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The short story is a specific genre of prose literature that developed and became popularised in Europe in the nineteenth century and later influenced other literary and cultural traditions across the globe. The development of print culture, mass production, and propagation of newspapers and magazines, and the emergence of the ‘middle-class’ as a new socio-economic stratum all became contributing factors to the burgeoning of the genre.

From the very early days of its development, cinema has been a medium of amalgamation of different art forms and expressions. Different filmmakers across languages have successfully integrated elements from varied literary traditions in their films, creating a plethora of cinematic adaptations of literary works. Indian cinema has also had a rich legacy of film adaptations of seminal literary pieces.

We have innumerable examples of films adapted from noteworthy plays and novels, but what makes the short story distinct as a literary genre and...

Let’s get this out of the way right from the top: Wes Anderson has never made a bad movie, and — in all likelihood — he probably never will. He’s too particular, too immaculate, too in command of his craft. Of course, the fact that he has always been so sure of himself only makes it more tempting to chart the progress of his career and to measure his films against each other. Or maybe it’s just fun because there are still only 12 of them, and everyone seems to have their own favorite. Who could say?

Anderson is the rarest of rarities, an arthouse filmmaker who not only finds ways to consistently make ambitious original projects, but also maintains genuine influence on what remains of mainstream pop culture. (None of the other esteemed directors who competed for the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival were...

It all began with the first film, 1955’s Pather Panchali; considered a masterpiece still to this day. In this fascinating feature, Subhash K Jha turns the focus on Satyajit Ray, The Father of Indian films. The writer, director, and composer went on to create 36 brilliant films, and his legacy as a master storyteller and filmmaker lives on.

What was the world doing when you first saw Pather Panchali for the first time? I must have been 18 or 19 when I met Apu and Durga for the first time. They were so close I could touch their heartbeat. I don’t know what happened to Subir Banerjee and Runki Banerjee, who played Apu and Durga. But the two siblings in Pather Panchali have remained a part of our lives since 1955.

A year later, Apu was a gawky youngster in Aparajito in pursuit of his dreams while his mother languished in the village.

Cottontail unfolds as a poignant cross‑continental quest sparked by a dying wish: a Japanese widower must carry his late wife’s ashes from Tokyo to England’s Lake District. The film contrasts Tokyo’s neon‑lit crowds with the misty calm of Windermere, using each location to mirror stages of grief and acceptance. In the city, Kenzaburo’s solitary routines—a stolen packet of octopus, a silent toast to an empty seat—establish his inner void. When he arrives in Cumbria, rolling hills and rain‑slicked lanes become a canvas for quiet reflection and unexpected warmth.

At its emotional core, Kenzaburo’s mission—to honor Akiko’s childhood memories by scattering her ashes where she once chased rabbits—anchors the narrative in a simple yet profound act of devotion. Patrick Dickinson balances gentle humor with moments of stillness, allowing viewers to share in Kenzaburo’s uncertainty.

Cinematically, the film...

To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Subhash K Jha asked Filmistan what their favorite prem kahaani films are and the answers were amazing!

Amitabh Bachchan:

“Guru Dutt’s Kagaz Ke Phool: poignant and incredible theme, most lingering visuals, music, performances, and the ethereal Waheedaji, she’s my favourite; Anupama … “I just love the softness and simplicity of the film, its unexaggerated performances. It had a lyrical quality about it. This was a film by one of my favourite directors, Hrishikesh Mukherjee.” Bimal Roy’s Devdas: “I have always idolized Dilip Saab; his portrayal of doomed love in Devdas remains unparalleled.”

Sanjay Leela Bhansali:

“Bimal Roy’s Devdas, Vijay Anand’s Guide, Kamal Amrohi’s Pakeezah, K Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam, Satyajit Ray’s Charulata.”

Raakhee Gulzar:

“Satyajit Ray’s Charulata, Vijay Anand’s Guide, Raj Kapoor’s Sangam, Raj Kapoor’s Bobby, Yash Chopra’s Kabhi Kabhie.”

Asha Parekh:

“Bimal Roy’s Devdas,...

