EUROPEAN FILM FESTIVAL

EUROPEAN FILM FESTIVAL

AT

ADHYAPAKA BHAVAN

KARIKKAMURI CROSS ROAD

ERNAKULAM

***

15.05.2008

6.30 PM

SATYRICON

***

Fellini - Satyricon (1969)
Runtime: 2 hrs 11 mins
Director: Federico Fellini
Writing credits
Petronius (book. "Satyricon")
Federico Fellini (writer) &
Bernardino Zapponi (writer)
Brunello Rondi (additional screenplay)

Cast
Martin Potter
Hiram Keller
Max Born
Salvo Randone
Mario Romagnoli
Magali Noël
Capucine
Alain Cuny
Fanfulla
Danika La Loggia
Giuseppe Sanvitale

‘Satyricon,’ (‘Fellini Satyricon’) is a 1969 Italian film by Federico Fellini. It is loosely based on the Petronius novel Satyricon, a series of bawdy and satirical episodes written during the reign of the emperor Nero and set in imperial Rome.

Petronius's original text survives only in fragments. While recuperating from a debilitating illness in 1967, Fellini reread Petronius and was fascinated by the missing parts, the large gaps between one episode and the next. The text's fragmentary nature encouraged him to go beyond the traditional approach of recreating the past in film: the key to a visionary cinematic adaptation lay in narrative techniques of the dream state that exploited the dream's imminent qualities of mystery, enigma, immorality, outlandishness, and contradiction.

Though the two protagonists, Encolpius (Martin Potter) and Ascilto (Hiram Keller), reappear throughout, the characters and locations surrounding them change unexpectedly. This intentional technique of fragmentation conveys Fellini's view of both the original text and the nature of history itself, and is echoed visually in the film's final shot of a ruined villa whose walls, painted with frescoes of the scenes we have just seen, are crumbling, fading and incomplete. Fellini's interest in Carl Jung's theory of the collective unconscious is also on display with an abundance of archetypes in highly dreamlike settings.

A year prior to the release of the film another ‘Satyricon,’ film (directed by Gian Luigi Polidoro) was already released, hence the addition of "Fellini" to the title.

***

16.05.2008

6.30 PM

PUNARAKHYANAM

(MAL/DOC./SPECIAL SCREENING)

PUNARAKHYANAM ( THE RETELLING )

( Documentary / 30mts / India /2007 / Malayalam )

Script & Direction : Madhu Eravankara

Synopsis
Sex-work is not a sin. For many it is just like another profession. But they live as outcasts and naturally end up in streets. In Moovattupuzha, a small Municipal town in Central Kerala, an organization, Swaruma, took initiative to mobilize sex workers primarily to make them aware of AIDS. As they worked together, some of them felt the need to give up their despised present and rewrite a life anew. Moovattupuzha Municipality rose to the occasion and helped them with a laundry unit set up in the Taluk Hospital. At least ten of them formed a group and got along with the project to eke out a living. To augment their meager income the Municipality came forward again to offer them a unit as part of Clean Kerala Project. It was a metamorphosis for them as now they earned their bread through their dignified toil.

'Punarakhyanam,' ( The Retelling ) portrays the story of triumph of these empowered women , who melted into mainstream regaining the lost glory of womanhood.

Credits
Script& Direction. MADHU ERAVANKARA
Produced by MAGIC LANTERN
Co-production THOMAS DAVID (USA ) JOHNS ( KSA)
Cinematography M.J.RADHAKRISHNAN Editing VIJAYAKUMAR
Music CHANDRAN PARIS Sound HARIKUMAR ( Chitranjali )

Festivals
2nd Hyderabad International Film Festival-2008
National Short & Documentary Film Festival-2008, KarimNagar, AP
2nd Montage International Film Festival-2008, Manjeri, Kerala
Filca International Film Festival-2008, Thiruvananthapuram
Ist International Video Film Festival of Kerala-2008, Thiruvananthapuram


Print Source
MAGIC LANTERN, MEGHANA, ERAVANKARA.P.O, MAVELIKARA
KERALA STATE- 690108
INDIA
Phone. +91-479-2305024
Mob. +91 –9447802075
Fax. +91-468-2325223
E-mail. eravankara@gmail.com

Madhu Eravankara

Madhu Eravankara is an internationally acclaimed film director, film critic and writer.

He was the member of jury in Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF) – 2003 (International & National Section ), International Documentary Film festival-2005, Yamagata, Japan, Brisbane International Film Festival-2006, Brisbane, Australia and the 27th International Istanbul Film Festival-2008, Turkey (as FIPRESCI Jury).

He has directed the feature film ‘Nankooram,’ and fifteen other documentaries including ‘Nishadam,’ (IFFK-2004, CFF-2004, DFF-2004 & BIFF- 2005) and ‘Victims of Silence,’ ( Eritrea ) that have received local and international acclaim. He is the recipient of President's Gold Medal & National Film Award (1999), State Film Awards ( 1999 & 2003) and Film Critics Awards ( 2000, 2002 & 2003). He has also been awarded a Senior Fellowship for Outstanding Artists, from the Indian Government’s Department of Culture, to research on Indian Literature and Cinema and a Fellowship from National Film Archive of India to research on Malayalam Literature and Cinema.

