F.i.g.h.t C.l.u.b

Mumbai Film Festival has unveiled its complete line-up. This is where the confusion starts – what to watch and what to skip. And so here we are going to help you out. This is the first post in this film recco series where we look at the films in the World Cinema section.

WORLD CINEMA

1) Love (Amour) – First reason : Michael Haneke. 2nd reason : Cannes Palme d’Or Winner. 3rd Reason – 5 star review by Peter Bradshaw.

2) Stories We Tell – Filmmaker Sarah Polley puts the camera on her family members as they look back in this documentary film and family secrets come out of the closet. Venice, Telluride, Toronto. Another 5 star  review by Peter Bradshaw. Do read.

3) Reality – By Matteo Garrone, the director of Gomorrah. Eough? Was in Cannes competition where it won the Grand Prix. Though the opinion was divided on this one, Indiewire called it a horrific spin on ‘Big Brother’ obsessions.

4) Beyond The Hills – 1st reason : From Cristian Mungiu, the director of 4 Months, 3Weeks, 2 Days. 2nd/3rd Reason : Premiered at Cannes where Mungiu won the award for Best Screenplay, and Flutur and Stratan shared the award for Best Actress. And 4 stars by Bradshaw. (Have we quoted too much of PB? Oh, we love him)

5) Gebo And The Shadow (Gebo et l’ombre) – At 103, Manoel de Oliveira is still making films. He is the oldest living and working filmmaker of our time. Doesn’t it count as rarest of rare case? More about the film here.

6) On The Road – Walter Salles’ film based on the Jack Kerouac cult classic novel of the same name.  The story is based on the years Kerouac spent travelling the United States in the 1940s with his friend Neal Cassady and several other figures who would go on to fame in their own right, including William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. (from wiki) Though the reviews have been mixed, it was in competition at Cannes.

7) Snow White (Blancanieves) – The film is intended to be an homage to 1920s European silent films and seems quite delicious. Read more about it here.

8) 7 Days In Havana – One week in Cuban capital Havana. 7 segments. By 7 filmmakers – Julio Médem, Laurent Cantet, Juan Carlos Tabío, Benicio del Toro, Gaspar Noé, Pablo Trapero and Elia Suleiman. Not great reviews so far but wouldn’t you want to watch Emir Kusturica on screen? See the trailer here.

9) Children Of Sarajevo (Djeca) – It competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the Cannes where it won the Special Distinction award. Selected as the Bosnian entry for the Best Foreign Language at Oscar. Bradshaw described it as “strange, haunting film, the Bosnian war keeps bubbling up from where it has been buried”. More info on TIFF page.

10) After Lucia (Después de Lucía) – Competed in the Cannes Un Certain Regard section where it won the top prize. Also selected as the Mexican entry for the Best Foreign Language Oscar. More about it here (wiki).

11) Robot & Frank – sounds like a delicious plot – Set in the near future, it focuses on Frank, an aging jewel thief played by Frank Langella, whose son buys him a caretaker robot. Resistant at first, Frank warms up to the robot when he realizes he can use it to restart his career as a cat burglar. It won the Alfred P. Sloan Prize at the Sundance Film Festival. Trailer is here.

12) The Angels’ Share – Competed for the Palme d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and Loach won the Jury Prize. Also, Bradshaw’s 4 star review where he calls it “whisky Galore!-influenced comedy”.

13) Antiviral – Brandon Croneberg’s debut film which competed in the Cannes Un Certain Regard section and gives a complete new twist to both its subject – of celebrity obsessed society, and its genre – horror, in which a company harvests diseases from celebrities and injects them into paying clients

14) Cannes Catalogue – Apart from these films, there’s an entire catalogue from Cannes. So if you can’t go to Cannes, the films are all here.

– Like Someone in Love : Abbas Kiarostami’s latest film which was Cannes competition

– Night Across the Street (La noche de enfrente) : screened in the Directors’ Fortnight section. Read more about it here.

– Mystery : From Un certain Regard section. Peter Bradshaw’s 3 star review here

– The Hunt (Jagten) : Cannes competition. 4 star review by PB.

– A Royal Affair (En Kongelig Affære) : Was in Cannes competition

– Renoir  : In Cannes Un certain regard. A review here

– Three Worlds (Trois Mondes) : from Cannes Un Certain

– You Ain’t Seen Nothin’ Yet! (Vous n’avez encore rien vu) – Alain Resnais’ film which was in Cannes Competition. Indiewire review is here.

If we have missed anything that you have seen and you would like to recco, please do let us know in the comments section. For the complete list of films which are being screened at the festival, click here.