Authors — Kaleem Aftab
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Marrakech International Film Festival 2013
In his role as Jury President of the Marrakech International Film Festival, Martin Scorsese described the method that he and his fellow jurors would apply when watching films: “We will not be like critics,” he said. “We love films too much.” The stars were out in full force at the Marrakech International Film Festival. The names accompanying The Wolf of Wall Street director on judging duty would have graced Cannes. The list included actresses Marion Cotillard, Patricia Clarkson and Golshifteh Farahani and directors Paolo Sorrentino, Fatih Akin, Park Chan-Wook, Amat Escalante, Narjiss Nejjar and Anurag Kashyap. The prize for best film went […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Dec 11, 2013 -
James Gray Blasts Film Critic Peter Bradshaw Over Immigrant Review (and Bradshaw Responds)
At the Marrakech International Film Festival, American director James Gray fired a broadside at British critics who reviewed his new film, The Immigrant, out of the Cannes Film Festival, singling out the much-respected and acclaimed film critic of The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw. Speaking to a group of international journalists on a roundtable he called The Guardian review, “The dumbest review I’ve ever read.” Without referring to Bradshaw by name, but citing the review extensively, he called Bradshaw, “a failure as a critic,” and “corrupt.” Gray turned on British critics when he was asked by Finnish journalist Kalle Kinnunen about the […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Dec 5, 2013 -
Rome Film Festival 2013
Marco Müller, in his second year at the helm of the Rome International Film Festival, abandoned his insistence on all films being world premieres, but not the ability to program average films. The main reason for the change of tact seems to be to allow higher profile American films to be programmed in competition. The beneficiaries this year were Dallas Buyers Club and Her which were rewarded for their Italian voyage with awards for their actors: Matthew McConaughey has been winning plaudits everywhere for his turn as a drug-peddling carrier of HIV, while one suspects that the competition jury had […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Nov 19, 2013 -
Introducing 8K: The Final Frontier?
Keeping apace with camera technology is like running a race where the finish line keeps on moving. Just as the next generation of games consoles go on sale boasting the ability to display 4K images (although for the moment only those with the salary of a pro-footballer can afford screens able to make use of all those pixels) Japanese broadcaster NHK has started to film and broadcast events in 8K. NHK are so excited about the technology that they have commissioned filmmakers to make short films showcasing 8K, which were screened at the recent Tokyo International Film Festival. I went […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Nov 13, 2013 -
In Transition: Tokyo International Film Festival 2013
The Tokyo International Film Festival is having something of an identity crisis. This year saw the arrival of Yasushi Shiina as the festival’s Director General. He acknowledged that the festival faced a list of problems. Chief amongst them is that despite it being the 26th year of the event, it hardly registers a blip on the overcrowded film festival calendar. “What I think is my job is that we tell the world that the Tokyo Film Festival exists in Japan and we let the world know that,” Shiina said. “We don’t want to be isolated.” He cited a number of problems […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Oct 28, 2013 -
Introducing Screen X, Cinema in 270 Degrees
The Busan International Film Festival saw the launch of Screen X, a cinema technology that promises to offer audiences an immersive cinematic experience without the need to wear glasses. The South Korean company behind the technology, CJ CGV Screen X, owns the CGV cinema chain and currently operates one American location in Los Angeles. To showcase the technology, CJ CGV Screen X commissioned The Good, The Bad, The Weird director Kim Jee-Woon to make The X. Ostensibly a spy thriller, it’s really just an excuse to show off the technology that augments the action on screen, by projecting images onto […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Oct 17, 2013 -
“I’m Envisaging a New Kind of Movie:” SFX Legend Douglas Trumbull on Kubrick, Malick and the Future of Film
Douglas Trumbull has been behind some of cinemas most spectacular special effects. His impressive C.V. includes working on 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Blade Runner and most recently Tree of Life. He also directed Silent Running in 1972 and Brainstorm in 1983, most remembered as the final film appearance of Natalie Wood. He has also been one of cinema’s great pioneers, always pushing technology to its limit, whether that be designing films for World Fairs, making rides for Universal and Luxor Hotels, or simply backing new technologies such as IMAX. Never standing still, the self-proclaimed […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Aug 28, 2013 -
Rome Film Festival 2012
Everyone knows Rome wasn’t built in a day. So to expect the former Venice Film Festival artistic director Marco Mueller to transform the fortunes of Rome’s film fest within eight months of taking the job would have been unfair. The event this year was about building foundation stones for the future, shaping an event and identity that would have the film world believing that all roads lead to Rome. It’s the seventh year that the Eternal City has been hosting a film festival and the hope that it would become the leading festival in Europe’s packed autumn festival season has […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Nov 16, 2012 -
Cannes 2012 pt. 2
The incongruity of Michael Haneke winning the Palme d’Or for the second time in four years was that his film featured two veteran actors, Jean-Louis Trintignant and Emmanuelle Riva, in a year that may well be remembered for introducing us to several new talents. The common denominator of the films that opened the official competition, Un Certain Regard and Directors’ Fortnight, was that only the parents and school friends of the young actors would have heard of the leads before they became the darlings of the Croisette. Moonrise Kingdom’s Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward, as well as Broken’s Eloise Laurence, […]
by Kaleem Aftab on Jul 19, 2012
