News

There was much more to filmmaker Kamal Amrohi than Pakeezah. Daaera, which Amrohi directed a decade before Pakeezah, was the story of a very young woman married to a man old enough to be her father. And before Daaera, there was Mahal, Indian cinema’s first ghost story to attain blockbuster status.

Kamal Amrohi’s proud son, Tajdar Amrohi, feels injustice has been done to his father’s memory. “It pains me to say this. Both the film industry and the government of India never gave him his due recognition. My father learnt to write from his mother’s womb.Iss aadmi ne likhna apni maa ki doodh peekar sikha. He never assisted anyone. At age 17, he wrote Pukar and became a big-name writer in Hindi cinema.”

Adding, “My father was a pioneer and a trendsetter. In Mahal, he brought the suspense genre to Indian cinema. And if in Mahal...

No, there is no imperial conspiracy against the Third World. Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light lost the Critics Choice award to Emilia Perez for the very simple reason that it was a lesser film.

Dare I say that? For months now, we have been spotlighting Ms Kapadia’s film as though it was the best thing to happen to cinema since Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali. Sorry, that was an overreaction. I have seen Ray’s Pather Panchali innumerable times, and each time, I came away with a new thrill.

I saw All We Imagine as Light a second time and could barely sit through it. While the salient characters’ profound forlornness is palpable—the nurses need some serious healing—the second overture in the Maharashtrian village lacks space, elegance, and even coherence.

French auteur Jacques Audiard’s new work Emilia Perez is a beast hard to tame.

While the established stars like Nivin Pauly and Tovino Thomas hit roadblocks with their latest offerings Malayalee From India and Arm, respectively, Malayalam cinema was not short of quality work this year.

1. All We Imagine As Light: What can we say about a film that has broken the glass ceiling twice over, first by becoming the first Malayalam film to reach audiences across India, and then by becoming the first Indian films since Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali to have grabbed global attention so unconditionally. Sight & Sound has recently named Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light as the best film of 2024. And now the garnered Golden Globe nominations!!! Indeed Kapadia’s elegiac ode to Mumbai’s desolate migrants is a wondrous pilgrimage through the heart of solitude. Dreamy and lyrical, it creates a new language for cinema where the spoken word is rendered redundant. The actors don’t speak like actors.

Uma Das Gupta, whose unforgettable portrayal of Durga in Pather Panchali (1955) cemented her place in the annals of Indian cinema, passed away on November 18, 2024. Her performance as the spirited yet vulnerable elder sister of Apu remains one of the most iconic in the history of Bengali films. Despite the immense recognition she gained for her role in Satyajit Ray’s masterpiece, Uma chose not to pursue acting, a decision that has intrigued many over the years. As we reflect on her extraordinary life, it becomes evident that her legacy extends far beyond her brief stint in the limelight, touching lives through her work in education, social causes, and her steadfast commitment to personal fulfillment.

The Early Success of Pather Panchali

Directed by the legendary Satyajit Ray, Pather Panchali was a groundbreaking film that introduced Indian cinema to the global stage. Uma Das Gupta, a young girl at the time, portrayed...

Did Momento inspire Aamir Khan’s Ghajini? (Photo Credit – Instagram)

In 2018, Christopher Nolan gave us a cool tidbit about Aamir Khan’s Ghajini when asked about its connection to his Memento. While Nolan hadn’t seen the film yet, he knew Ghajini was a massive hit. “I heard it was very successful; I heard people liked it. So, I will watch it at some point. I was aware of it and am very honored,” he said. Classic Nolan—polite, but you could tell he knew what was up.

Ghajini (2008) gave Memento a Bollywood spin—revenge, memory loss, and many twists. But Nolan wasn’t hating—he recognized how big it was, especially since it was the first Bollywood film to hit ₹100 crore. People were all about it.

But Nolan wasn’t just chatting about Ghajini. He also shared his love for Indian cinema. He mentioned recently watching Pather Panchali, the 1955 classic by Satyajit Ray,...

In the first half of the 20th century, somewhere in rural Karnataka, Naani, a young Brahmin boy, is left to board at a seemingly run-down Vedic school by his father. It is time for him to follow the traditional path of learning Sanskrit and mastering priestly rituals, the duty of his caste. As the junior of three young-adult students, Naani is frequently bullied but finds comfort in Yamuna, the headmaster’s sad and silent daughter, a young widow in her twenties. Soon, she turns to Naani for escaping from the meddling Godavarama, who becomes suspicious of her recent absence from her father’s religious ceremonies. Could Yamuna be unwell?

Follow our tribute to Kannada cinema by clicking on the image below

Let’s pause here. Assuming you haven’t seen the film and wishing to avoid any spoilers. Still, these first 20 minutes are sufficient to grasp the underlying mechanics driving the story forward.