‘Snanaghatangal,’ ( Stories), ‘Malayala Cinemayum Sahityavum,’ ( Film Study), ‘Alivinte Mandarangal,’ ( Film studies ), ‘Shalabhayatrakal,’ ( Travel ) & ‘Samskaram,’ ‘Yukti,’ ‘Samooham,’ (Amartya Sen Translation ) are the books to his credit.

A regular contributor to the Malayalam Press as well as to National and International publications, Madhu Eravankara also serves as a Faculty in Film, in many of the State and National institutions.

He is a member of the International Film Critics Federation (FIPRESCI), Panel Director of Kerala State Film Development Corporation ( KSFDC) and Director Board Member of Kerala State Encyclopaedic Institute.

Hailing from Eravankara in Alappuzha district, he is at present the Head of the Department of Chemistry at the Catholicate College, Pathanamthitta.

***

16.05.2008

7.00 PM

THE TIT AND THE MOON

/ Teta i la lluna, La (1994)
Director: Bigas Luna
Stars: Biel Durán, Mathilda May, Gérard Damon, Miguel Poveda, Laura Maña

Review
The Tit and the Moon is a 1994, Spanish /French film, directed by Bigas Luna.

For a movie with such a blatant mammary fixation, Bigas Luna’s fable surprisingly isn’t crass but charming. It’s the Catalonian director’s most engaging film, drawing upon his own childhood and personal symbolism. Little Tete (Biel Durán) is annoyed since a new baby brother means he can no longer suckle at his mother’s breast. He fixates upon amble-bosomed, new arrival Estrellita (Mathilda May), a ballet dancer with the travelling circus, and fantasises about her breasts squirting milk straight into his mouth. Tete’s pre-adolescent yearning for Estrellita is hindered by her marriage to Maurice (Gérard Damon), “the Flame King” with legendary farting prowess. Worse, Tete’s friend Miguel (Miguel Poveda) falls madly in love with her too.

A gentle, dreamlike story, beautifully shot in soft pink, blue and golden hues, the film tackles the delicate subject of a child’s burgeoning curiosity about sex. Its rambling, episodic narrative befits the daydreaming hero, with frequent bursts of playful fantasy: Tete imagining himself an astronaut, his dad as a Roman centurion, and women gleefully offering their breasts. The subject matter might trouble some, but Luna and his characters display tolerance and understanding. Luna continues his satirical swipes at Latin machismo. Indeed this is his most wide reaching satire of Catalonian culture. “Show some balls”, is Tete’s father’s constant refrain. The emphasis small town traditions place on masculinity is slyly sent up. For Luna overtly macho behaviour masks men’s powerlessness before feminine sexuality, driving their neurotic need to posses women utterly. Poor, lovelorn Miguel is a playful send-up of the Latin lover. He woos Estrellita with traditional love songs, competing with Maurice blasting records of Edith Piaf. A hilarious scene that becomes rather moving because Miguel Poveda (an accomplished singer) performs so sincerely.

Thankfully, Luna doesn’t reduce Estrellita to a pair of breasts. Though beloved by bad movie aficionados for her naked space vampire in Tobe Hooper’s Lifeforce (1985), this is Mathilda May’s finest performance. She touches each male character in different ways, captivating as lover, surrogate mother and spouse. Her ballet sequences (May is a classically trained dancer in real life), set to Nicola Piovani’s lovely score are magical highlights. Quirky in her own right, Estrellita is turned on by Maurice’s spectacular farts and collects men’s tears. Like Luis Buñuel, Luna accepts weird kinks as part of human nature. There is a touch of Federico Fellini about the provincial setting, cartoon characters and fantastical flourishes, but touching performances (including future director Laura Maña as Tete’s mother) and generosity of spirit prevent them becoming simple grotesques.

The moon represents desire, love’s young dream, something to reach for, to spur you on towards maturity. In the end it’s love, pure and simple, that everyone yearns for and each character finds some aspect of it by the fadeout. It says something about Luna’s humanity and makes this strange, funny, enlightening fable a wholly beguiling experience.
(Reviewer: Andrew Pragasam)

***

17.05.2008

6.30 PM

BLACK CAT, WHITE CAT.

Directed by Emir Kusturica
Written by Emir Kusturica, Gordan Mihić
Starring Bajram Severdžan,Srđan Todorović,Florijan Ajdini,Branka Katić
Music by Nele Karajlić, Voja Aralica,Dejo Sparavalo
Cinematography Thierry Abrogate
Editing by Sveltely Zach
Running time 135 min
Country France/ Germany/ Yugoslavia
Language Romany/Bulgarian/German//Serbian/Italian

‘Black Cat, White Cat,’ is a Yugoslavian Romantic comedy film directed by Emir Kusturica in 1998. It won the Silver Lion for best direction at the Venice Film Festival.

The literal translation of the title is actually ‘Black cat, white tomcat.’ The movie characters speak in Romani, Serbian and Bulgarian - frequently switching between them.

Synopsis: Matko is a small time hustler, living by the Danube with his 17 year old son Zare. After a failed business deal he owes money to the much more successful gangster Dadan. Dadan has a sister, Afrodita, that he desperately wants to see get married so they strike a deal: Zare is to marry her. But none of the two care much for an arranged marriage: Zare is in love with Ida, Afrodita is waiting for the man of her dreams…