Silver Bear Award Winners (Photo Credit – Koimoi)

Berlin International Film Festival is one of the biggest award shows in the world and is known for recognizing cinema as an art. The show has many prestigious awards, including the Golden Bear for the Best Film and the Silver Bear for the Best Director. The Silver Bear, introduced in 1956, has since been one of the most coveted awards for a director. That honor has been bestowed upon filmmakers whose vision and storytelling push the boundaries of creative expression.

Remarkably, only four directors have been awarded this award on multiple occasions. Among this prestigious quartet stands a figure whose legacy transcends national borders: Satyajit Ray. His work not only elevated Indian cinema to a global platform but also set a high benchmark for artistic excellence. Ray is the only director to win the award in two consecutive years.

Satyajit Ray won the Silver...

Shabana Azmi had the rare privilege of playing both wife and daughter to Soumitra Chatterjee. “But then he had the rarest privilege of doing fourteen films with Satyajit Ray. I was in a film group that was honoured at the prestigious George Pompidou Centre in Paris sometime in the 1980s and it was so incredible to watch the adulation showered on him by French fans. In Paris, they called out to him as Apu (from Satyajit Ray’s Apur Sansar) and Amal (from Ray’s Charulata) and rushed to get photographed with him. Soumitrada seemed to to take it all in his stride and said modestly, ‘It’s because Ray made these characters so memorable that I’m reaping the benefits.’ I was amazed at how lightly he wore his fame.”

Recalling her own experiences of collaborating with Soumitrada as a co-actor Shabana says, “I had the honour of working...

Everything old was new again at this year’s Cairo Film Festival.

Filling out a super-sized 45th edition, the Egyptian event introduced a new section dedicated to heritage titles, showcasing 10 gems of world cinema, among them titles like “The Lonely Wife” and “The Color of Pomegranates” to mark the centenaries of film greats Satyajit Ray and Sergei Parajanov, as well as 4K restorations of “The Godfather Part II,” “The Thief of Baghdad” and “Cleopatra,” among several more.

As part of a bolstered Cairo Classics program, the festival also premiered 14 milestones of Egyptian cinema freshly remastered and reintroduced to an eager public. And as the Cairo Film Festival charts a new course under president Hussein Fahmy and artistic director Essam Zakarea, this restorative vocation will stay a cornerstone of their wider mission.

“Egyptian cinema is one of the oldest in the world, but we have a problem with our archive,” Zakarea tells Variety.

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...

After the recently-concluded ‘Bachchanalia’ where Amitabh Bachchan memorabilia went under the hammer, the auction house DeRivaz & Ives has announced a similar tribute to ‘feminine icons’ of Indian cinema.

Vintage souvenirs of Bollywood actresses that will also celebrate a saga of beauty and their acting prowess will be auctioned in Mumbai.

The auction will celebrate actresses like Nadia, Jayashree, Devika Rani, Noor Jahan, Suraiya, Nargis, Geeta Bali, Bina Rai, Madhubala, Madhabi Mukherjee, Mala Sinha, Suchitra Sen, Shashikala, Sharmila Tagore, Meena Kumari, Jaya Bhaduri, Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman, Rekha, Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit and many more.

Titled ‘Feminine Icons of Indian Cinema’, the auction will be held on November 23-25, and a variety of iconic photographs, film posters, lobby cards and other original artworks will be on offer for film buffs.

Among them will be a rare ‘The Light of Asia’ original publicity still in silver gelatin, of the classic 1925 Indian silent film...

After the recently-concluded ‘Bachchanalia’ where Amitabh Bachchan memorabilia went under the hammer, the auction house DeRivaz & Ives has announced a similar tribute to ‘feminine icons’ of Indian cinema.

Vintage souvenirs of Bollywood actresses that will also celebrate a saga of beauty and their acting prowess will be auctioned in Mumbai.

The auction will celebrate actresses like Nadia, Jayashree, Devika Rani, Noor Jahan, Suraiya, Nargis, Geeta Bali, Bina Rai, Madhubala, Madhabi Mukherjee, Mala Sinha, Suchitra Sen, Shashikala, Sharmila Tagore, Meena Kumari, Jaya Bhaduri, Hema Malini, Zeenat Aman, Rekha, Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit and many more.

Titled ‘Feminine Icons of Indian Cinema’, the auction will be held on November 23-25, and a variety of iconic photographs, film posters, lobby cards and other original artworks will be on offer for film buffs.