A restored edition of Chen Kaige’s “Yellow Earth” is one of the highlights of the selection for the 8th edition of China’s boutique Pingyao International Film Festival. The film, which helped put Chinese art-house cinema on the map overseas and signaled a new era of Chinese directors, now referred to the FIfth Generation, was originally released 40 years ago.

The festival, which runs Sept. 24-30, will open with the world premiere of Liu Juan’s “A River Without Tears.”

The festival’s Hidden Dragons section of Chinese-made films includes: the Asian premiere of Ma Lanhua’s “Hello, Spring”; the Asian premiere of Tang Yongkan’s “Stars and the Moon”; and world premieres of Wang Lina’s “Village Music”; Zhu Xin’s “A Song River”; Yang Suiyi’s “Karst”; Luka Yang Yuanyuan’s “Chinatown Cha-Cha”; Shen Tao’s “Floating Clouds Obscure the Sun”; Siu Koon-ho’s “True Love, For Once...

Christopher Nolan Once Expressed Disappointment For Not Getting Any Credit After Ghajini Was Made, Remake Of His Memento ( Photo Credit – Instagram; Facebook )

Christopher Nolan’s movies are always different from other movies in terms of concept, and the Oscar-winner has fans across the globe. People take inspiration from Nolan’s films, and sometimes, they even remake them. One of the biggest examples is Ghajini, which was an unofficial remake of Memento. The director was not given any credit for it, and Nolan once reportedly expressed his disappointment over the fact. Read on for more.

Aamir Khan-led Bollywood movie was released in 2008, directed by Ar Murugadoss. It was the Hindi remake of the director’s Tamil movie of the same name. According to reports, Aamir and Murugadoss co-wrote the film, with the former suggesting changes to cater to the Hindi audience. The movie was a huge success and the first film...

The first iteration of the Cannes Film Festival, planned for 1939, was scuppered when Germany invaded Poland to trigger the start of World War II. But when the festival finally got off the ground in 1946, Indian cinema came out swinging. Mounted shortly after the conclusion of the war, the first “real” Cannes Film Festival featured competition entries from Billy Wilder (The Lost Weekend), Roberto Rossellini (Open City), and David Lean (Brief Encounter). In the spirit of post-war peace and reconciliation, the competition jury, headed by French historian Georges Huisman, handed the top prize — then the Grand Prix — to films from 11 of the 18 countries represented that year.

This included India, with Chetan Anand’s social-realist drama Neecha Nagar, and, for a decade at least, the country was a regular fixture in Competition. After Anand came V. Shantaram with Amar Bhoopali (1952), then Raj Kapoor with Awaara (1953), and Bimal Roy with Do Bigha Zamin...

Director Taika Waititi, who won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for his film ‘Jojo Rabbit’, has revealed his favourite Indian film by auteur Satyajit Ray. He said that his favourite Indian film is ‘Pather Panchali’ and heaped praise on “Asia’s Best Crime Detective” from Ray’s films featuring the character of Feluda.

Praising Satyajit Ray’s work and talking about his favourite Indian films, he said: “Of course, the Satyajit Ray film ‘Pather Panchali’. It was beautiful and very inspirational when I was making my early films. Next is the fabulous ‘Asia’s Best Crime Detective’ which is a fantastic big film which I think everyone should watch.”

Taika Waititi is bridging his latest directorial ‘Next Goal Wins’ to India.

The film is a comedic soccer film, based on a documentary under the same name.

The film, which stars Michael Fassbender, Elisabeth Moss, Kaimana, David Fane and Oscar Kightley,...

Ava DuVernay has only made five narrative features, but she’s one of the busiest women in Hollywood.

Before 2023, the California-born filmmaker’s last feature was her “A Wrinkle in Time” adaptation, released in theaters in 2018 — a five-year gap between releases that’s partially attributable to projects that sputtered in development like DC’s “New Gods” film and a Prince biopic. And yet, DuVernay has remained a constant presence during that relatively long gap, translating her numerous talents to producing and TV work. She created and directed the acclaimed Netflix miniseries “When They See Us,” about the controversial Central Park Five case. Several other TV projects followed, including OWN’s “Cherish the Day,” Netflix’s “Colin in Black and White,” and The CW’s “Naomi.” But while many of those projects have been terrific, it’s great to see the director of great films like “Middle of Nowhere” and “Selma...

Acclaimed Hollywood actor-producer Michael Douglas was conferred with the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award during the closing ceremony of 54th International Film Festival of India (Iffi), here on Tuesday. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Michael Douglas’s wife and award-winning actress Catherine Zeta Jones were present on the occasion, among others.

After receiving the award, Douglas termed Satyajit Ray as a world-class filmmaker.

“Cinema is one of the few mediums that have the power to unite and transform us. Today, the global language of cinema is more meaningful than ever. Iffi is a reminder of magic of filmmaking and cross-cultural artistic expressions, transcending time, language and geographies,” he said.

In his distinguished career spanning over six decades, Douglas has been nominated for two Oscars and won both of them — as producer of the Best Picture winner ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ (1975), and as Best Actor for ‘Wall Street...

