

Bernini worked under successive Popes; Pope Gregory XV made him a knight and Pope Urban VIII took him as his best friend. He was revered in his time until a jealous rage caused him to have the face of his mistress slashed after discovering her romance with his brother. His reputation fell further after his bell towers for the Cathedral of St Peter's started cracking in 1641. He redeemed himself and kick started his career again with arguably his most famous work, The Ecstasy of St Theresa, in 1652. 

Simon Schama on Bernini

"A century after the creation of The Ecstacy of St Theresa, a French art lover doing the Tour of Rome entered the Church of S. Maria della Vittoria in Rome, peered at the spectacle and said: "Well, if that's divine love, I know all about it". 

What Bernini's managed to make tangible is something that we all, if we're honest, know we hunger for, but before which we're properly tongue-tied. Something that has produced more bad writing, more excruciating moments of bad cinema, more appalling poems than anything else. No wonder when art historians look at this sculpture they tie themselves in knots to avoid saying the obvious, that is, that we're looking at the most intense convulsive drama of the body that any of us experience."

(Source : BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/powerofart/intro.shtml )

Simon Schama

 

Simon Michael Schama, CBE (born 13 February 1945) is a British professor of history and art history at Columbia University. His many works on history and art include Landscape and Memory, Dead Certainties, Rembrandt's Eyes, and his history of the French Revolution, Citizens. He is best known for writing and hosting the 15-part BBC documentary series A History of Britain. He was an art and cultural critic for The New Yorker.

Schama was born in London. In the late 1940s, the family moved to Southend-on-Sea in Essex before moving back to London.He worked for short periods as a lecturer in history at Cambridge, where he became a Fellow and Director of Studies in History, and at Oxford where he was made a Fellow of Brasenose College in 1976, specialising in the French Revolution In 1980 Schama accepted a chair at Harvard. 

The year 2000 saw Schama return to the UK, having been commissioned by the BBC to produce a series of television documentary programmes on British history as part of their Millennium celebrations, under the title A History of Britain

In 2006 the BBC broadcast a new TV series, Simon Schama's Power of Art which, with an accompanying book, was presented and written by Schama. It marks a return to art history for him, treating eight artists through eight key works

15th Feb 2009; DANISH FILM FESTIVAL

DANISH FILM FESTIVAL

Lars von Trier's America

Presented by Yamuna Rajendran

Feb 15, 2009 ; From 2.30 pm

Ashwin Hospital Auditorium

Dogville

A Film By  Lars von Trier

Year 2003

Country ; Denmark

Runtime: 178 min

English with English subtitles

The first thing to mention is von Trier's stylistic approach. Although the movie does not follow the ascetic Dogma guidelines (it uses pre-recorded music, for one thing), it in many ways takes a more bare-bones approach. The entire movie is presented as a set-less stage play. Instead of houses with walls and doors, there are chalk lines on the ground. The name of the main thoroughfare ("Elm Street") is written in block white letters where the pavement should be.

 When characters are intended to be opening doors, the actors mime turning a door handle, while a helpful sound effect is heard. Ostensibly, von Trier's intention is for the audience to focus on the acting and themes without being distracted by the setting. The cast is amazing, with everyone giving a strong  performance. In addition to Nicole Kidman, who is superlative as Grace.

Dogville is a tiny town in the Colorado Rockies during the 1930s. The population is small, consisting of 15 adults, a few children, and a dog. Into this settlement arrives Grace (Nicole Kidman), a beautiful woman being pursued by gangsters. One of the locals, Tom Edison (Paul Bettany), is immediately infatuated with her, and decides to act as her rescuer. He hides her from the gangsters, and, after they leave, proposes that she join the  community. For this to happen, all 15 adults must approve her residency. She has two weeks to convince them that she will be a good citizen. 

