20th Cot 2013: Art Documentary -Learnardo Da Vicic'c LAST SUPPER

Docuumentary on Art

Private life of a masterpiece

Leonardo da Vinci‘s Last Supper

   Duration 50 minutes

26^th Oct 2013; 5.45pm

Contemplate Art Galley

2^nd Floor, Rajshree Ford Bldg.

Opp P.S.G.R. Krishnammal College, Peelamaedu, Coimbatore

http://konangalfilmsociety.blogspot.in/

  

 

Leonardo da Vinci‘s Last Supper

Perhaps the most lionised, analysed, parodied of all Christ-centred artworks with almost as much controversy about how it has been restored as in how it was created, The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci depicts the dramatic moment when Christ tells his disciples that one of them will betray him.

 

 

 In The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci we see how preparatory drawings and Leonardo’s own notes reveal that he used live models for the figures of the disciples. We even know he used two different models for Christ.The stories behind iconic pieces of art. The Last Supper revolutionized Western art and its power reverberates to this day in the courts, bookshops and cinemas. How Leonardo da Vinci broke with traditions in creating his supremely dynamic masterpiece is recounted.

 

 

Leonardo da Vinci

(1452 -1519)

Da Vinci was one of the great creative minds of the Italian Renaissance, hugely influential as an artist and sculptor but also immensely talented as an engineer, scientist and inventor. Leonardo da Vinci, Italian painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal There has never been an artist who was more fittingly, and without qualification, described as a genius. Like Shakespeare, Leonardo came from an insignificant background and rose to universal acclaim. His Last Supper (1495-97) and Mona Lisa (1503-06) are among the most widely popular and influential paintings of the Renaissance.

Leonardo da Vinci was born on 15 April 1452 near the Tuscan town of Vinci, the illegitimate son of a local lawyer. He was apprenticed to the sculptor and painter Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence and in 1478 became an independent master. In about 1483, he moved to Milan to work for the ruling Sforza family as an engineer, sculptor, painter and architect. From 1495 to 1497 he produced a mural of 'The Last Supper' in the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.Da Vinci was in Milan until the city was invaded by the French in 1499 and the Sforza family forced to flee. He may have visited Venice before returning to Florence. During his time in Florence, he painted several portraits, but the only one that survives is the famous 'Mona Lisa' (1503-1506).

20th Oct 2013; GIRL RISING

 

 Girl Rising

Directed  by Richard E. Robbins

2013 / Run time 104 minutes

20^th Oct 2013; 5.45 pm

Perks Mini Theater

http://konangalfilmsociety.blogspot.in/

In connection with  International Day of the Girl Child observed world over on 11^th of this month , Konangal screens Girl Rising.  Girl Rising tells the stories of nine girls from nine different countries (Sierra Leone, Haiti, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, Peru, Egypt, Nepal, India, and Cambodia). All of their stories reflect their struggles and triumphs to overcome societal or cultural barriers to go to school.

The film was directed by Richard E. Robbins and features narration by Anne Hathaway, Cate Blanchett, Selena Gomez, Liam Neeson, Priyanka Chopra, Chloë Grace Moretz, Freida Pinto, Salma Hayek, Meryl Streep, Alicia Keys, and Kerry Washington. 

 
SOKHA in CAMBODIA - Sokha was a Cambodian child of the dump; orphaned and forced to pick through garbage to survive. But, through a series of miracles, Sokha finds her way to school and, like a phoenix, rises to become a star student on the brink of a brilliant and once unimaginable future.

 

WADLEY in HAITI - “I will come back every day until I can stay.” Wadley is just 7 when the world comes crashing down around her. Haiti’s catastrophic earthquake destroys her home and school, but it cannot break her irrepressible spirit nor extinguish her thirst to learn, even as she’s turned away from the schoolhouse day after day.

SUMA in NEPAL - “Change is like a song you can’t hold back.” Though her brothers go to school, Suma is forced into bonded labor at age 6. The Nepali girl endures years of grueling work by expressing her sorrow in beautiful music and lyrics. Suma glimpses a different future by learning to read, the first step on the road to freedom.

YASMIN in EGYPT - “He was strong but I was stronger.” A young Egyptian girl falls prey to a violent attack but, rather than become a victim, she becomes a superhero. Yasmin’s is the story of the triumph of imagination over a reality too painful to bear.

AZMERA in ETHIOPIA - “What if a girl’s life could be more?” When 13-year old Azmera is told she must marry, she does something shocking; she says no. Meet an Ethiopian family where a brother champions his younger sister’s cause to be educated and to be free.