Among them will be a rare ‘The Light of Asia’ original publicity still in silver gelatin, of the classic 1925 Indian silent film...

Taking a stroll down the memory lane, megastar Amitabh Bachchan recalled his meeting with India’s cultural icon Satyajit Ray, sharing how the latter’s room was filled with books and posters.

Satyajit Ray was considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. He was the director, screenwriter, documentary filmmaker, author, essayist, lyricist, magazine editor, illustrator, calligrapher, and composer. He is celebrated for works including ‘The Apu Trilogy’, ‘The Music Room’, ‘The Big City’, ‘Charulata’ and the ‘Goopy–Bagha’ trilogy.

Host of the quiz-based reality show ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ season 15, Amitabh Bachchan welcomed Varun Kesarwani from Ayodhya, Up, the rollover contestant in the episode 13th of the ‘Rishtey Special’ week.

For the Rs 3,20,000 question, Varun was asked: “Which film director designed the logo of the Sahitya Akademi?” The options given were- Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Satyajit Ray, Hrishikesh Mukherjee, and Bhalji Pendharkar. Varun took the double dip lifeline- and gave the...

Introduction & Inspirations

Murali Gopy, the acclaimed writer and actor of Malayalam cinema, has revealed some of his favourite filmmakers and his upcoming projects in a candid interview. Murali Gopy, who is known for his versatile scripts and powerful performances, has written critically acclaimed films like Ee Adutha Kaalathu, Left Right Left, Tiyaan, Kammara Sambhavam, and the highest-grossing Malayalam film Lucifer.

Empuraan Title Announcement

He has also won numerous awards including Filmfare Awards South and South Indian International Movie Awards. Here are some of the filmmakers he admires and their best films:

Django Unchained Trailer David Lean: The British master of epic cinema, who directed classics like Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, and The Bridge on the River Kwai. Lean’s films are known for their sweeping visuals and compelling stories on a grand scale. He was nominated for 12 Academy Awards and won two for Best Director. Quentin Tarantino: The American iconoclast,...

After last month kicked off with Sight and Sound unveiling of their once-in-a-decade greatest films of all-time poll, detailing the 100 films that made the cut that were led by Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, they’ve now unveiled the full critics’ top 250. While the discourse up until now has featured many wondering why certain directors were totally absent and why other films that previously made the top 100 were left out, more clarity has arrived with this update.

Check out some highlights we clocked below, the full list here, and return on March 2 when all ballots and comments will be unveiled.

The films closest to making the top 100 were Rio Bravo, The House Is Black, and Vagabond, which tied for #103. Four directors absent in the top 100––Terrence Malick, Paul Thomas Anderson, Hou Hsiao-hsien, and Jacques Demy––have two films each in the top 250: The Tree of Life...

InterviewIn an interview with Tnm, director Sarjun discusses where the idea for ‘Burqa’ came from, why he decided to take the film festival route, and his choice of actors for the movie.Subha J RaoNajma (Mirnaa), a young Muslim widow is alone at home, observing Iddah or Iddat – the period of solitude – following the death of her husband when Surya (Kalaiyarasan), an injured man who takes part in protests for money, knocks on her door. He’s being chased by someone and desperately seeks refuge in her home. The widow, who had been married very briefly to a lovely understanding man, is a trained nurse and resists helping, but eventually does. She dresses his wound and gives him painkillers. For the next hour on screen, the two – a girl who lost love even as she was discovering it and a cynical man who has seen his sex worker mother plod...

A restored version of Indian master Satyajit Ray’s “The Adversary” is playing at Cannes Classics this year and films inspired by his works are being planned.

Kolkata-based Indian producer-director Aritra Sen’s Roadshow Films and Los Angeles-based British writer-director Alex Harvey’s Big Bazaar Films are producing two films this year, which take their inspiration from Ray’s life and work.

First up is feature documentary “Forest of Humans,” which looks at Ray’s creative relationship with Kolkata, the city where he lived and worked all his life. Directed by Harvey and produced by Sen, the documentary explores the many ways in which Ray used Kolkata’s diverse humanity to create an entire cinematic world. Filming almost entirely on location in Kolkata, “Forest of Humans” aims to show how Ray’s poetic world is still mysterious and alive in the city today.

“Kolkata endlessly fed Ray’s imagination,” says Sen.

