[screenings] All We Need Is Love (June 20,21,22)

You say "potato," I say "patattah"
You say "tomato", I say "creole tomata"

- `Let's call This Whole Thing Off'
George and Ira Gershwin


He forgets to run his fingers through his hair which he does as a habit every once a minute. She closes her copy of `Kala Ghoda Poems' forgetting where she was last and to slide in the bookmark. The bookmark slips from between the pages and floats onto the tarmac. He walks towards her and she towards him. In complete silence.

An ugly silver colored sedan runs over the bookmark with its surly bullying wheels. It honks with rabid dog vulgarity and other cars like so many dogs, reciprocate. This time of the night the city is all neon and noise. People talking, hollering, laughing, screaming. Stock Market, Cricket, Some joke you didn't hear. Stereos blare. Helter Skelter, Shout Shout (Let it All Out). Someone says aloud, "The Godforsaken Traffic" and honks three times in a row. Crackers explode. Someone just won a match. A wedding band joins in and kicks up a brass version of "Onde Ondu Sari".

He walks towards her and she towards him. In complete silence. In the middle of a teeming screaming city. He towards her and she towards him. In complete ignorance. In the middle of a strange city, as unfamiliar to them as they are to each other. Yet they come closer. Maybe they speak in different tongues. Maybe he likes Dylan, she likes Asha Bhonsle. Maybe all they have in common is the silence. In the middle of a teeming screaming city.

The beat that the heart skipped. That minute when the eyes forgot to blink. Complete Silence.

They meet each other at the exact centre.

And the band begins to play that ol' Kishore hit,".... aur Punjabi Main Kehte Hain…."

Bangalore Film Society completely endorses what The Beatles had in mind when they said `All We Need is Love' and is proud to present three intimate stories of love unspoken, deep and cathartic.

Friday 20th June, 2008 Time: 6.30pm

A Year of the Quiet Sun (1984/106min) Dir: Krzysztof Zanussi



A Year of the Quiet Sun, regarded as Polish master Zanussi's greatest and most powerful work is a tender tragic love story set in a small German town now reeling under the post World War II upheaval. The movie chronicles the awkward courtship between a disillusioned American soldier posted in the town and a native woman who has been deeply stricken by the war. Language is no barrier for their love but much as they try the past, the dead landscape and their responsibilities will take their toll and remind them of the space between. Winner of the Gold Lion at Venice 84'.

(KINDLY NOTE THAT THE FILM ON SATURDAY WILL BEGIN AT 6.45pm DUE TO UNAVOIDABLE CIRCUMSTANCES)

Saturday 21st June, 2008 Time: 6.45pm

Last Life in the Universe (2003/109min) Dir: Pen Ek-Ratanaruang



Directed with relentlessly inventive virtuosity by Director Ratanaruang and lensed in ethereal shades of white and blue by ace cinematographer Christopher Doyle, `Last Life in the Universe' is a hip and beguiling movie about love, death and redemption. Inspired by the hypnotic dimensions of M.C. Escher's work, Ratanaruang plays out a tragic-comedy about lost souls trying to connect in sterile world where violence and the past is always around the corner and where the only hope and redemption is in intimacy and connection. Featuring a quietly powerful performance by Japanese star Tadanobu Asano and an electric cameo by cult film director Takashi Miike, `Last Life in the Universe' was awarded the Upstream Prize at Venice 2003.

Sunday 22nd June, 2008 Time: 6.30pm

The Girl on the Bridge (1999/90min) Dir: Patrice Leconte



Adele (played by the striking Vanessa Paradis) jumps off the bridge into the River Seine. Time did not bid her well and left her alone and miserable. But she is rescued just in time by Gabor (a fantastic Daniel Auteuil) who is looking for a new assistant for his knife throwing act. Director Patrice Leconte takes a by-the-two-penny torrid love story and turns it into an exotic mysterious tale of passionate love and intimate connections. Jean-Marie Drejou`s remarkable black and white frames lend an old world carnival atmosphere and Director Leconte infuses wit and eccentricity to the passion play bringing the film its strange joie de vivre.
Venue: Ashirvad, 30, St. Mark's Road cross, Op. State Bank of India

Tel: 2549 2774/ 2549 3705/ 9886213516

ADMISSION FOR MEMBERS ONLY. NON-MEMBERS ARE REQUESTED TO ARRIVE 15 MINS EARLY AND REGISTER.
(Members whose membership has expired are requested to kindly renew their membership.)

