Authors — Kaleem Aftab
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Glory at Sea: Mike Leigh on Mr. Turner
Within a career that’s now in its fifth decade, Mr. Turner is only the third period film Mike Leigh has made, but, ironically, it’s the first he’s shot digitally. The picture captures the last 25 years of revered British painter J.M.W. Turner’s life — already famous, his days are filled with awkward visits from an ex-wife and daughters, confrontations with both artistic rivals and lesser painters, and the salon visits that constitute the business of being an artist in the mid-1800s. Timothy Spall deservedly won the Best Actor prize at Cannes for his turn as the eccentric Turner, who walks […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Oct 20, 2014 -
Of Prisons and Premieres: The Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival
Away from the top A-list festivals, film festivals generally fall into one of two categories: they either aim to be public festivals and get bums on seats, or in rare cases they try to encourage and develop local filmmakers. Sometimes, like those in the Middle East enclaves of Abu Dhabi and Doha, they have started off as a public festivals and — when the response from the international media or local audiences is not as hoped for — have changed tacks and moved their focus to developing local talent. The Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival is focused on developing Caribbean talent. […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Sep 25, 2014 -
Fact or Fiction: The Toronto International Film Festival
If The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is to be judged on the world premieres it attracts, this edition of the festival was far from vintage. Artistic Director Cameron Bailey signaled a change in policy this year when he declared that no film playing at Telluride would be allowed to debut in Canada until after the all-important first weekend. He even broke with tradition by declaring the exact status of films playing at TIFF, and, since the program is announced before Telluride reveals its line-up, anyone that cared would know many of the films that would be playing at Telluride […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Sep 18, 2014 -
“Cinema Needs Good Images”: An Interview with Cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond
Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC was given the “Pierre Angénieux Excellens in Cinematography” award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. It was a fitting tribute to the 83-year-old director of photography, who chronicled the events of the 1956 Hungarian revolution before leaving his country soon afterwards. In 1962 he became a naturalized citizen of the United States, settling in Los Angeles. During the ’70s Zsigmond established himself as one of the world’s great cinematographers, working on Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller and The Long Goodbye, John Boorman’s Deliverance, and Steven Spielberg’s The Sugarland Express and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, […]
by Kaleem Aftab on May 29, 2014 -
Instant History: Fukushima and Tahrir Square On-screen
The 24-hour news culture of immediate reaction, Internet-enabled connectivity (from emails to Twitter) and the so-called “now generation” have impacted the way the filmmaking community reacts to real-life disasters, not always positively. After 9/11, the question was asked: How much time must pass before filmmakers can deal with such a destructive event? Films featuring terrorist activity, such as Collateral Damage, had their releases postponed to avoid offending sensibilities, while Sam Raimi deleted a Spider-Man shot of the Twin Towers. But other filmmakers raced to include, not exclude, 9/11. Spike Lee altered David Benioff’s script for 25th Hour to include a […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Apr 28, 2014 -
Locke Director Steven Knight and Buried Director Rodrigo Cortés with Eight Tips on Directing a One-Man Movie
Opening today in theaters, Steven Knight’s Locke has been winning plaudits since it premiered last year at the Venice Film Festival. Giving a bravura performance, Tom Hardy plays father of two, Ivan Locke, a project manager dealing with stress in both his personal life and at work whilst on a drive to London along the motorway. The whole film takes place during the car journey in which Locke makes and receives phone calls to his wife, a friend in London and a work colleague. The construction job, use of a mobile phone and the fact that just one actor is […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Apr 25, 2014 -
The Changing Face of Scheduling: Boyhood, 52 Tuesdays, The Turning and Highway
Four films that played at the Berlin Film Festival highlighted how directors are using modern technology to completely change the way in which productions are being put together and scheduled. Both 52 Tuesdays and Boyhood were shot intermittently over a long period of time. The Turning had 17 different shoots running concurrently throughout Australia, while the Bollywood film Highway decided where to travel to next and shoot scenes on a day-by-day basis. What marks these productions out from any number of other low-budget independent films is that their directors believed a non-traditional production schedule would result in a better end-product. Rather […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Feb 28, 2014 -
Berlinale 2014: A.J. Edwards on The Better Angels and Terrence Malick
Watch any sequence of A.J. Edwards’ poetic The Better Angels and the influence of executive producer Terrence Malick is abundantly clear. Edwards’ relationship with the Days of Heaven director started in 2005 when he worked as co-cinematographer on the documentary The Making of The New World as well as co-editor on The New World. Subsequently, he was second unit director and co-director on The Tree of Life, To the Wonder and the upcoming Knight of Cups, starring Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale and Natalie Portman, which Edwards reveals is definitely coming out this year. Thierry Frémaux must be doing cartwheels. The Better Angels, about the early life of Abraham Lincoln, started life as a Malick […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Feb 18, 2014 -
Freezing Filmgoing in Tromsø and the Phenomenon of Site-Specific Cinema
The Tromsø International Film Festival has always pushed the boundary when it comes to open-air cinema. The only international film festival that takes place in the Arctic Circle has a Winter Cinema, an open-air cinema with sofas positioned on top of the snow in front of a large screen with picturesque hilltops on the horizon. Most of the program is made up of short films made for children that play in the dark afternoons, but this year Festival Director Martha Otto put on a late-night screening of Dead Snow to boot. It added a new challenge for the audience, to […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Feb 5, 2014 -
Nymphomaniac: Lars von Trier Up to His Old Tricks
This review of Nymphomaniac is based on seeing both films back-to-back with a 25-minute interval, whereas it will be released theatrically in the U.S. in two parts, Volume 1 in March, and Volume 2 in April. As such, this review will try to take the two films as separate entities. I have tried to write them without containing spoilers, but some I fear, are inevitable. Nymphomaniac: Volume 1 Nymphomaniac arrives on the back of one of the best marketing campaigns in years. The first “() Opening Soon” poster was on its own pretty special, but it was trumped by the series of posters […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Dec 18, 2013