Editor’s Note: This story was originally published on May 1, 2017, and has been updated on March 5, 2022.

Let’s get this out of the way right from the top: Wes Anderson has never made a bad movie, and — in all likelihood — he probably never will. He’s too particular, too immaculate, too in command of his craft. Of course, the fact that he has always been so sure of himself only makes it more tempting to chart the progress of his career and to measure his films against each other. Or maybe it’s just fun because there are still only nine of them, and everyone seems to have their own favorite. Who could say?

Here are all of Wes Anderson’s feature films, ranked from “worst” to best.

Christian Zilko contributed to this story.

10. “Bottle Rocket”

Wes Anderson arrived fully formed (or close to it), and so much of his...

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,...

Awards

Siân Heder’s “Coda,” an Apple original film, has won the 2021 Sundance Film Festival: London Award presented by BIFA.

The award was voted for by 40 leading professionals from the British film industry assembled by the British Independent Film Awards.

The film follows Ruby, a Coda or Child of Deaf Adults, who is torn between pursuing her love of music and her fear of abandoning her parents. The film stars Emilia Jones, Eugenio Derbez, Troy Kotsur, Ferdia Walsh-Peelo, Daniel Durant, and Marlee Matlin, and is produced by Philippe Rousselet, Fabrice Gianfermi and Patrick Wachsberger.

It had its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival in the U.S., where it won best director U.S. dramatic, U.S. grand jury prize: dramatic and the audience award: U.S. dramatic. Walsh-Peelo attended the London event with Heder joining virtually for a Q & A.

The film will debut in cinemas and on Apple TV Plus on Aug.

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.

Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSThe cover for the new issue of Cahiers du Cinema is a patchwork tribute to the erratic year of 2020. Frederick Wiseman's City Hall also tops the Cahiers list of this year's top ten films. Actress and screenwriter Daria Nicolodi, best known for co-writing Dario Argento's Suspiria and appearing in a number of Argento's Giallo classics like Deep Red and Inferno, has died. Recommended VIEWINGAnthology Film Archives is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a showcase of video tributes from a wide range of artists, filmmakers, and scholars, including Bette Gordon, Abel Ferrara, Nathaniel Dorsky, and Michael Snow. They've also made available a free recreation of their inaugural program from November 30, 1970, featuring films by Georges Méliès, Joseph Cornell, Jerome Hill and Harry Smith. The curators of the Museum of Modern Art and the Berlinale...

ObituaryChatterjee was considered one of the first proponents of the naturalistic style of acting in Bengali cinema, a trademark of Satyajit Ray's movies.PTIImage: Wikimedia Commons/Biswarup GangulyHe was the actor who epitomised the best of world cinema, transcending the boundaries of country, state and language to give expression to Satyajit Ray's cinematic vision and get framed in celluloid greatness. But the legacy of Soumitra Chatterjee, who died on Sunday at the age of 85, is not limited to the Ray firmament, just as he was never only a Bengali star of Bengali cinema. The suave actor of the world, sometimes called last of the Mohicans and familiar to students of cinema anywhere in the globe, acted in 14 Ray films and over 300 others, gracefully transitioning into commercial cinema in a variety of roles. He made his presence felt on the stage too as actor, playwright and director. One of the...

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,...

by Shantanu Ray Chaudhuri

(The article was published initially in Projectorhead.in)

The Golden Era: The 1950s and 1960s

The next two decades witnessed Bengali cinema at its best, with a never before coming together of exceptional directors, actors and technicians, a willingness to experiment with forms, techniques and content, and nuanced understanding and application of film techniques. Fittingly enough, the era began with Nemai Ghosh’s Chinnamul (The Uprooted, made in 1951), which despite certain aesthetic glitches, is a telling document of partition and a landmark in the growth of socially conscious cinema in India. Hemen Gupta’s Bhuli Nai (We Shall not Forget) and ’42 (1942), both made in the late 1940s but releasing only in the 1950s, were entirely original subject matters that owed themselves to the director’s experiences as a freedom fighter and were remarkable for the director’s uncompromising sincerity. The First International Film Festival held...

Ira Sachs overflows with knowledge about all the great filmmakers known and forgotten — Maurice Pialat, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Eric Rohmer. Sachs’ own kind of slow, patient-to-dissolve cinema belongs exactly in his forebears’ camp, where actors and performance come before style.