Acclaimed Hollywood actor-producer Michael Douglas was conferred with the Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award during the closing ceremony of 54th International Film Festival of India (Iffi), here on Tuesday. Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and Michael Douglas’s wife and award-winning actress Catherine Zeta Jones were present on the occasion, among others.

After receiving the award, Douglas termed Satyajit Ray as a world-class filmmaker.

“Cinema is one of the few mediums that have the power to unite and transform us. Today, the global language of cinema is more meaningful than ever. Iffi is a reminder of magic of filmmaking and cross-cultural artistic expressions, transcending time, language and geographies,” he said.

In his distinguished career spanning over six decades, Douglas has been nominated for two Oscars and won both of them — as producer of the Best Picture winner ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ (1975), and as Best Actor for ‘Wall Street...

Lyon’s impressive Roman-style auditorium, normally used by the city’s symphonic orchestra, was sold out as U.S. writer and director Wes Anderson took to the stage as guest of honor of the Lumière Film Festival.

Mid-way through his conversation with festival director Thierry Frémaux, the crowd gathered in the massive 2,000-seat venue was treated to a screening of one of Anderson’s new Roald Dahl adaptations, the short film “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar.”

The story of a rich man who sets out to master an extraordinary skill to cheat at gambling, it is one of four Dahl stories recently adapted by Anderson for Netflix, which acquired the Roald Dahl Story Company (Rdsc), that manages the rights to the late British author’s works, from back in 2021.

The only adaptations Anderson has done are Dahl stories, starting with his first animation film, “Fantastic Mr Fox,” in 2009. Asked...

Horace Ové, director of “Pressure” (1976), the first full-length Black British film, died on Sept. 16. He was 86.

Ové’s son Zak posted on Facebook: “Our loving father Horace, took his last breath at 4.30 this morning, while sleeping peacefully. I hope his spirit is free now after many years of suffering with Alzheimer’s. You are forever missed, and forever loved. Rest in Peace Pops, and thank you for everything.”

Born in Trinidad in 1936, Ové’s moved to London in 1960 to study interior design. A stint in Rome, during which he worked as a film extra including on Joseph Mankiewicz’s “Cleopatra” (1963), he was exposed to the work of Federico Fellini and Vittorio De Sica, who would become infuences. He returned to Britain in 1965 and covered social and political events in the country while being a student at the London Film School. During the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the...

The work of pioneering Black British filmmaker Horace Ové will be celebrated this fall with a BFI Southbank retrospective season titled Power to the People: Horace Ové’s Radical Vision.

A 4K restored version of “Pressure” (1976), the first full-length Black British film, which is an exploration of the concerns faced by emerging second-generation West Indians in Britain, will receive a joint restoration world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival and the New York Film Festival on Oct. 11. This precedes the film’s U.K.-wide cinema release by BFI Distribution and on BFI Player on Nov. 3.

The restoration, funded by the BFI Production Board and conducted by the BFI National Archive and The Film Foundation, was made possible with contributions from the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation and the BFI philanthropy Pioneers of Black British Filmmaking consortium. It was accomplished in collaboration with the Ové family and producer Robert Buckler,...

IMDb, or Internet Movie Database, is one of the most popular and authoritative sources for movie, TV, and celebrity content. Millions of users rate and review movies on IMDb, creating a comprehensive and dynamic ranking system. Among the thousands of movies from all over the world, only a few have made it to the IMDb Top 250 list, which showcases the highest-rated movies of all time. In this article, we will look at the top 4 Indian movies that have achieved this feat, and explore what makes them so special and beloved by audiences.

4. Dangal (2016) – IMDb Rating: 8.3

Dangal, which means “wrestling” in Hindi, is a biographical sports drama film directed by Nitesh Tiwari, who also stars as the lead character. The film is based on the true story of Mahavir Singh Phogat, a former wrestler who trains his daughters Geeta and Babita to become world-class wrestlers, despite facing social and familial obstacles.

Satyajit Ray remains a leading idol for Bengalis all over the world even more than 30 years after his death. Bangladeshi Proshoon Rahman pays tribute to the great filmmakers by coming up with a movie that moves somewhere between the feature, the documentary, and the film about the film. “Dear Satyajit” has already screened in a number of festivals around the world, including Vancouver, Florence and Kerala, winning the Jury Prize for Best Feature from Florence, and Best Actor, Best Cinematography & Best Editing Award in Feature Film Category from Jaipur.

“Dear Satyajit” review is part of the Submit Your Film Initiative

The movie starts with a documentarian, Aparajita Huq, wishing to shoot a hybrid documentary to commemorate Ray's birthday centenary celebration. She has already found a protagonist in Asif Mahmud, a man who resembles the Bengali filmmaker in a number of ways, with the first scenes dealing with her meeting the...

