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Showing posts from April, 2008

Thesis ( Spanish -1996) Spanish Film festival

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I was promptly present well before the inauguration of the Spanish film festival .Infact the festival started thirty minutes late and we had to wait for the movie screening as there were too much of guest to speak about the Spanish Film industry.Many of the movies which they mentioned showed promise and I expect my attendance full at the chamber hall for the three days.Lets see!! The first movie to be screened was Thesis directed by Alejandro Amenábar which he wrote when he was a student, came out two years before 8mm and won a stack of Goya Awards in Spain, including Best Film.8 mm is another movie which is made on Snuff movies.Angela( Ana Torrenta) film institute student finds her interest in working with Audio visual violence .She gets the assistance of her class mate Chema (Fele Martinez) who share the same interest but in a brutal way.She happens to find the video tape which her tutor watched while he had an attack.It is like he passed away because he watched it.It happens to be t...

SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL-2008

EMBASSY OF SPAIN, NEW DELHI SCHOOL OF ENGLISH AND FOREIGN LANGUAGES, UNIVERSITY OF MADRAS&INDO CINE APPRECIATION FOUNDATION, CHENNAI present SPANISH FILM FESTIVAL28th to 30th April 2008 Summary as sent in invitation TESIS 1996/Dir. Alejandro Amenabar/125 m/col 6.30 pm 28-Apr-08 Why is death and violence so fascinating? Is it morally correct to show violence in movies? If so, is there a limit to what we should show? That's the subject of Ángela's examination paper. She is a young student at a film school in Madrid. Together with the student Chema (who is totally obsessed with violent movies) they find a snuff movie in which a young girl is tortured and killed. Soon they discover that the girl was a former student at their school. EL PERRO DEL ...

Malena ( Italian/English - 2000)

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There was a movie in Tamil directed by Balumahendra starring KamalHassan (Azhiyatha Kolangal ),where he during his adolescent age used to look at Shoba with same look as Renato looks at Melena here. This is not a strange story but this would have happened to every one ,where there used to be a enigmatic woman who lives near by and people when they do not know any thing about her ,would start gossiping about her.I bet every body in our adolescent age would have had the curiousity to know about her and peep near her window. Malena starring Monica Belluci and (Giuseppe Sulfaro ),as Renato.This tells the story of a woman whose life gets spoiled because she was beautiful.Her husband after moving to world war people gossip about her.Every body in the city speaks about her and every man longs for her company.But they speak nonsense and rubbish for the fact they do not know any thing about her.Renato a teenager gets attracted towards her and follows her meticulously.He peeps through the ...

White Palms (English/Hungary-2006)

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I have seen many sports movies which shows attitude, patriotism ,determination, emotions and what not every thing.White Palms is a no different movie but with some intelligent scene selection and music makes it a worthy movie.You will not get well paced movies in a Film festivals. Usually the mood of the movies used to be dull.But this Hungarian Film festival showed lots of promise with White Palms as the inaugural movie. The movie starts with Miklos Dongo (Miklos Zoltan Hajdu) a Gymnast moving to Canada for coaching young Gymnast. He looks back at his older days in Hungarian Gymnastic under his insensitive coach.As Punishment of striking a young trainee Dongo is appointed to train a introvert Gymnast Kyle Manjak ( Olympic medalist Kyle Shewfelt).Dongo struggles to get closer with him.Slowly they make a good friendship.Dongo participates World championship of Gymnastics along Kyle as a participant and Coach.Movie exhibits his lost younger days and the present Competition parallel a...

Arai En 305 il Kadavul (2008)

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Simbu devan is back ,this time many things are missing from him and he fails to keep up the expectations !!! Result he puts up an less interesting movie.I am surprised why nowadays directors are so much socially conscious on their movie.Every body wants to put up an message in their movie. Simbudevan gave a impressive debut with his humourous dialogues and screenplay has made up an preaching movie and the plot resembles some what like Jim Carry’s Bruce Almighty . Rasu ( Santhanam ) and Mokkai ( Kanja Karuppu ) are the room mates in a mansion.They are unemployed and starve for their day to day life . Rasu loves Mahi ( Madu mitha ) .Things do not go smooth for both of them as they were asked to vacate the mansion for non-payment of rent.Arnold The God ( Prakash Raj ) appears before them and makes them understand many things.One day the duo steals the Galaxy box from the God ,which gives the power to become the God . Prakash Raj becomes a ordinary man and Duo rounds the world ...

Fiction ( Spanish -2006)

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Fiction became my first movie to be watched in the Film festival which concluded today.The movie started by 8.00 PM and it was packed auditorium with Oldies and Foreigners mostly.This made me so curious about the movie. Fiction is about a unforeseen passion between two souls.Alex(Eduard Fernández ) is a film maker who comes to his friend Santi's place to write a story .He meets Monica who is the friend of Santi's friend Judith.Monica( Montse Germán ) is a violinist who is spending her holidays with Judith.Four of them start for a trekking where Alex and Monica loose their way in the woods.They return home guided by the country side directions.After settling back in their positions Alex and Monica finds a passion being formed between them because of the time spent together.Fiction takes us with out any conclusion but builds the expectations. The movie is slow paced and it is not the usual kind of movies with any end or characterisation.The movie shows a time period of a week...