But that filmmaking comes with its own challenges, and his latest hasn’t been the easiest ride. Nevertheless, in an interview in Los Angeles last week, Sachs said that with his new film “Frankie,” the film’s tepid reception at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival actually benefited the movie as he came to grips with his specific profile as a filmmaker.

Screen icon Isabelle Huppert shines in the lead role, a woman with terminal cancer who has chosen to spend her final hours assembling friends and family, estranged or not, at a Portuguese villa in the doomed hopes of resolving their individual life crises.

Directed in a static-camera, theatrical style heavy...

Kalank

Starring Madhuri Dixit, Sanjay Dutt, Alia Bhatt, Varun Dhawan, Aditya Roy Kapur, Sonakshi Sinha

Directed by Abhishek Varman

After I finished watching this long winding but ultimately satisfying tale of unfulfilled love, the incandescent Alia Bhatt asked me if I enjoyed the film.

No, I didn’t enjoy Kalank. But I still liked it. Liked it a lot. For its inner and outer beauty. Kalank is gorgeous, no, make that drop-dead gorgeous. Every frame is worked out to an eye-catching detail exuding a kind arrested aestheticism that implies a penchant for opulence and majesty that has no parallel in real life.

And certainly not in 1946 when the film’s tumultuous romance unravels (not as seamlessly as one would imagine). The sets and the imaginative use of religious symbols in the songs are breathtaking. And put Alia Bhatt in a gondola sailing through this universe caught in the cusp of never-land,...

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...

He turned a frock-clad school going teen Sharmila Tagore into Aparna - Apu?s wife. The clich? concept of all-evil in silver screen villains bored him. Javed Akhtar once said, ?While Hindi films have ferocious villains who only evoked hatred, you actually felt sad for Ray?s negative character. Such was the sensitivity of the man?. He gave Bengali cinemas? most real and grounded hero ? Soumitra Chatterjee who turned into his blue-eyed boy. He used real comedians in humour, he transformed his characters into all time legends ? Apu (Soumitra Chatterjee), Aparna (Sharmila Tagore) Charulata (Madhabi Mukherjee), Nayak (Uttam Kumar), had a unique eye for creating child characters, the man who created the iconic Feluda.

One of Indian cinema?s most influential filmmaker it won?t be an exaggeration if I say Asian cinema or world cinema in that matter ? Satyajit Ray if by any reasons or circumstances couldn?t make it as a filmmaker,...

“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.

Santosh Sivan talks about watching Satyajit Ray's Charulata for the first time at Ftii, Pune, and how he was bowled over by the 'timeless' quality of Subrata Mitra's cinematography. He also says his work on Mani Ratnam's 'Iruvar' was a kind of tribute.

Exclusive: Curzon12 will stream recent and classic movies; first lineup revealed.

Curzon is beefing up its online offering with the launch of Curzon12, a monthly VoD service built into its membership packages.

The service will host 12 recent and classic movies which will be available to stream when logging in with a Curzon membership.

Scroll down for first lineup

Each month’s curated lineup, taken exclusively from Curzon’s library, is selected by the company’s programming team and is designed to complement the films playing across Curzon’s cinemas and its day-and-date service on Curzon Home Cinema that month.

The collection will feature the work of directors such as Yorgos Lanthimos, Charlie Chaplin, Andrea Arnold, Satyajit Ray and Agnes Varda as well as lesser known filmmakers.

The offering will be accompanied by a monthly newsletter that will delve deeper into three headline titles for that month.

The subscription is a benefit for existing and future members at no additional...

Editor’s Note: This article is presented in partnership with FilmStruck. Developed and managed by Turner Classic Movies (TCM) in collaboration with the Criterion Collection, FilmStruck features the largest streaming library of contemporary and classic arthouse, indie, foreign and cult films as well as extensive bonus content, filmmaker interviews and rare footage. Learn more here.

Wes Anderson has one of the most original voices of any filmmaker working today, but his movies are full of clues as to which directors have influenced him the most. From Orson Welles to François Truffaut to Federico Fellini, some of the most iconic filmmakers in the history of cinema have had a hand in inspiring Anderson’s distinctive style. Here are 10 films that had a lasting impact on the indie auteur.

