iffk3.JPGNew Theater, Second show, unknown movie, Houseful ““ with regular appalause.When was the last time you saw New Theatre houseful? IFFK 13th edition rocks! so does Trivandrum.

Charlie and the chocolate factory

The sad part about IFFK is that there are around 180 good movies landing in the city and however you plan, you can watch at the max 25 of them. Again the question is whether you can watch 4 movies back to back. Yesterday after watching  on the Kurdish culture caught in the cross fire, I couldn’t get myself to watch another movie despite some good ones to pick. As somebody in the inebriated media contingent, sitting right behind me, remarked today ““ if you plan to watch 4 indie flicks a day, make sure you sleep through atleast one of them. All these movies are heavy stuff man, really heavy stuff. I’m not sure if these movies are good for health. Personally I have stopped answering whether I got the movie or not. What I get is the movie. The irony can’t be put in a better way ““ Charlie and the chocolate factory.

Even then I hated “Half Moon” for its disturbing and heavy nature. The movie talks about an old, famous Kurdish musician who tries to travel with his sons from Iran to Iraq to perform in a concert. While the movie is essentially a tragic bus trip, it reveals the plight of the Kurds who are equally hated in Iraq, Iran and Turkey, and also have to deal with the Americans who fire on anything that moves ïÅ  Yeah the sad state of women in parts of the Middle East, now tell us about that. “Half Moon” ““ heavy, tiring, a godforsaken land and its inhabitants.

Hiroshima My Love

If there is anyone out there who questions why old movies should be screened at IFFK, this 1959 French New Wave movie from Alan Resnais is the answer. I loved it, an all time classic! The movie is about a brief affair (24-48 hrs) between a French lady and a Japanese man. The story initially revolves around Hiroshima, and the two lovers who are having an extra-marital nightstand. The French lady talks about her first love during WWII, who happens to be a soldier in the occupying German contingent. The German gets killed by the French resistance, and on a day of rejoice for the French ““ she turns mad. After nailing the futility of national identity, the movie moves on to the philosophical and intimate side of love and promises one makes to oneself. There is a happy ending. Alan Resnais’s Hiroshima Mon Amour ““ the intellectual’s Casablanca!

(They say Coen brother’s Miller’s Crossing is the intellectual’s crime movie ““ God knows why)

iffk2008.JPG

Competition Movies

Watched (only one) The Yellow House ““ La Maison Jaune’s Arabic flick based in Algeria. It’s a simple movie like our Kadha Parayumbol. It’s about a husband’s efforts to bring his wife out of depression. He paints the house yellow. These days to win the Golden Pheasant you have to paint it pink. The Yellow House ““ It doesn’t suck as much as the yellow house we had back in school, but who selects the competition movies?

Get close with the media hawks (“ËœParunthu’ ““ taking a leaf out of VKN) after they get completely sloshed and all they tell you is which super famous she delegate threw a beer bottle at a waiter in Horizon, and the who’s ho in these eight days ïÅ  I’m plain wicked.