Inspired mostly by the Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Veil song "Pirate Jenny" and the Royal Shakespeare's production of Nicholas Nickleby von Trier made the inspired choice to craft a film entirely on a soundstage with exposed sets and door-less houses. When knocking on an abode, the characters knock the air. We can see inside each home, examining everything from the humdrum acts of cleaning to the savage acts that will befall Grace. The camerawork is fluid and

Though some have decried an anti-American stance by von Trier (and so what if he has one?),

 Dogville's themes and questions are universal. Such things could take place in any community. But it is rare that you will find them depicted in quite this manner—the film will stick with you long after you leave the theater. The only thing simple you can say about Dogville is that it's a masterpiece. the story so absorbing that you almost forget you're watching what is essentially a filmed play.

Manderlay

A Film By  Lars von Trier

Year 2005

Country ; Denmark

Runtime : 139 minutes

English with english subtitles

Alabama, 1933. A caravan of black limousines carries gangsters from a gold mining town in Colorado to a rural Alabama area where slavery still survives as an institution. Alabama looks uncannily like Colorado, as it must: The story that began in Lars Von Trier's "Dogville" (2003) continues here, with the same visual strategy of placing all the action on a sound stage, with chalk lines indicating the outlines of locations. A few rudimentary props flesh out the action, including doors, windows, and machineguns.

The movie is the second in a trilogy by Von Trier.  Von Trier has set several movies about  American greed, racism and the misuse of power. 

Von Trier begins with a plantation in Alabama where slavery has never been abolished: Mam (Lauren Bacall) rules with a iron hand, assisted by her foreman Wilhelm (Danny Glover), a slave who believes his people are not ready for the responsibilities of freedom. Driving up to the gates of the imaginary plantation, Grace (Bryce Dallas Howard) and her gangster father (Willem Dafoe) are surprised to find slavery still flourishing. Grace declares this cannot be, that the plantation must be informed of such historical events as the Civil War and the Emancipation Proclamation.

The film has a closing montage of photographs showing the history of African-Americans in America, from slavery through decades of poverty and discrimination to the civil rights movement, both its victories and defeats.

Lars von Trier

Lars Trier was born in Copenhagen, Denmark. After his graduation he began work on the Europe trilogy, which started with The Element of Crime (Forbrydelsens element 1984). He has made 32 films since and has received numerous international awards and honors for his films.

Von Trier often shoots his scenes for longer periods than most directors to encourage actors to stay in character. In Dogville he let actors stay in character for hours, in the style of method acting. The rules and restrictions are a break from the traditional Hollywood production. In order to create original art Von Trier feels that filmmakers must distinguish themselves stylistically from other films, often by placing restrictions on the filmmaking process.

8th Feb 2009; Spanish Film Festival

Red is the colour of the spirits

SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL

Presented by film criitc

YAMUNA RAJENDRAN

1

The Spirit of the Beehive

A film by Victor Erice

Country : Spain

Year : 1973

Spanish with English subtitles

Run time : 97 minutes

8th Feb 2009

Screening starts at 3.30 pm

Ashwin Hospital auditorium

The Spirit of the Beehive is a visually poetic, haunting, and allegorical film on innocence, illusion, and isolation. Victor Erice uses the recurrent imagery of the beehive to create a pervasive sense of claustrophobia and geographic disconnection: the honeycomb structure of the stain glass windows through the house; the amber glow of the oil lamps and candles; the pervasive haze of the darkness of winter. Filmed in 1973 under the Franco regime, The Spirit of the Beehive is a  deceptively lyrical tale of idyllic childhood memories and a disturbing portrait of isolation. Like  the bees in Fernando's experiments, the children are also unwitting subjects of an unnatural,  artificial environment. In essence, Ana's misguided actions mirror the illogical behavior of the  disoriented bees attempting to adapt to an inorganic crystal beehive. Isolated from a natural  environment, Ana, too, lacks a logical frame of reference. Her attempts to incarnate the spirit of the monster is a naive attempt to reconcile her own confusion. But inevitably, her quest leads  further into the darkness - to more incomprehensible revelations - to deeper questions.