“The Magnificent Ambersons” (1942)

Orson Welles’ period drama about a wealthy family that loses its entire fortune at the turn of the 20th century...

Above: Us poster for Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, France, 1965).As the 53rd New York Film Festival ends today, I thought I would go back half a century and take a look at the 3rd edition of the festival. Curated by Amos Vogel and Richard Roud, the then fledgling fest comprised 17 new features, 6 retrospective selections (ranging from Feuillade’s 1915 Les vampires to Godard’s 1960 Le petit soldat), and a number of shorts or demi-features (including Chris Marker’s The Koumiko Mystery). The main slate was chock-full of masterpieces (Gertrud, Alphaville, Charulata) and films by masters (Franju, Visconti, Kurosawa) and young turks on the rise (Straub, Bellocchio, Forman, Penn, Skolimowski). And there is only one film in the list—Laurence L. Kent’s Canadian indie Caressed—that I had never heard of before.In his introduction to the festival catalog Amos Vogel wrote:“Several fascinating, contradictory facts stand out in the 1965 New York film scene.

While we all are aware that Vidya Balan is the face of Indian Film Festival that is held in Melbourne every year, we hear that this time around Anil Kapoor too will be a part of it. The actor turned producer will be flying down to the city during the festival for not just attending it but will also be hoisting the prestigious Indian National Flag on August 15. Anil Kapoor, who is thrilled about representing his country, expressed his delight and pride about receiving this opportunity to hoist the Indian National Flag. It is being said that Anil Kapoor will also be hosting the screening of his latest film Dil Dhadakne Do, where he played the role of a suave businessman and father to Ranveer Singh and Priyanka Chopra as well as his iconic film Mr. India in the Master Stroke section of the festival. Apart from these films, restored...

Satyajit Ray’s Charulata would have given her right arm and leg to be in her place. Charulata, a young and beautiful woman living in Bengal in the 1880s, is married to Bhupatinath Dutta, a liberal and intelligent man who inarguably cares for her. But Bhupatinath is so myopic—his newspaper and politics are all that matter—and blissfully ignorant of the lure of the arts—finding them trivial—that his wife, who would like nothing else than to immerse herself in literature, suffocates every day. She has no one to argue about books with because no one she knows reads them.>> - Laya Maheshwari...

Satyajit Ray’s Charulata would have given her right arm and leg to be in her place. Charulata, a young and beautiful woman living in Bengal in the 1880s, is married to Bhupatinath Dutta, a liberal and intelligent man who inarguably cares for her. But Bhupatinath is so myopic—his newspaper and politics are all that matter—and blissfully ignorant of the lure of the arts—finding them trivial—that his wife, who would like nothing else than to immerse herself in literature, suffocates every day. She has no one to argue about books with because no one she knows reads them.>> - Laya Maheshwari...

 

While the first of two weekends of the Austin City Limits Festival will create an influx of out-of-towners and even more traffic than usual, local theaters offer more choices than ever for those of you not braving Zilker Park. There are no less than 10 new releases opening, but first I want to focus on this week's specialty screenings. 

The Austin Film Society is kicking off their "Art Horror" series for October with Andrzej Zulawski's Possession. Released in 1981, the film stars Sam Neill and Isabelle Adjani and plays out like a paranoid fever dream. Beautifully shot with an incredible score, it's screening in 35mm at the Marchesa tonight, Sunday afternoon and again on Tuesday evening so there's no excuse for missing this one! On Wednesday, Doc Nights will feature Las Marthas with director Cristina Ibarra in attendance for a Q&A and Essential Cinema's "The Films Of Satyajit Ray" series...

★★★★☆Place is an inherent part of cinema, it's the sand beneath the feet of form and breathes around content whilst acting within the consciousness of the viewer not unlike the unseen but very much felt constant of existential dread. Two of the artists most associated with place (in this case Bengal) were the dual polymaths Satyajit Ray and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tragore. In 1964 they collaborated for the second time on a film, Charulata (following their 1961 effort Teen Kanya), back in cinemas this week. Ray called Charulata his favourite of all his films and the one that is he had to remake it he would change nothing. The film is also an adaptation of Tragore's novella Nashtanir, first published in 1901.

