Few films have exerted such profound and lasting influence on viewers the world over as The Bicycle Thieves, which was made sixty years ago. Its maker, the legendary master of Italian neo-realism, Vittorio de Sica (1901-1974), directed a series of outstanding films, but none with a greater impact on the connoisseur and commoner alike than The Bicycle Thieves.

12 Angry Men forms the cream of greatest American films ever made and is in the same league as Kubrick’s and Ford’s masterpieces, writes Srikant Srinivasan
12 Angry MenIf I was to choose one debut movie from Hollywood that I would have loved to make, it would not be Citizen Kane (1941), it would not be Duel […]

At a time when film-noir had become a genre and heist films had become a sub-genre, The Killing sought to break away from rigid rules and provide fluidity and hence novelty to the genre, writes Srikanth Srinivasan
The Killing (1956)
Whenever Kubrick’s canon of films is discussed, this quiet little early gem is invariably lost out amidst […]

Akira Kurosawa’s superlative Rashômon might just be one of the greatest motion pictures ever made. The miraculous work of a filmmaker whose standing as one of cinema’s great visionaries is unquestionable, this beautiful ode to silent film gorgeously translates the key elements of that era (the close-up facial shots especially) while covering new ground, recently revisited with lumbering effect by the mediocre Vantage Point. The film has inspired countless subsequent ones, its expertly-utilised multi-narrative tactics and wavering between characters’ points of view divisive when originally released to Japanese audiences and critics, yet exactly the sort of style that has made Kurosawa’s gorgeous masterpiece as adored as it is in the modern day. This is filmic poetry.

In the history of cinema, Lawrence of Arabia is a landmark film by director David lean. This film popularized the story of T.E Lawrence who in the First World War led the Arab revolt against the Ottoman Empire (turkey) for the liberation of Arabia. Since the story is based on historic fact, what makes this film great is that it combines great acting by its cast along with stunning direction by Lean and cinematography by Freddie Young. This movie which has stood the test of time since its release in 1962 is a must watch and was made to be seen on the big screen.

Blanc (”White” in English) is easily the film lacking layers in Kieślowski’s Trois Couleurs trilogy. Though interestingly it is the film having the most rich storyline out of the three. Both Bleu and Rouge have stories that are simple if you consider a story by the number of events that happen and the number of twists that the tale takes. Yet, both are exceedingly rich in metaphors, in cinematic challenges achieved, in the psychological depths that they enter into through their characters and of their characters, and both are extremely thought-provoking.

Aranyer Din Ratri, (Days and Nights in the Forest), the 1969 masterpiece by Satyajit Ray, looks at the vagaries and vicissitudes of the “new generation” then, in a way, perhaps no other film of its time could. Forty years down, it seems to reflect the complexities of the 21st century generation, in an astonishing close-up.

The story unfolds around a group of four friends, quite unlike each other and yet bonded together deeply. They set out for the tribal Palamau, in Bihar, to tear themselves away from their regulated city life.

[ May 30, 2008; 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm. ] The best thing about Krzysztof Kieślowski’s A Short Film About Love is probably that it shows an aspect of love which is very, very less understood, and is able to demonstrate that love has myriad forms, takes myriad sentiments as its ways of outpouring, including those banned by society to be even thought of: cases in point being incest, voyeurism, lust itself (and not as something distinct) and a sadistic desire and search for pain.

No serious film connoisseur can resist the seduction of La Dolce Vita (meaning, the sweet life). A scandalous box office hit in Italy and internationally as well as a huge critical success, La Dolce Vita remains one of the most influential films of all time, since its release in 1960. The film gave birth to the word paparazzi. Genius filmmaker (and my personal film god) Federico Fellini’s masterpiece is a caustic critique of modern Rome, but is pertinent to all modern society as well. [..]

The film takes grip of you with the beginning itself. The window shutters clash on a stormy night, but oblivious to it all a girl, a young desirable girl, is sleeping comfortably. And then the beautiful morning, with the superb background score of the film, a man, a tall, handsome-ish man stepping out in his car to the new frontiers. The film takes hold of you immediately.