New Delhi, March 17 (Ians) As India celebrates its historic wins at the Oscars, here’s a look at the global icon whose films, literature and art continue to have an impact on audiences across the world.

Satyajit Ray (1921-1991), polymath, polyglot, novelist, short-story writer, illustrator, designer and music composer, was one of the most eminent film directors of world cinema.

His ‘Pather Panchali’ established his position as a major film director, winning him the earliest of the many awards that he was to win throughout his career, culminating in the Lifetime Academy Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences at the Oscars in 1992.

The award, which he could not receive in person because he was ailing, was given to him “in recognition of his rare mastery of the art of motion pictures and for his profound humanitarian outlook, which has had an indelible influence on filmmakers and audiences throughout the world.

Tagore also talked about her professional journey and called her co-stars trained actors, while she considers herself an accidental actress, who was put in front of the camera by Satyajit Ray.

The 78-year-old celebrated actress, who is at the moment busy with the promotion of her upcoming film ‘Gulmohar’, an emotional family drama that plays out in upscale Delhi, said: "Oh my God! Holi used to be celebrated madly in Kolkata. I never tried bhang because that was beyond my capacity, but I’ve seen people doing that."

"But we used to play it in our Tripura house. We used to go to the lake and swim there after playing Holi. After coming back, I would find snails in my clothes or stuck in my hair. It was such fun."

She told Ians: "I don’t know when it stopped. I remember that in Mumbai we had moved from our...

Like its predecessor, 2018's "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," the 2023 follow-up "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" will cull comic book history for every possible iteration of the eponymous superhero, and force them to interact. In "Into," directors Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey, and Rodney Rothman had the Miles Morales Spider-Man (Shameik Moore) meeting and forming an unlikely bond with a middle-aged Peter Parker Spider-Man (Jake Johnson) when the latter passed into Miles' dimension. The two also teamed up with Spider-Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld), Spider-Ham (John Mulaney), Spider-Man Noir (Nicolas Cage), and an anime duo called Peni and Sp//dr (Kimiko Glenn). In a post-credits cookie, Miguel O'Hara, a.k.a. Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac), also appeared. Spider-Man 2099 will appear again.

Each of these characters has a precedent in "Spider-Man" comics. As will be proven in "Across" -- directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson -- those seven Spider-Beings are only a scratch on the surface.

The London Indian Film Festival (Liff), is back for its 13th year and we have a sneak peek into the exciting films that will be showcased at the prestigious festival! This year’s Liff spans 14 days from 23rd June – 6th July, screening in various cinemas across London as well as regionally in Manchester, Birmingham, and Leeds. Plus the BFI Player will host a selection of short films. Plus there will be films available at LoveLIFFatHome.com but more to come on that later.

As with every year, the festival strives to bring thought-provoking, unique viewpoints and outstanding independent films to audiences with the selection of films Liff brings to the screen. Not only featuring world premieres, and special screenings, Liff also features masterclasses and incredible Q&a events after the screenings. Liff brings an in-depth look into cinema.

Festival Director Cary Rajinder Sawhney MBE says, “We are delighted at the...

Anurag Kashyap’s “Dobaaraa” has been set as the opening night film of the London Indian Film Festival. Despite its name, the festival will play at venues across the U.K., and will present 24 features and 18 shorts.

“Dobaaraa” is a supernatural thriller that Liff describes as involving a young woman trapped between two lives in different decades. Kashyap has previously told Variety that “Dobaaraa” is a Hindi-language adaptation of Oriol Paulo’s 2018 Spanish-language film “Mirage.” It stars Taapsee Pannu, an actor known for her eclectic choice of projects.

In “Mirage,” a 12-year-old boy witnesses a death during a thunderstorm and is killed himself. Twenty-five years later the woman who moves into the same apartment is connected to the boy through a television set during a similar storm and has the opportunity to save his life.

“Dobaaraa” was produced by Shobha Kapoor and Ektaa R Kapoor, through Cult Movies, a new...

Filmmaker Anik Dutta, who has helmed ‘Aparajito’, which narrates the story of the struggles of Satyajit Ray during the making of his iconic film ‘Pather Panchali’, says that the process of revisiting the film and Ray’s oeuvre was like his personal route to self-discovery. Most of Ray’s films, because of their socio-political undertones, continue to […]...

Iwanami Hall, an iconic art-house cinema in Tokyo, has announced that it will close permanently from the end of July. It blamed the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The 200-seater single screen venue in the Jimbocho district opened in 1968 as a general cultural facility and became a movie theater in 1974.

The conversion to cinema was led by general manager Takano Etsuko and Kawakita Kashiko, one of the most important women in the history of Japanese cinema, who headed a management operation which called itself the “Equipe du Cinema” (French for cinema team). The name has since been adopted by Iwanami Hall’s customer loyalty program.