A detached, preoccupied scientist, Fernando (Fernando Fernan Gomez), has moved to the provincial tranquility of Castille with his young family in order to devote his time to the study of bees. He spends countless hours at an apiary observing their daily ritual, manipulating their environment, recording the results of his intervention. His wife, Teresa (Teresa Gimpera), languishing from the isolation of the remote town and her husband's alienated affection, occupies her time by writing longing, heartfelt letters to loved ones left behind during the war. She hand delivers the letters to the train station, where a commuter train makes a brief stop, collects the mail, and sets out to its final destination. 

The children, Isabel (Isabel Telleria) and Ana (Ana  Torrent), left alone to occupy themselves in their mother's absence, attend the screening of Frankenstein at a makeshift movie theater in town. Ana, unsettled by the incomprehensible acts of the monster and the townspeople in the film, relentlessly asks Isabel to rationalize their actions. Isabel pacifies Ana by explaining that the monster is actually a spirit who cannot die, and takes the gullible Ana to an abandoned barn where she claims to see the spirit in the well. Intrigued by the prospect of finding the elusive spirit, Ana becomes obsessed with the idea of befriending the imaginary monster.

Victor Erice 

Everyone has the capacity to create and recreate within them. And a film doesn't exist unless it is seen—if there are no eyes to look at the images, the images don't exist. When I've finished a film, it's no longer mine—it belongs to the people. I'm nothing more than an intermediary in the  process.          —Victor Erice 

Víctor Erice Aras (born 30 June 1940 in Karrantza in Biscay Spain) is a Spanish film director.

He studied law, political science, and economics at the University of Madrid also attended the Escuela Oficial de Cinematografia in 1963 to study film direction. He wrote film criticism and  reviews for the Spanish film journal Nuestro Cine, and made a series of short films before making his first feature film, The Spirit of the Beehive (1973), a critical portrait of the rural Spain of the 40s.

Ten years later, Erice wrote and directed The South (1982), based on a story from Adelaida García Morales, considered a masterpiece although the producer Elías Querejeta only allowed him to film the first two thirds of the story. His third movie, The Quince Tree Sun (1992) is a documentary about painter Antonio López García.

Erice is an important master of the cinema, creating pure pieces founded on image and light, that interpret the artform not primarily as a vehicle for narrative (though this remains important), but as a means of showing interesting things in beautiful ways.

2

Pan's Labyrinth

A film by Guillermo del Toro

Country : Spain

Year : 2006

Spanish with english sub titles

8th Feb 2009 

Screening of the festival starts at 3.30

Ashwin Hospital Auditorium

Beautiful, violent, magical and sad....

"Pan's Labyrinth" is one of the greatest of all fantasy films.

In 1944 fascist Spain, a girl, fascinated with fairy-tales, is sent along with her pregnant mother to live with her new stepfather, a ruthless captain of the Spanish army. During the night, she meets a fairy who takes her to an old faun in the center of the labyrinth. He tells her she's a princess, but must prove her royalty by surviving three gruesome tasks. If she fails, she will never prove herself to be the the true princess and will never see her real father, the king, again.

The film is visually stunning. The creatures do not look like movie creations but like nightmares (especially the Pale Man, with eyes in the palms of his hands). 

Guillermo del Toro  is the most challenging of directors in the fantasy field because he invents from scratch, or adapts into his own vision. 

 

Guillermo del Toro

Guillermo del Toro was born October 9, 1964 in Guadalajara Jalisco, Mexico. Raised by his Catholic grandmother, del Toro developed an interest in filmmaking in his early teens. Later, he learned about makeup and effects from the legendary Dick Smith (The Exorcist (1973)) and worked on making his own short films. At the age of 21, del Toro executive produced his first feature, Dona Herlinda and Her Son (1986). Del Toro spent almost 10 years as a makeup supervisor, and formed his own company, Necropia in the early 1980s. He also produced and directed Mexican television programs at this time, and taught film.

(Source - internet)