Salvatore would never leave his first loves throughout his life. A film that opens the magic of first loves, of a persona that develops when you go with your first loves, when you have the courage to do it instead of joining a rat race; the film that “teaches” you love, is the film Nuovo […]

“When would you begin loving a story?,” asks Ankur Agarwal on seeing Jules et Jim, filmed on Henri-Pierre Roche’s novel with the same name, a story “beautiful.”
Courtesy www.brightlightsfilm.comLong after seeing it, I hazard to review it – it’s not an easy film to review, to judge. Most of the times you tend to get absorbed […]

Mulholland Drive is a great and influential piece of cinema. It proves that even Hollywood can sometimes produce films at par with those by Michael Haneke, or the darker works of Luis Buñuel, writes Aniruddha Basu.
Mulholland Dr. (2001) - Laura Harring, Image Courtesy: IMDbLets face it. Nobody really understands David Lynch. And trying to […]

Adoption ends in a freeze frame-Kata on the road with her baby about to board a bus, probably on a journey far away from submission and in the search of her own happiness, writes Bikas Mishra
AdoptionHungarian director Márta Mészáros’s is known for the political nature of her films. Her diary series takes one to the […]

if you believe in the poetry of everyday life, watching The Naked Island could be a memorable experience, writes Bikas Mishra
Hadaka no shima (1960) : The IslandCinema as a medium has been rapidly undergoing a transformation. In the era of Terminators and Jurassic Parks, we might feel that it’s the new technology that empowers […]

The whole film is an unvarying social commentary, upon the times we live in, upon the way rich and society-conscious people live, and upon the simple ways that give you pleasure in life and that never change with time, not just an uncontrolled slapstick comedy, says Ankur Agarwal about this 1958 Academy Award winner for […]

Newer perspectives of “Rear Window” crystallize if you have seen over 20 Hitchcock films as I fortunately have, writes Jugu Abraham
Rear Window (1954) - James Stewart, photo courtesy: IMDBAfter viewing the film three times over a span of 20-odd years, the film urges a keen viewer to go beyond the appreciation of the cinematic challenges […]

He had loved truly - that was only for once. Let the glass be dashed to pieces before drinking from any other; this is the tragedy of The Accompanist according to Ankur Agarwal
L’Accompagnatrice: The Art Of SubsumptionUsually, French films haunt you by their atmosphere, by their lethargy-inducing pace, by the thick rings of smoke and […]

The art instructor is rude and pricks her to the heart, yet Mina has the courage to answer that to place a nude among clothed does not require courage, writes Ankur Agarwal
Mina TannenbaumA multilayered story, at first glance it looks quite frivolous, and you tend to frown upon encountering such a film, upon getting conned […]

Every scene, every sequence is carefully created. You remove one and the whole film collapses, write Jugu Abraham
WinterlightIngmar Bergman realized this was the film (with the arguable exception of Fanny and Alexander) that satisfied him most among his entire body of work. And this was not a casual remark made by a director to promote […]

I first saw this movie when I was in college in the Seventies. I viewed the film again in 2001. The power of the film was the same on my senses, writes Jugu Abraham on John Boorman’s 1967 film
Point Blank: Alienation At Its Best Surfaces In A Hollywood Action FilmThe toast of the Cannes festival […]

It’s a great film, but not necessarily a film that can give you pleasure. But, yes, it will give you fodder for thought - too much of it, Ankur Agrawal writes on Jean Luc Godard film also known as It’s My Life or My Life to Live
Anna Karina in Vivre Sa VieI read somewhere an […]

The film has been beautifully shot. I could feel the hot perspiration on myself when I saw Jean toiling in the hills for trickles of water, writes Ankur Agrawal
Daniel Auteuil and Yves Montand in Jean de Florette, Photo courtesy: The GuardianJean de Florette is a wonderfully made film - all the actors play their parts […]

The American South is vividly expressed in the film - I felt all the stories from the South waking up in me as I watched the film, writes Ankur Agrawal
The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter: Beautiful!!!Rarely I have seen such a beautiful film! Alan Arkin lifts the film out of the realm of a […]

Day for Night has quite an unusual cinematic structure where things happen in a manner that looks difficult to achieve with a script, writes Bikas Mishra
Truffaut in the Day for NightA stone deaf director whose “ear was messed up when he was in the artillery”! An unattractive production manager whose wife follows him on the […]

This is one of the most powerful gangster films ever made,writes Zubin Driver
Once Upon A Time In AmericaDirected by the master, Sergio Leone, who gave us Once upon a time in the west. Robert Deniro and James Woods give us amongst their best performances ever in this long and complex narrative. At one […]

This is a thinking person’s film. After viewing the film several times, one is in awe of this filmmaker so prolific, so perfect and so sensitive, writes Jugu Abraham
Through the glass darklyThis film’s title is taken from the Bible: “For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know […]

It’s an exhilarating mix of comedy, violence, high melodrama and angst and the dialogues flow so naturally that I suspect much of the script was improvised on location, writes Aniruddha Basu

La HaineI have just finished watching the 1995 French film La Haine for the second time (my first time being five years back as a […]

The deeper question is whether Kieslowski was using marriage as a metaphor for politics? There is the mention of the Russian corpse with the head crushed for sale, there is a mention of the neon sign that sputters…The name Karol seems reminiscent of Kafka, writes Jugu Abraham
Three Colors: WhiteOstensibly Kieslowski chose white of the French […]