Kawakita, whose legacy continues to be honored at the Kawakita Memorial Film Institute, was a co-founder of film distributor Towa (later Toho-Towa). She was a pioneering film executive in the 1930s who got a taste for foreign cinema during several years living in Berlin and...

The Academy Museum of Motion Pictures is honoring the centenary of cinema giant Satyajit Ray with a major two-part retrospective.

May 2, 2021 was the birth centenary of Ray, the Indian master who won an honorary Oscar in 1992, shortly before his death, and remains the country’s best known filmmaker internationally.

The first part of the retrospective, which is currently on and will continue till Dec. 29, focuses on the early part of Ray’s career from 1955 – 1969. After a career as a graphic designer, Ray became a director in his early thirties with the ground breaking “Pather Panchali” (1955), which together with “Aparajito” and “Apur Sansar”, forms the phenomenal Apu Trilogy that follows the titular protagonist from childhood to adulthood.

The retrospective includes the Academy Film Archive’s landmark restoration of the Apu Trilogy from camera negatives nearly lost in a fire.

The December screenings at the Museum focus on Ray’s prolific and prodigious 1960s output,...

If you’ve recently seen Lawrence Of Arabia, Wim Wenders’ The Goalie's Anxiety At The Penalty Kick or Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali, chances are that you saw a modern restoration. In much the same way that a good restoration will cause you to see an old film anew, Inés Toharia’s documentary will make you consider the restoration process with fresh eyes.

A deep dive into the world of film archives and individual archivists, this film tracks the history of film preservation from its nascent stages, when the very notion was thought frivolous, to the present day when organisations like the BFI maintain vast facilities lined by row upon row of film cannisters. The archivist’s gift and ambition – to unearth lost treasures to expand the film canon and uncover obscure histories - is highlighted by glimpses of recent prize discoveries, such as Mother Dao and directors like Albert Samama Chikli and.

Celebrating its 70th anniversary this year, the International Film Festival Mannheim-Heidelberg (Iffmh) is for the first time taking place in cinemas across both cities, introducing new sections, and looking back at its rich history with a special retrospective.

“Being 70 in a way is a starting point for reflection,” says festival director Sascha Keilholz. “What was the festival like in the past? What is it now? Where do we want to go in the future? The festival is in a transformational process that we started last year and was actually quite successful.”

Indeed, after adopting a new brand image last year, the Iffmh won the 2021 German Brand Award for brand strategy and design.

After being forced online last year amid the pandemic, going back into theaters was one of this year’s main goals, Keilholz says. “This is more important than ever.”

In celebrating its return to cinemas as well...

Parallel cinema cuts loose from the musicality of Bollywood and the common perception of Indian cinema at large. Coming out of West Bengal in the 1950s, parallel cinema appeared as an alternative to the glamour and dance; socially conscious and experimental in style and mood, it maps the origins of art cinema in India, and for the first time, the rest of the world was looking at India as an innovator of film language (Satyajit Ray’s 1955 train sequence Pather Panchali is one of the most celebrated in film history). In this movement, which followed in the wake of Italian neorealism, life's diegetics became the soundtrack, real life movement over set up musical numbers. This mix traces some choice moments in Parallel Cinema’s sound. Many songs and soundtracks from this period have a lofi quality to them—due in part to the quality of audio recording equipment throughout the years of the movement,...

100 Years of Satyajit Ray: a tribute to The Apu Trilogy

May 2, 2021, saw the start of celebrations of the 100th birthday of the great Bengali filmmaker, Satyajit Ray. Ray’s films were probably amongst the earliest Indian films I’d seen, long before Bollywood would grab my attention. I love many of Ray’s films: Devi from 1960 (starring the sublime Sharmila Tagore) is a particular favourite, and is a commentary on religious devotion and fundamentalism, and, particular, on a system that both places women on pedestals as goddesses even as it removes their agency and represses them. Charulata (apparently the film Ray himself cited as his own favourite of all his films) is an exercise in subtle storytelling and gave us the irrepressible Amal, played by Soumitra Chatterjee, who literally stole my heart in so many films. But no Ray film touches my heart so completely as do the three films...

India is celebrating the birth centenary of one of her greatest sons, Satyajit Ray, in a variety of ways.

Sunday, marks the centenary of Ray, the Indian master who won an honorary Oscar in 1992, shortly before his death, and remains the country’s best known filmmaker internationally.

Ray debuted with “Pather Panchali” (1955) the first part of the magisterial Apu Trilogy, which won best human document at Cannes. The Trilogy includes “Aparajito” (1956) and “Apur Sansar” (1959). Berlin was a particularly happy venue for him and he won top awards at the festival numerous times, for “Pather Panchali,” “Aparajito,” “Mahanagar” (1963), “Charulata” (1964), “Nayak” (1966) and “Ashani Sanket” (1973).

At Venice he won for “Aparajito” and “Seemabaddha” (1971), culminating in a career Golden Lion in 1982. He also won a British Institute Fellowship in 1983 to go with the London Film Festival’s Sutherland Trophy for “Apur Sansar.” In 1987, the government of France made Ray a Commander of the Legion of Honor.

