2nd Bangalore International Film Festival is on from 3rd to 10th Jan 2008 and a good selection of movies from across the world are being screened. I managed to catch some good films in the festival over the weekend. Thanks to post-inauguration press coverage of the event in Bangalore newspapers, I looked it up on Google and found the website of Suchitra Film Society (organizer of the festival, along with Govt of Karnataka). The website had most of the information I was looking for - schedule, venue, list of films to be screened etc. Vision Cinemas - the multiplex where most of the films are being screened, is not well-known in Bangalore , hence I had a little difficulty in finding the place. But the gentleman from Suchitra was kind enough to give me exact driving directions on phone.The first film I caught yesterday was Malaysian film Goalposts and Lipsticks. It was a feel-good chick-flick that reminded me of Legally Blond & Chak De India. This was followed by French film When you come down from Heaven. I liked this one for its simple but impressive narrative about a good-hearted farmer arriving in a city in search of work and landing a government job that his conscience rebels against. The last film of the day was Temptations - a Hungarian film. It was a dark film interspersed with some surrealism and interesting cinematography (mostly black/white with close-up shots in color).
Today's films included - Hungarian film Dealer showing the life of a small-scale drug dealer, who takes some extreme measures due to the guilt he feels for having introduced people to drugs. The next one was French film Zim & Co showing the sudden turn of events in the life of a carefree, young guy Zim. The film had good comic moments and was quite enjoyable. The last one for the day was Hungarian film The Falcons. The film was about the life of a falconer in rural Hungary who breeds & trains falcons. I didn't enjoy the movie that much.Things I liked about the festival was the response of the audience - there was a very good turn out and most of the auditoriums were almost full, the mood was quite upbeat & several films received applauds, the crowd was an eclectic mix - people related to film making/theatre, college students, the quintessential software professionals like me (it's Bangalore after all :) ) and some serious film festival buffs. I happened to speak to a German gentleman who had covered all the international film festivals in India last year and he recommended two films to me - French film Not here to be Loved (which, unfortunately I am going to miss due to it being screened at 9.30 AM on Tuesday, being a work day for me) and German film The Lives of Others. I am hoping to catch the latter as it will be screened during the closing ceremony on 10th Jan. The general feeling was that the films selected for the festival were mostly good and covered many genres. Another good thing was adherence to schedule - all the films I watched (barring just one) started on time.
I regret not having been able to catch any Indian films (there were quite a few good Malayalam, Kannada & Bengali films), having missed Ingmar Bergman's The Magician/The Face (due to its being screened at a different venue) and not being able to watch any of the documentaries this time. Also, there are many good films during the week that I would have to give a miss due to my work schedule :(
Unlike other metropolitan cities (and even cities like Hyderabad, Trivandrum & Panaji), Bangalore is relatively new to hosting such events. This inexperience was evident in terms of logistics & infrastructure problems - like mismanaged parking, less efficient staff, intermittently poor quality of screening (sometimes no sound, misalignment of projector etc), sound from one auditorium being audible in the adjacent one, uncomfortable seating etc. But overall, an enjoyable experience and I would look forward to Bangalore hosting many such events in future.
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4 comments:
Good to know that you had a great time. These are something i am missing :-(
Moi went for rock climbing and rappelling. Had some good time. Hope to post some photos soon.
RK
Thanx :). Yeah, it was fun. Don't miss it, hopefully it'll happen next year again & u'll be here then. Also, some people at the festival told me that Hyd one was good too.
Rock climbing & rappelling?? Coooolll! Pics please!
Someone's exploring the world... Sikkim, Movie fests... what else is on your mind? Uhmmm??
It must be different watching a film in a completely unknown language... inspite of subtitles!! I have NEVER done it before... but now I am thinking why NOT!! Lets see... may be I will watch a telegu movie soon!
@Nitika: Trust me, I haven't done even 1/10th of the things that are on my mind :). Try watching some Malayalam/Bengali films - they make some really meaningful ones in these 2 languages. You know, a funny thing I saw while watching foreign language films - most of the people did not understand a word of these languages, but when the sound disappeared for a few minutes in one of the films due to some technical snag, everyone got irritated & started boo-ing ;)
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