Picture a high school civics teacher with a great love for Ken Burns and access to people like Prince Charles and the Dalai Lama — but no ability to ask them interesting questions — making his first documentary on a laptop's built-in software.

That should give you some sense of what Rabindranath Tagore: The Poet of Eternity is like. Often credited as the father of modern Indian literature, Tagore was also a songwriter, statesman, and educator. This film struggles to do justice to his many accomplishments, shortchanging his artistry. He may be best known to American cinephiles for the two Satyajit Ray films based on his novels, Charulata and The Home and The World. But Tagore's fiction is barely mentioned in this documentary, which is far more concerned...

A portrait of Satyajit Ray by Rishiraj Sahoo | Source: Wikimedia commons

Let’s start to play a game here – What is common between the 9 Bengali films listed below:

1 – Antaheen (2009, dir: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury) advertised that this was the first film after Satyajit Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri where Aparna Sen and Sharmila Tagore acted together. It went further stating that even the Ray masterpiece didn’t have the two pitted against each other in the same frame as this film did.

2 – Abar Aranye (2003, dir: Goutam Ghose) took three of the four characters of Aranyer Din Ratri to the forest of Dooars on a sequel train at a time when the DVD, CD version of the Ray original was not readily available.

3 – Aborto (2013, dir: Arindam Sil) flaunts that all the characters of the film have the same names as the different major characters in the master’s film oeuvre.

4 – Charulata 2011 (2012, dir:...

Charulata

Written and directed by Satyajit Ray

India, 1964

Adopting an understated approach, Satyajit Ray tells the story of Charulata the young and beautiful wife of an older man, Bhupati Dutta, who is the editor of a political newspaper. Centered on her restless days and introspective nature, the film takes place almost exclusively within the walls of the couple’s Victorian Calcutta home. The interior private space of the home will come to reflect the interior private space of the woman. The film’s great incident is the arrival of the husband’s younger cousin, Amal, who is urged to keep company with Charulata. Charulata and the cousin bond over a love of art and their friendship disrupt the fragile comfort of Charaluta’s loneliness.

To call Charulata a film without great incident would betray the internal transformations of the characters and to understate the experience of most women. In many ways,...

The 61st Sydney Film Festival, to be held from June 4-15, will screen Ritesh Batra’s The Lunchbox, Pan Nalin’s Faith Connections and Richie Mehta’s Siddharth in different sections.

Satyajit Ray’s Charulata, which was first screened at the festival in 1966, will be screened again.

The Lunchbox is the story of a housewife, Ila and Saajan Fernandes, who correspond to each other in letters sent inside a lunchbox. The Lunchbox has been one of the most successful Indian films in the festival circuit.

Richie Mehta’s film Siddharth revolves around Mahendra who works on street corners as a chain-wallah (a zipper-fixer). To contribute to the family income, his boy Siddharth is sent far away from home, from New Delhi to Ludhiana, where a relative has a job for him and a place to sleep. It seems like a dream come true to his father, until he realises that...

A still from “Nayak”

A restored version of Satyajit Ray’s Nayak will screen at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festival in the ‘Berlinale Classics’ section.

The film, that won a Special Recognition in 1966 at the same festival, has been restored by Rdb Entertainments in 2K resolution last year.

Ray’s Nayak is a film about a film star who is travelling to Delhi from Calcutta to receive his National Award and reveals a lot more about his personality to a young journalist than he intends to.

The film had also won the National Award for Best Feature in Bengali.

Five other Ray classics, including Charulata, Mahanagar, Kapurush, Mahapurush and Jai Baba Felunath had been restored earlier by Rdb Entertainments.

DVD Release Date: Jan. 7, 2014

Price: DVD $44.95

Studio: Criterion

The films directed by the great Satyajit Ray (Charulata) of India in the last ten years of his life have a unique dignity and drama. Three of them are presented in Criterion’s Eclipse Series 40: Late Ray collection: the fervent Rabindranath Tagore adaptation The Home and the World; the vital Henrik Ibsen–inspired An Enemy of the People; and the filmmaker’s final film, the poignant and philosophical family story The Stranger. Each is a complex, political, and humane portrait of a world both corrupt and indescribably beautiful, constructed with Ray’s characteristic elegance and imbued with autumnal profundity.

Swatilekha Chatterjee stars in Satyajit Ray's 1984 film The Home and The World.