All products and services featured by IndieWire are independently selected by IndieWire editors. However, IndieWire may receive a commission on orders placed through its retail links, and the retailer may receive certain auditable data for accounting purposes.

For those who collect Blu-rays and DVDs, one name stands above the rest: Criterion. With its impeccable eye for curation and excellent restorations and bonus features, the Criterion Collection has established itself as the definitive home video release company. The Criterion Collection is reserved for “important classic and contemporary films;” for directors, receiving that stamp of approval is almost as good as an Oscar. Criterion honors obscure foreign films and popular contemporary work with equal zeal; the only criteria is the brand’s high standards.

Many movie lovers outsource the legwork of collecting to Criterion, using their annual releases as a barometer of the films that are worth owning. Browsing the Criterion website...

Christopher Nolan filmed a portion of his espionage epic “Tenet” in Mumbai, India, and loved it so much that he’s already thinking of ways to incorporate a return to the country in whatever projects will follow in the future. Speaking to India’s Ians news agency, Nolan said it was inspiring to meet filmmakers in Mumbai during his extended stay filming “Tenet.” The India-set portions of “Tenet” featured Dimple Kapadia, one of the country’s well-known actresses.

“I never make plans so far ahead. But I had an amazing experience in India, and I definitely want to come back and work more in India with Indian actors,” Nolan said. “I don’t know what I’m doing next.”

Nolan said some of his favorite images in “Tenet” are during the scenes set in India, adding about his time in the country, “I really had a tremendous experience. The love...

The mighty Satyajit Ray directed Soumitra Chatterjee in 14 films. Ray’s son Sandip grew up watching this great twosome at work, one of world cinema’s most accomplished collaborations…. “Comparable with Fellini and Marcello Mastroianni and with Kurosawa and Mifune,” says the affable Sandip Ray, himself a filmmaker of considerable repute. “Soumitra Babu’s collaboration with my father started from before I was born. He had gone to my father to be cast in Pather Panchali in 1959.My father found him too old to play Apu. Later he cast Soumitra Babu as Apu in Apur Sansar, that’s how their collaboration started.”

Sandip cannot stop marveling at the variety of films Satyajit Ray and Soumitra Chatterjee did together. “No two roles in the films they did together are comparable. Soumitra played the most varied characters in my father’s films…I can’t pick favourites..But Apur (in Apur Sansar...

Indian actor Soumitra Chatterjee, best known internationally for his long association with Oscar-winning filmmaker Satyajit Ray, died on Sunday in Kolkata after contracting coronavirus. He was 85.

Chatterjee was born in Calcutta in 1935. While at university he developed an interest in theater and was subsequently mentored by Sisir Bhaduri, a doyen in the field. He pursued an acting career in cinema while working as an announcer with All India Radio.

Chatterjee’s film debut, “The World of Apu,” (1959) was the third part of Ray’s celebrated Apu Trilogy that began with Cannes-winner “Pather Panchali” in 1955 and continued with Venice-winner “Aparajito” in 1956. The film began a fruitful association with Ray over the years that included “The Goddess” (1960), “Three Daughters” (1961), “The Expedition” (1962), “Charulata” (1964), “Days and Nights in the Forest” (1970), “Distant Thunder” (1973), “The Golden Fortress” (1974), “The Elephant God” (1979), “The Home and the World” (1984) and “Branches of the Tree” (1990).

Chatterjee also worked with the other greats of Bengali-language cinema,...

This week’s episode of the Casual Cinecast returns to wrap up the Apu Trilogy with Criterion’s Apur Sansar, while also discussing The Cameraman and Inception. Mike, Chris, and Justin are back with another Casually Criterion chat as we go ahead and conclude the Apu Trilogy (check our previous episode on Pather Panchali and Aparajito) with […]

The post Casually Criterion Wraps Up a Trilogy and Discusses 10 Years of Inception appeared first on Cinelinx | Movies. Games. Geek Culture..

Justin, Mike, and Chris are up Schitt’s Creek this week as they discuss the Criterion release of Aparajito as well as talk about The Last of Us Part II. On the previous Casually Criterion episode, the Cinecast crew discussed Pather Panchali, so today seems like a great time to take a look at it’s sequel, […]

The post Casually Criterion Delves Into Aparajito, The Last of Us Part II, and More! appeared first on Cinelinx | Movies. Games. Geek Culture..

In his 1984 film “Ghare Baire”, Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray touches upon two of the most controversial topics within his home country, the division of Muslims and Hindus as well as tendencies towards liberalism versus nationalism. The original script, based on the novel of the same title by Rabindranath Tagore, had already been written in the 1940, long before Ray would direct his first feature film “Pather Panchali”. Like with so many of his feature, the narrative framework of a story, a tale of a woman captured between two men, offers a viewer a very insightful and still quite current view on the overlapping of the private person and politics as well as the dilemma this causes.