Here is a film so spiritual in content with no obvious markings of being a cinematic essay based on an entire abstract chapter in the New Testament—-a chapter that could fit into the holy books of any religion, writes Jugu Abraham
A Still from Three Colors: BlueA film on I Corinthians Chapter 13, just as Kieslowski’s […]

Senior film critic Jugu Abraham revisits Michelangelo Antonioni’s Zabriskie Point and pays his tribute to the “flawed genius”

Daria Halprin and Mark Frechette in Zabriskie PointWhen I saw the film for the first time in the early 1970s, I was in awe of this film. Visually, it was stunning and the events on campuses in Europe […]

Do banish me from theaters for a lifetime but tell me, what the Potter film is all about?? Cries Bikas Mishra
Potter with his magic wand!!It took my maid to shake off my slumber and force me to venture out to the happening theaters where Harry Potter was waving his magic wand. Did you watch the […]

Sharmila Tagore as DeviDevi is beautiful from the very first frame -from a close up of the idol of the Goddess, camera moves to reveal the gathering of an entire village for the evening prayers.
I would go a step further and say, Devi is probably the most overtly political Ray film, that takes a stand […]

In the second part of his interview Dev Anand, the versatile actor discusses The Guide, one of his favorite films with Laalit Lobo.
It was brilliantly written, brilliantly performed. For me one of the best motion pictures in the industry…
Dev Anand in Guideit was made in two versions: the first version was in English […]

Here is another masterpiece in exquisite melodrama. An amazing performance from supriya choudhury as the sole bread-winner of a refugee family post partition.
The socio-economic crisis is also a metaphysical one, each informing the other in a slowly unfolding tragedy. The plot unravels and she unravels…and ghatak gives us a bitter critique of bourgeois aspirations, ruthless […]

I first saw Pratidwandi eight years ago in a film society screening. I missed the beginning and didn‘t know what the film was called but I loved whatever I saw. Someone told me the film is called Sidhartha and his city, I had least idea that this is a Satyajit Ray film and that it’s […]

If you are a writer, you would relate to the protagonist of Following but not beyond a point. He’s interested in people to the extent that he follows them literally in the hope that he would gather material to write about. This brilliant concept is executed with style in Christopher Nolan’s 1998 classic Following.
Nolan, better […]

A traveling Kabuki theatre troupe comes to a small coastal town of Japan. The troupe parades through the narrow by lanes inviting people. Children follow the actors. A clown like character distributes pamphlets to the shopkeepers and townsmen while ogling at their women.
This is how Japanese Master Yasujiro Ozu’s one of the final films “Floating […]

I saw Wind will carry Us some three years back but managed to see Abbas Kiarostami’s equally meditative and insightful Taste of Cherry only this week.
Like The Wind Will Carry Us this film too, has a mystic layer constantly running in the backdrop. A middle aged brooding gentleman roaming around in his Range Rover, […]

Simple Yet Mysterious
When I first watched The wind will carry us in the final India International Film Festival in Delhi, I had a feeling that I missed the beginning. All I saw was a car moving on a serpentine road. From the conversation of the people in the car I gathered that their destination is […]

Aren’t we all Peeping Toms?
“He is a real Peeping Tom…sure he’s a snooper but aren’t we all?”, said Alfred Hitchcock in an interview to renowned film critic and director Francios Truffaut about James Stuart, the protagonist of Rear Window
James Stuart, a photographer breaks his legs while shooting and is recuperating in his apartment. […]

Cinema At Its Best

There are two kinds of cinephiles on earth, first who worship Tarkovsky and second, who find his mention intimidating. However the two kinds agree that cinema never looked that beautiful as in the Tarkovsky’s films, poetic and mystic.Andrei Rublev is quite like a Tarkovsky film, profound, evocative and stunningly beautiful. Set […]

Believe Me It’s a War Movie!
The portrayal of imminent catastrophe can’t get funnier than this. A sick US general gets crazy about ‘precious bodily fluids’ and orders a nuclear attack on the USSR. Even the air force officers are caught in disbelief. The USSR premier is drunk. US president is taken aback. His illusion […]

Cinema, Childhood, Censorship, Fire and Kisses
A little Sicily boy Toto is drawn to movies. His favorite hangout is the only movie theatre in the village-Cinema Paradiso. Screening of films here are subject to village priest’s censorship. He is the first one to watch all the films in the Cinema Paradise. He watches the films […]

An Endless Road to Nowhere
Don’t judge this film by its title, it’s not of that sorts that will strain your thinking faculty without entertaining you. It’s a hilarious film that pokes fun at the characters it portrays. Six French elites, who embark on a journey to have a dinner together but in vain. Bunuel to […]