South Indian Film Chamber -Film Festival

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So Now I am a member of Film Chamber of South India who can watch movies in Film Festival.Thanks to my friend Koteeshwaran ,who directed me there.South India Film Chamber and Commerce (SIFCO ) is an independent body which screens Foreign movies during fim festivals.Any body can become a member by registering and paying the membership fees .The membership is valid for an year .You can watch as many films you want when Festivals are conducted.Usually every month there will be one festival .At present there was this European Film festival which got concluded today.There were as many as ten films screened of most of the European languages.Spanish Film Festival starts this month end and followed by Russian and Israel Film festival .The movies schedules would be sent to the members by post.The movie starts either by 6.00 PM or 8 .00 PM,The auditorium of SIFCO can accomodate 264 persons and you can note some of the biggies of Technical Cinema world sitting near you.But sad thing we may not kn...

Santhosh Subramaniam (2008)

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Sitting in my native place I happened watch one of the beautifully remade movie in Tamil" Santhosh Subramaniam" . Bommarilu a celebrated movie in Telugu is remade without any changes in Tamil with such a perfection.People say it is very easy to remake a movie but I guess the challenge of the Director lies with satisfying the audience who had already watched the original version. Raja has mastered the art of remaking and he has done it again.This is one of the best made movie along with M. Kumaran S/o Mahalaxmi from him. Every body knows the plot of Santhosh Subramaniam as the Telugu version is one of the widely watched movie by cross border audiences. Santhosh ( Jeyam Ravi ) is one of the son of Subramaniam ( Prakash Raj) who decides for Santhosh . Santhosh is frustrated with his dad for the freedom he is missing.He meets Hasini ( Jenilia ) after he got engaged with one of his dad’s friend daughter. Santhosh falls in love with her and so is Hasini .When Subra...

Nepali (2008)

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Now a days there is strong drive for the directors and the actors to be different in what they pack as a film .V.Z . Durai the maker of Mugavari and Thotti Jeya has come up in a different way but fails to clearly show what he had in his mind.12B was one beautiful Tamil movie which got messed up in the middle with the nonlinear presentation.It needs lots of work on the screenplay to make the viewers comfortable with the nonlinear stories. There are three Bharaths in the movie but it narrows down to one in the end.The movie goes in three plots with a Nepali who is a serial Killer .He leaves clues to the Cops with like the Killer Zodiac. Karthik ( Bharath ) who is a software Engineer who romances with Priya ( Meera Jasmine ) and he marries her when she flees from her home Ooty .The next part is a prisoner who attempts to suicide but fails every time.He finds comfort with a Old Nepali who is being troubled by the Cops for a specific reason.Now the three plots were shown as if they w...

Yaradi Nee Mohini (2008)

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My room mates in Chennai love the Telugu version of this movie.I hope they have watched it nearly ten or fifteen times .I have watched the Telugu version in bits and pieces as I was not so curious about the hype. In fact when the Tamil version released we all booked the tickets on the first day to make it a point to compare.They were dissatisfied,But I enjoyed .Result big argument about the movie after we saw the movie . Yaradi Nee Mohini is directed by Selvaraghavan's assistant Jawahar starring Dhanush as Vasu and Nayanthara as Keerthi . Vasu joins the company where Keerthi is a project Manager. Vasu falls in love before joining the company itself on her and she becomes the only source of motivation for him to get a job.When Vasu proposes Keerthi on a trip to Australia , Keerthi rejects his proposal as she is engaged. Vasu's father Raguvaran mediates for Vasu to Keerthi ,which she puts down before her collegues and insults him. Raguvaran passes away subse...

Sanda (2008)

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If this movie was released in Mid 80's with Satyaraj as hero and Lakshmi as the mother in law and Koundamani as the comedian it would have been a super duper hit .I am sorry the movie is late by nearly 15-20 years and i am really confused to write about this movie.For a simple reason there is nothing to say about this movie except Nadhia .The movie name is Sanda and not Sandai(What difference it makes ?) .The movie was named as Poruki by director Shakthi Chidambaram and later changed to Sanda. Thangalakshmi ( Nathiya ) returns to her village from Bangkok with her daughter Abhinaya ( Ragini ).She appoints Kathi( Sundar .C) as Body guard for her daughter to protect from her brother Palpandi ,whom she as the person who killed her husband Napolean .Now when she arranges marriage for her daughter it so happens there are some turning point (?!!!) and Kathi marries her daughter .Now Kathi is Kathiresan son of Nathiya's brother.The fight starts between Nathiya and Sundar C.How...