The story takes place in 1907 after the partition of the state of Bengali by Lord Curzon, effectively dividing the Muslim and Hindu parts. In order to protest this development, many nationalist movements...

Here are many more movies to watch when you’re staying in for a while, featuring recommendations from Steven Canals, Larry Karaszewski, Gareth Reynolds, and Alan Arkush with special guest star Blaire Bercy from the Hollywood Food Coalition.

Please support the Hollywood Food Coalition. Text “Give” to 323.402.5704 or visit https://hofoco.org/donate!

Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode

Master of the Flying Guillotine (1976)

Groundhog Day (1993)

Kung Fu Mama a.k.a. Queen of Fist (1973)

Ali: Fear Eats The Soul (1974)

Portrait Of A Lady On Fire (2019)

In The Mood For Love (2000)

Hunger (2008)

The Sweet Hereafter (1997)

Fargo (1996)

Night of the Lepus (1971)

Dolemite Is My Name (2019)

Soylent Green (1973)

Silent Running (1972)

Canyon Passage (1946)

McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971)

The Professionals (1966)

Ride Lonesome (1959)

Carrie (1952)

The Heartbreak Kid (1972)

Hello Down There (1969)

The Brass Bottle (1964)

The Trouble With Angels (1966)

Pollyanna (1960)

Tiger Bay (1959)

The Parent Trap (1961)

Endless Night (1972)

The Family Way (1966)

Take A Girl Like You (1970)

Freddy Got Fingered...

Parasite movie review is here. Originally titled Gisaengchung, the South Korean dark comedy thriller film directed by Bong Joon-ho, is one of the hot favorites in the 92nd Academy Awards with six nominations including Best Picture, Best Director and Best International Feature Film, making it the first South Korean film to be nominated in those categories.

Starring Song Kang-ho, Lee Sun-kyun, Cho Yeo-jeong, Choi Woo-shik, and Park So-dam, Parasite premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival where it became the first Korean film to win the Palme d'Or. Releasing in India on January 31, 2020 through Impact Films, Parasite won the 77th Golden Globe Awards in the Best Foreign Language Film category. So what makes Parasite an exemplary piece of art?!!. Let?s find out in the movie review of Parasite.

Immediate reaction when the end credits roll

Wow!! This will leave you in awe for long. Bong Joon-ho stuns you with the...

Moviegoing Memories is a series of short interviews with filmmakers about going to the movies. Seamus Murphy's A Dog Called Money is Mubi Go's Film of the Week of November 8, 2019.Seamus Murphy. Photo by Justin McKie.Notebook: How would you describe your movie in the least amount of words?Seamus Murphy: A kaleidoscopic film essay that traces inspiration back to the mystery and strength of the people and places at its source. This is the world from which one Pj Harvey album emerged.Notebook: Where and what is your favorite movie theater? Why is it your favorite?Murphy: It’s got to be the BFI in London, where I have seen so many extraordinary films. No ads, not too much popcorn-crunching and the added enjoyment of reading a well-chosen review or article on what you have just seen, printed and on offer at the entrance/exit.Notebook: What...

With a seemingly endless amount of streaming options—not only the titles at our disposal, but services themselves–each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit platforms. Check out this week’s selections below and an archive of past round-ups here.

Aniara (Pella Kågerman & Hugo Lilja)

The title shares its name with a city-size spacecraft ferrying humans from Earth to Mars in barely three weeks. It’s a routine trip that’s never run into problems with many passengers already having family on the red planet to greet them upon arrival. But there’s a first time for everything as a small field of debris forces Captain Chefone (Arvin Kananian) off course. Unfortunately a screw breaches their hull anyway, pushing their nuclear fuel supply to critical mass. Expelling it may save them for the moment, but without it they cannot steer. So despite having enough self-sustaining electricity...

Bollywood's soft power is working its way in China like never before -- and the fan frenzy for superstar Shah Rukh Khan and the runaway success of an experimental film like Andhadhun, which has surpassed Rs 250 crore at the Chinese box office, stands as testimony. This, in a year after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping were seen enjoying an instrumental rendition of 1982 Bollywood song "Tu, tu hai wahi dil ne jise apna kana" at an event in Wuhan city.

In China for the Beijing International Film Festival (Biff), where his film Zero brought the curtains down, Shah Rukh got the warmest welcome with gifts, flowers and goodwill of fans whose love left him overwhelmed earlier this week.

"Technology, exports and imports all that is going to happen but cinema is always going to be at the forefront or art and is going to be at the front of people-to-people exchanges,...

10. Agantuk

Ray’s last film , based on a short story “Atithi” written by him. The film defines the meaning and the value of relationship on the backdrop of an ever changing social spectrum and questions the effect of the huge technological growth on human civilization. Utpal Dutt gives a superlative performance as the protagonist.

