ITV

Tag: Francois Truffaut

  • Taiwanese director Liang to release movies at art museums

    Taiwanese director Liang to release movies at art museums

    KOLKATA:  Taiwanese director, Tsai Ming Liang, who participated in the 20th Kolkata International Film Festival that kicked off last Monday, declared that his movies going forward will be screened in art museums where it would not compete with commercial and Hollywood movies.

     

    Also, the director talking about the freedom of film makers said that a movie is majorly controlled by financers, distributors and the demands of the viewers, leaving the director with no independence.

     

    “Henceforth I shall release my movies at art museums where they won’t have to compete with commercial and Hollywood movies,” said Liang, talking about his films and cinema in general in front of a heavily packed auditorium.

     

    He nostalgically also shared experiences of his childhood and mentioned how the political situation in Malaysia did not allow him to watch European films. It was only possible once he migrated to Taiwan which became a democratic nation at around the same time.

     

    With such a change in political climate, several international film festivals were arranged which introduced him to directors like Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut.

     

    To him, the final frozen frame of ‘The 400 Blows’ raised more questions than it answered and was a major cinematic moment in his life, he added.

     

    While talking about filmmaking as a practice, he said that the foremost question a filmmaker should ask is, “why am I making films?” When asked about the long duration of his shots, he defended them by saying that they are a representation of his own time. In most films objectification of the subject obliterates time.

     

    However, he wants to remove the object so the viewer is aware of the flow of time.

     

    When speaking about the casting of his films, he mentioned that he always casts an individual and not an actor. He discovers his actors in their moments of solitude. He found Lee Kang Sheng when he was riding his bike, he concluded.

  • Documentary on Francois Truffaut’s ‘Cinema according to Hitchcock’ to be produced

    Documentary on Francois Truffaut’s ‘Cinema according to Hitchcock’ to be produced

    NEW DELHI: A feature documentary is set to be produced based on the recordings that led to fame of filmmaker Francois Truffaut’s internationally acclaimed 1966 book ‘Cinema according to Hitchcock.’

     

    Cohen Media Group, Artline Films and Arte have partnered to produce Hitchcock/Truffaut, to be directed by Kent Jones (A Letter to Elia, Director of the New York Film Festival) and co-written by Jones and Serge Toubiana (Director of Cinematheque Francaise).  An American-French co-production, it will be released in the spring of 2015. Cohen Media Group will handle world-wide sales.

     

    The film will journey through the extensive series of conversations between master filmmaker of mystery and horror films Alfred Hitchcock and Truffaut, illustrating their love for filmmaking and demonstrating their impact on modern world cinema.

     

    Legendary scenes from Hitchcock’s films intercut with comment and opinion from contemporary filmmakers will reinforce his iconic stature as one of the most influential directors of our time.

     

     “For me, in many ways, cinema began with Francois Truffaut’s book about Alfred Hitchcock,” said Jones. “For me, and for many others, the book was more than formative – it was essential and direct. I was so excited when I was offered the chance to make this film, an inquiry into the adventure and excitement of directing films, of translating felt emotions into moving images.”

     

    Since its publication, the book has been dubbed the “Bible of cinema” by many international filmmakers. The film will feature interviews and accounts from some of the most prominent and influential directors in the world of cinema including Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, James Gray, Brian De Palma, Wes Anderson, Richard Linklater, Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Olivier Assayas, Arnaud Desplechin and David Fincher. These directors will share how “Hitchcock/Truffaut” shaped their careers, transformed cinema and introduced the French New Wave and “New Hollywood” to the world.

     

     Segments from the 1962 original recordings between the two filmmakers will also feature, allowing audiences to hear candid discussions between Hitchcock and Truffaut and to witness, first- hand, this quintessential moment in cinematic history.

  • Big B to open Indian Film Festival in Melbourne next month

    Big B to open Indian Film Festival in Melbourne next month

    NEW DELHI: Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bchchan, whose latest film ‘Bhootnath Returns’ was released this week, is to open the Indian Film Festival Melbourne 2014 on 1 May.

     

    The 2014 festival programme was launched in Melbourne by Louise Asher, Australian Minister for Innovation, Tourism and Major Events and Employment and Trade, and Bollywood diva and Festival Ambassador Vidya Balan. The Festival CEO Mitu Bhowmick Lange was also present.

     

    According to Asher, Bachchan is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of Indian cinema. So total was his dominance of the movie scene in the 1970s and 1980s that the French director Francois Truffaut called him a “one-man industry”.

     

    Addressing media persons, Asher said that the festival will be held from 1 to 11 May and feature over 40 films, with more than half being Australian premieres. “Films will be shown in 20 languages and we will have five free screenings at Federation Square,” Asher said. “Victorians and all visitors to Melbourne are in for a treat of Indian films this year.

     

    “It will be an honour to have Bachchan here, just a year after he opened the Cannes Film Festival with his Great Gatsby co-star, Leonardo DiCaprio,” Asher said.

     

    “In response to community feedback, the festival has also added to the programme an exciting new section called New Voices, which will feature six films from first time filmmakers,” Asher said. 

     

    Other industry guests include Konkona Sen Sharma, Vijay Krishna Acharya (director of Dhoom 3), Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra (director of Bhaag Milkha Bhaag), Hassan Waqas Rana and  Shaan Shahid (producer and star respectively of Waar, Pakistan’s highest-grossing box office hit of all time), and South Indian actor-producer Suhasini Maniratnam.

     

    Asher said this year’s festival would see the return of Festival favourites, such as the interactive master classes, Western Union Short Film competition and the Telstra Bollywood Dance Competition, to be judged by the incredible actor/producer Malaika Arora Khan, a judge on TV show India’s Got Talent.

     

    Asher said “Balan is a great friend of Victoria, and known for her roles portraying strong female protagonists. She launched the 2012 and 2013 Festivals and it is an honour and a pleasure to have her back this year.”

     

    She added: “The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne brings prominent Indian filmmakers and screen professionals to Melbourne, helps promote Victoria as an international screen production destination, and provides opportunities todevelop Victorian and Indian screen partnerships.”

     

    Balan said she felt at home in Melbourne and would come back again with her husband soon. She thanked the Victorian government for supporting the IFFM 2014 and she considered the festival as a personal achievement.

     

    IFFM Festival director Lange said the 2014 IFFM would be the most exciting and ambitious festival yet. “We could not have asked for a better chief guest than the patriarch of Indian cinema and one of the most iconic Indians of all times, Amitabh Bachchan, to open the festival on 1 May.”

     

    “The inaugural IFFM Awards takes the festival to a new level and we are all very excited to see who the winners will be. I hope you will all join in with your friends and family to celebrate the magic of cinema!,” Lange ended.