Celebration Time for Filmbuffs in Mumbai news
Curtain Raiser: 10th International Film Festival of Mumbai
Mumbai, the film capital of India, is all set to celebrate the best of cinema from all over the world as 10th International Film Festival of Mumbai is all set for a gala opening on thursday.
The festival will celebrate the diversity of cinema and bring the best of the world cinema to Mumbai. The festival opens with Andrej Wajda's Katyn and closes with "Mogari No Mori" the grand prix winner at Cannes 2007.
The festival will also bring to Mumbai the much celebrated anthology of short films "To Each his own cinema" made by 35 greatest contemporary directors of the world premiered at 60th Cannes festival. And it's not only the masters who set festival abuzz but young and aspiring filmmakers will also get a fair chance to showcase their talent in the short film competition section on the theme of Mumbai: the metropolis.
Dimensions: Mumbai, the competition section for young filmmakers initiated by Jaya Bachchan, noted actress and coordinated by Govind Nihlani, renowned filmmaker and cinematographer has received tremendous response. MAMI has received 84 entries and the selected ones will be screened on 11th March while the winners will be announced on the closing evening.
Masterclasses will be another reason for young filmmakers and filmbuffs to attend the festival. Experts from all over the world will share their experiences on cinema everyday at 1:15 PM at IMAX.
Opening film of the festival is Katyn-which was nominated for the Academy Award in the is based on Andrzej Mularczyk story Post Mortem. It narrates the tragic story of the massacre of 22 thousand Polish army officers by Soviet Forces. The story is based on true incidents. In an interview at Berlin, Wajda elaborated, "the film is made up of selected scenes and dialogues gleaned from diaries, memories and the correspondence exchanged between the murdered officers and their wives." Katyn is one such story that waited for years to be told. During the communist regime in Poland the tale of Stalin's brutality was extensively distorted. Katyn has won rave reviews across the world and has also been nominated for the Academy Awards in the best foreign film category.
Carlos Saura's latest film Fados is another grand attraction of the festival. It's a musical that traces the history of Portuguese tradition of Fado music. The film has no plot and uses only music to narrate its own story.
The celebrated Italian silent film of 1911 'Pinocchio' is all set to enthrall cinephiles. The restored version of this jewel of silent era will be presented with live music. The film is based on Carlo Collodi's novel and tells the story of the well known puppet Pinocchio. An animated film based on the same novel later became a super hit, however, watching the first one with live music is going to be a real treat.
Japanese director Naomi Kawase's Mogari No Mori (Mourning Forest) will be the closing film of the festival. This film won the Grand Pix at 60th Cannes Film Festival. A haunting and poetic piece of cinema, Mourning Forest has awed film buffs all over the world at various International Film Festivals. The film reflects on the mystic bonds between men and nature and has been termed as a meditative work that's profound in nature.
The retrospective section of the festival is also going to be a memorable one: on one hand we have Carlos Saura, on the other we have none other than Andrej Wajda. The festival will also celebrate Wajda's 1957 masterpiece Kanal's 50 years. Apart from Kanal, festival will also screen Wajda' Man of Marble, Man of Iron, Landscape after the Battle, Hunting Flies, Conductor and Ashes and Diamonds.
During the festival celebrated Spanish director Carlos Saura will be honored with International Lifetime Achievement Award. The director will be present at the closing night of the festival. Festival will also hold a retrospective of his works. The films to be screened in the retrospective are: El Septimo Dia, Bunel Y La Mesa Del Rey Salmon, Iberia , The Dark Night (La Noche Oscura), Pajarico and Peppermint Frappe. I'm really excited about watching his Carmen on the big screen, a sensuous study of illusion, reality, obsession, passion and fantasy.
Ritwik Ghatak the forgotten master of Indian cinema will also be remembered through his films. Three of his masterpieces : Ajantrik, Meghe Dhaka Tara and Subernrekha will be screened at the festival.
The festival will also pay homage to three great masters Ingmar Bergman, Michaelangelo Antonioni and Ousmane Sembene, who left the world last year. Great Indian director Bimal Roy's Bandini will also be screened to pay homage to the screenwriter of Nabendu Ghosh, who died recently.
A cinematic journey that will begin in the forest of Katyn and end in the The Mourning Forests of Japan.
Click here for Screening Schedule : Metro Adlabs
Click here for Screening Schedule : IMAX
Click here for Screening Schedule : Cinemax Versova