All three films are presented in Bengali with English subtitles.

Here’s a closer look at them:

The Home and The World (1984)

Both a romantic triangle tale and a...

It’s funny how Guillermo del Toro is someone that geeks obsess over, but hasn’t totally crossed over into the mainstream. This year saw the release of his Pacific Rim, which made over $400 Million worldwide, but was initially considered a disappointment because of it didn’t open to gangbuster numbers. Rim is an entertaining film, but one of the reasons why fans are so passionate about the man is because of his Spanish-language films, and Criterion has released one of his best: The Devil’s Backbone. The company has also put out Satyajit Ray’s Charulata, and my review of both on Blu-ray follows after the jump. Taking place in 1939 during the Spanish Civil War, The Devil’s Backbone recounts how ten-year-old Carlos (Fernado Tielve) is left at an orphanage after his parents are killed and his tutors have joined the war effort. Reluctant to accept his new home,...

★★★★★ The years 1964-5 saw the release of Satyajit Ray's arguable masterpiece The Lonely Wife (Charulata) and the smaller variation on a theme, The Coward (Kapurush), both now reissued in pristine Blu-ray versions by distributor Artificial Eye. Set in the closing years of the nineteenth century, The Lonely Wife tells the story of a privileged woman, Charulata (played by the luminous Madhabi Mukherjee), whose wealthy husband Bhupati (Sailen Mukherjee) is committed to producing a political newspaper, and whose main pleasure is the smell of newsprint and the sound of his own voice.

With the arrival of her brother-in-law, the Bohemian poet Amal (Soumitra Chatterjee), Charulata begins to realise her yearning for something different both in finding her voice as a writer and her unfulfilled romantic longings in the lighter more attractive brother. Ray takes the conventional premise of the desperate housewife and creates something astonishing, a subtle and measured examination of frustration,...

“Movie Houses of Worship” is a regular feature spotlighting our favorite movie theaters around the world, those that are like temples of cinema catering to the most religious-like film geeks. This week, Fsr’s Allison Loring chose one of her favorite theaters in Los Angeles. If you’d like to suggest or submit a place you regularly worship at the altar of cinema, please email our weekend editor. Aero Theater Location: 1328 Montana Avenue, Santa Monica, CA Opened: Originally opened in 1939 as a 24-hour theater for aircraft workers, but closed in 2003 after Robert Redford’s Sundance Cinemas project (which was going to take over ownership of the theater) fell through because General Cinemas (which was being sold to AMC) went bankrupt. The Aero is now officially known as the “Max Palevsky Aero Theater” thanks to Palevsky’s funding for the American Cinematheque’s refurbishment of the theater which re-opened in January 2005. No. of...

French sales outfit Wide Management has added a slew of titles in recent months.

Tiff contemporary world cinema premiere Ningen, about a Japanese CEO under pressure to save his company, is the second feature from Noor directors Cagla Zencirci and Guillaume Giovanetti.

Portuguese drama Bobo, by Ines Oliveira, plays in the Tiff discovery programme. The feature follows two women who unite over their mutual desire to protect a child.

Vinko Bresan’s Karlovy Vary competition comedy The Priest’s Children has sold to a number of European territories while Jean-Louis Daniel’s Paris-set Shanghai Belle, also in-demand, tells the story of young models discovering a life of drugs, sex and prostitution.

Also on the slate are Snails in the Rain by Yariv Mozer, Letters of a Portuguese Nun, Rene Feret’s The Film to Come, and Us comedy Only in New York, in which a stand-up has a novel take on the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Wide has also...

Considering how popular a topic marital discontent is in American cinema, you’d like to think we were the masters of the genre, but famed Indian director Satyajit Ray captured the despondence and disconnect of a marriage in decline subtly and completely with his 1964 film Charulata, starring Madhabi Mukherjee as the titular dissatisfied wife. Balancing some overt symbolism with a story of a woman who yearns for her husband to notice her desires for his attentions and not to be dismissed as a “traditional” wife, content with house chores and lounging about, Ray takes the “new vs. traditional” theme found in many of his films and translates it to one of the most character-driven forms he ever delivered. From the film’s mostly silent opening scenes to its dour but hopeful ending, Charulata paints a nearly perfect picture of a woman desperate for something or someone to engage her intellect...