 

RUKSANA in INDIA - “That’s when I learned to never give up.” Ruksana’s family are “pavement dwellers” – living on the streets of Kolkata, India, where her father has sacrificed everything to send his daughters to school. Ruksana’s life is filled with danger but she escapes into her artwork and draws strength from her father’s resolve.

 

SENNA in PERU - “Poetry is how I turn ugliness into art.” Senna’s family struggles to survive in a bleak Peruvian mining town. Her father has dreams for her, and insists she go to school. There, she discovers the transformative power of poetry. Her passion and talent seem to ensure she’ll have a better future, and be the success her father dreamed she’d be.

https://www.facebook.com/konangal.filmsociety

 

CHIDAMBARAM

A film by G.Aravindan

1985/ Malayalam, Tamil/ Col/103 minutes

6th October 2013; 5.45pm

Perks Mini Theater

http://konangalfilmsociety.blogspot.in/

Chidambaram is a temple town of Tamil Nadu. "Chit" means mind and "Ambaram" means space, thus the name Chidambaram.

The legend is that Lord Shiva came here to perform his dance. This region was already under the custody of Kali and naturally a quarrel ensued. It was mutually agreed that the winner in a dance competition should possess the region. The game commenced; with the Thandava of Shiva and Lasya of Kali. Shiva resorted to a stratagem. He lifted one leg high up in the air, which Kali could not do, because of modesty. Shiva won and became the Lord of Chidambaram. 

 Chidambaram is based on a short story by noted Malayalam writer C V Shriraman. The film is a deeply symbolic exploration of the man-woman attraction leading to betrayal and eventually to the purgatory of guilt.

The story develops mainly around three characters, Muniyandi (Sreenivasan), his wife Shivakami (Smita Patil) and the office superintendent of a farm, Shankaran (Gopi). Muniyandi, a labourer in the farm, believes and respects Shankaran. Muniyandi brings Shivakami to the farm after marrying her. She soon befriends Shankaran. 

But one day Muniyandi catches Shankaran red-handed with his wife Shivakami. Broken hearted, Muniyandi commits suicide. The extreme feeling of guilt forces Shankaran to leaves the place. He tries alcohol, spirituality and all other possible methods to escape from this mental torment, but fails. Finally he reaches the temple town of Chidambaram. There he finds Shivakami as a shoe keeper in the temple.

Chidambaram won the National Film award for best film and the State Film awards for the best film and director in 1985.

Direction & Screenplay: G Aravindan
Cast: Gopi, Smita Patil, Sreenivasan, Mohan Das, Murali
Cinematography: Shaji N Karun
Music: P Devarajan
(Source: http://www.cinemaofmalayalam.net/index.html )

G.Aravindan

Govindan Aravindan (born 21 January 1935 in Kottayam — died 15 March 1991 in Trivandrum), popularly known as G. Aravindan, was a national award winning film director, screenwriter, musician and cartoonist from Kerala, India. Known for his unorthodox film-making, Aravindan consistently experimented with cinematic forms and narrative styles drawing upon history, myth, folk tales, traditional stories, current events and anecdotes. Aravindan’s films are marked by an entirely original approach to cinema, and alongwith John Abraham and Adoor Gopalakrishnan, he placed Malayalam cinema in a position of pre-eminence in India.

 Aravindan started his professional life as a cartoonist in the journal, Mathrubhumi. He established himself as a noted cartoonist in the early 1960s. Next, Aravindan turned his attention to theatre and music and played a major role in establishing the theatre groups Navarangam and Sopanam.

Aravindan died on 16th January, 1991 before the release of his last film, Vasthuhara . Lamenting his death, Shyam Bengal said: “It is unfortunate everything had to end so suddenly. He had so many films in him – we would have seen films of the sort he had never made before; the kind he was slowly reaching towards. It is unfortunate he couldn’t complete his mission.”

An extremely important director of the New Indian cinema of the 1970s and 80s, his films have a haunting quality to them and what makes them unique and poetic is their constant yearning to break limits, to go beyond, their symbiotic links with music, mysticism and painting. All of Aravindan’s films, in one way or other, draw from and work with other art forms, classical and folk music, drawing and painting, dance, classical and folk art forms and so on. It is this constant transgression of boundaries – of medium, form, aesthetics and sensibility – that marks Aravindan’s works and makes them stand out from that of other filmmakers. (Source – www.mubi.com )