9. Shatranj Ke Khilari

Ray’s one and only full length Hindi feature film, based on the short story of Munshi Premchand. The film is set on the back drop of Indian Rebellion of 1857 and features some terrific performances from the actors Amjad Khan and Sanjeev Kumar.

8. Nayak

“Nayak” is the story of a matinee idol and Ray’s attempt to reveal the darker elements of his mind in a long-distance train journey. Uttam Kumar and Sharmila Tagore give some brilliant performances in the movie.

7. Apur Sansar

The...

“Miss Lovely” was the independent film from India that competed in the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes Film Festival in 2012. 2013 was one of the best years of the Indian history of independent cinemas.Even though the Indian independent cinema collective has made its presence felt in the beginning of 2000 itself, they were made to stay away with bowed heads out of an imposed inferiority of untouchability. However , the decisions of the national film award juries of 2013 brought them to the front rows.That year, Anand Gandhi’s “Ship of Theseus” was selected as the best film and Ashim Ahluwalia’s “Miss Lovely” got the special jury award for best film. These two films respectively got the award for the best female actor in a supporting role and best production design also.

Other than the year 2015 , all years that followed also were that of the success stories of the independent cinemas.

The BBC Culture annual critics’ poll has become one of the most anticipated film lists over the last three years. After asking critics to weigh in on the best American films (“Citizen Kane” topped the list), the best films of the 21st century (“Mulholland Drive” in first), and the best comedy movies (“Some Like It Hot” crowned the best), the BBC Culture has turned this year to the 100 greatest achievements in foreign-language film.

This year’s list was curated from top 10 lists from 209 film critics across 43 countries, including IndieWire’s own Kate Erbland and Christian Blauvelt. BBC Culture awarded 10 points to each critics’ first-ranked film, 9 for the second-ranked, and so on down to one. The finalized top 100 list was curated based on this point system.

Sitting on the top of the BBC Culture list is Akira Kurosawa’s “Seven Samurai.” The film’s breathtaking scope and intimate character work has...

Sushama Deshpande is a theatre director, writer and actor, who has been active in the field for more than 30 years. Her work in cinema is limited when compared with theatre, however, Deshpande gives an outstanding performance in Devasish Makhija‘s “Ajji“.

Here are her top thirteen Indian films, in random order.

1. Pather Panchali

Impoverished priest Harihar Ray, dreaming of a better life for himself and his family, leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work.

2. Charulata

The lonely wife of a newspaper editor falls in love with her visiting cousin-in-law, who shares her love for literature.

3. Machis

A realistic, hard-hitting portrayal of terrorism and youth in the Punjab after the 1984 riots.

4. Aandhi

J.K. is a hotel Manager in a scenic location in India. One day he gallantly comes to the rescue of a drunk daughter, Aarti, of a politician,...

Beyond The Clouds

Introducing Ishaan Khatter, Malavika Mohanan

Directed by Majidi Majidi

There came a time in this cyclonic tale of squalor, despair and redemption where I thought I’d simply be blown away by the shrillness of the drama. Majid Majidi pulls out all stops to show us the underbelly of Mumbai, warts, moles and all.

The camera pans the suffocating crowds with easy grace, embracing the bizarre bazaar of racketeering and low-living with a kind of sighing interjection that is the opposite of hopelessness. Admittedly cinematographer Anil Mehta does for Majid Majidi’s Mumbai what Subrata Mitra did to Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali.

Without romanticizing the despair he shoots the frames with a beam of optimism.

And Dhobi Ghat never looked more intriguing. There is a key scene of sexual violence silhouetted against the flapping white bed sheets spread out for drying. This would have looked laughably...

Christopher Nolan visited Mumbai, India over Easter weekend to continue his fight to preserve celluloid film. The director joined British visual artist Tacita Dean for a series of events as part of India’s “Reframing the Future of Film” campaign, which included sold out screenings of “Dunkirk” in 70mm and “Interstellar” in 35mm.

“We had a very productive session with the Indian industry, just like we have had in Hollywood and the U.K.,” Nolan told press about his visit. “We are really trying to engage filmmakers in this discussion in how we can continue to enjoy a celluloid, photo chemical, analog infrastructure in filmmaking.”

“It’s not about film versus digital,” the director stressed. “It’s about preserving this medium for future generations.”

Nolan pointed out that his visit to India made sense since Bollywood is the largest film industry in the world, which makes it even more important...

The parallel cinema movement in the country has over the years been nurtured by a number of stalwarts like Satyajit Ray (Pather Panchali, Apur Sansar, Aparajitho) Mrinal Sen (Bhuvan Shome Ek Din Prati Din), Shayam Benegal (Ankur, Manthan), Mani Kaul (Uski Roti, Duvidha), Govind Nihalani (Ardh Satya, Aakrosh), Kumar Shahani (Maya Darpan, Tarang) and Gautam Ghose (Paar Antarjali Yatra).