[screenings] 1968 (May 23, 24,25)

`This machine kills fascists'

- Woody Guthrie's Guitar Sticker

They like to say – it began in the cinemas. The facts can be debated but the notion is head-over-heels romantic. Quite like- what if Humphrey Bogart ran into Ingrid Bergman in a shopping market alley and not a gin joint over in Casablanca. Which one would you prefer to think of?

It began in the cinemas. It poured out over the barricades. It sloganeered. It rioted. It screamed. It was anarchy. And everybody was going to be released, redeemed. Another romantic notion. But when you light a femme fatale's cigarette and drawl," I traveled 9000 miles to give you a light", you're not really counting the miles.

Everybody was going to be released, redeemed. Could it be achieved? Did everyone really want to be released? Was it lost or was it won? And if so, who lost and who one? When Hunter S Thompson looked out his Las Vegas window and saw the high water mark where the glorious wave broke, did it leave a lasting scar on the shores before it rolled back?

To call the May of 1968 `turbulent' would be an understatement. Tom Wolfe would later describe all of it as `pandemonium with a big grin on'. How much was its success and how much of it failed is a matter of debate. But all who walked out the cinema and on to the barricades have one thing to say- `It was a great time to be alive. It was a great time to be young'.



On its 40th Anniversary of '1968', Bangalore Film Society would like to say,"Cheers"


now dig this….


Friday 23rd May, 2008 Time: 6.30pm





Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962) Dir: Agnes Varda

"Boredom is counterrevolutionary"

- 1968 slogan

Director Agnes Varda's first feature length tour de force follows a young pop singer across the streets of Paris from 5 to 7 as she awaits the results of her cancer biopsy. Spontaneous, free-wheeling, sparkling, existential, meditating on mortality and despair, featuring cameos from Godard, Anna Karina and Michel Legrand `Cleo from 5 to 7' announced Varda as one of the most influential directors of the French New Wave and was Nominated for the Palm D'Or at Cannes 62'.



Saturday 24th May, 2008 Time: 6.30pm




Masculin, Feminin (1966) Dir: Jean Luc-Godard

"I love you! Oh, Say it with paving stones"

- 1968 slogan

A film that almost foresaw the spirit of May 68, Godard's iconic `Masculin, Feminin' loosely based on the short stories of Guy de Maupassant, is a series of vignettes that serve as a time capsule of the zeitgeist of the 60s. Bob Dylan, Charlie Parker, Vietnam, Music Stores, Soda Pop, Protests, Revolutions, Instant Photos, Coffee, One Man, One Woman, and an Ocean of Blood, Bridgette Bardot, Swedish art films. Starring Jean-Pierre Leaud as Paul, a young idealist and literary wannabe who falls in love with a pop singer, Godard's `Masculin, Feminin' is a chronicle of the life and love and disillusion and ecstasy of `The Children of Marx and Coca Cola'. Nominated for Golden Bear at Berlin 66'.



Sunday 25th May, 2008 Time: 6.30pm




My Night at Maud's (1969) Dir: Eric Rohmer

"Arise, you wretched of the University"

- 1968 slogan

Auteur Rohmer's third of his `Six Moral Tales' follows three individuals- Jean-Louis- a devout catholic and engineer, Vidal- a philosophy professor and Maud- a rebellious and charming divorcee and their conversations as they reflect on morality and philosophy. `My Night at Maud's' is regarded as a mile-stone in Rohmer's long and highly esteemed career and its highly convoluted, stylized and loopy dialogue was honored and given an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay and Best Foreign Film. It was also nominated for the Palm D' Or at Cannes 69'.



Venue: Ashirvad, 30, St. Mark's Road cross, Op. State Bank of India

Tel: 2549 2774/ 2549 3705

ADMISSION FOR MEMBERS ONLY. NON-MEMBERS ARE REQUESTED TO ARRIVE 15 MINS EARLY AND REGISTER.
(Members whose membership has expired are requested to kindly renew their membership.)