Latest news with #CannesClassics
Time of India
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Simi Garewal: I had given up that dream of Cannes long ago
Simi Garewal Simi Garewal recently made her Cannes red carpet debut, more than five decades after shooting Aranyer Din Ratri . The Satyajit Ray classic was restored in 4K and screened at the Cannes Classics section. 'It's something I never dared to hope for! I gave up that dream long ago and for this to suddenly happen now it's more than a dream – it's a gift from the universe,' she says. In a conversation, the veteran actress talks about the film, the roles for women in cinema and more. 'FROM A MODERN, WESTERNISED GIRL, I TRANSFORMED INTO A RUSTIC, UNINHIBITED ADIVASI' Simi played Duli, a tribal woman in the Aranyer Din Ratri (1970) – a role that was far from her real-life image. But Satyajit Ray saw something in her. 'Manik da , so gentle yet intense, led me to portray a character so different to who I am. I mean here was I, a modern, westernised girl transformed into a rustic, uninhibited adivasi ! It doesn't get more challenging than that,' she says. She remembers watching the film again, decades later, and being shocked by how fully she had disappeared into Duli. 'For an actor, it's creative fulfillment to 'become' another person. When I watched the film I couldn't see even a jhalak of Simi anywhere. It was Duli.' She adds, 'I loved the film, the comedy, the slice of life. It looked so natural, so organic. But that's Ray's forte, capturing reality on celluloid.' 'IT SEEMS CINEMA CATERS PRIMARILY TO MALE AUDIENCES' Simi says she has not watched too many recent films. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Protegé a toda tu familia con Verisure Alarmas. ¡30% OFF y Zerovision 100% GRATIS! Alarmas Verisure Ver oferta Undo 'But I will ask – where are the roles for women in cinema?' she questions, adding, 'It's all male-oriented. The female is simply decorative, and always the hero's sidekick. And that's not representative of today's India, where women are strong, independent and achievers in their own right. So, it seems cinema caters primarily to male audiences. The only roles for women are on OTT, and TV, with its serials, caters to women. A gender divide.' 'AT THE MOMENT, I'M WRITING MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY' Simi says that she's currently working on her autobiography. 'At the moment, I'm writing my autobiography. I am writing every single word myself. Nobody else has read it, nor looked over my shoulder while I write. It's between my keyboard and me. It's very personal. I haven't held back. I'm on the last few chapters now, presently on Rendezvous with Simi Garewal . You will read everything about my life in my autobiography – from my childhood in London to my joining films (against great family opposition) Every detail about working with Raj Kapoor, Manik da , my films, my private life, my loves, my marriage – my whole life is written in these pages. ' 'WHITE IS A HAPPY COLOUR FOR ME' Simi chose to wear her signature white at Cannes too. Talking about its significance in her life, the actress says, 'Why white? I feel good when I'm wearing it. Sometimes I put on another colour, yellow or blue, and I immediately take it off because it disturbs my sensibility. White is a happy colour for me,' says Simi. Her thoughts on walking the red carpet? 'I wish Manik da was here to see this...' Check out our list of the latest Hindi , English , Tamil , Telugu , Malayalam , and Kannada movies . Don't miss our picks for the best Hindi movies , best Tamil movies, and best Telugu films .
New Indian Express
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- New Indian Express
Sharmila Tagore Interview: Satyajit Ray's films deal with the follies of humans
Tagore points to a 'complex' aspect in Aranyer Din Ratri, the way it deals with the issue of corruption—the fact that the guys offer bribes to the caretaker to get a place to stay in the forest rest house but are blind to the fact that it's to do as much with his lack of scruples as their own encouragement and facilitation of corruption. 'Ray deals with such fundamental quirks and follies of human beings,' says Tagore, adding, 'The hero in Nayak is treated like God, is mobbed and is under pressure. But there's a human being beneath it all. In Devi, the father-in-law deifies his unlettered daughter-in-law. A victim of his dreams, she loses her mind, feels alienated.' Aranyer Din Ratri was shot in Chhipadohar village in Palamu district in Jharkhand (then Bihar) in April and May. 'It was very hot. Trees were all leafless and had a skeletal look in the film. We would shoot for three hours from 5.30 am to about 9 am and then 3 pm to 6 pm, till the light would be good,' recalls Tagore. 'Rest of the time we chatted, bonded and sang and danced with the Santhals, especially on full moon nights. The boys tried the local drink mohua once and swore never to have it again. It left them with such a bad hangover,' she says. The boys stayed in a tin shed and it was so hot that Rabi Ghosh would call himself Robi Pora or Burnt Robi. She remembers her co-actor Simi Garewal and her sister staying in a bungalow in the next village while she had a tiny 10x8 room of the caretaker to live in. There was an air cooler for her which served well in the dry heat. Aranyer Din Ratri is Ray's eighth film to have been presented at Cannes. Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road), the first of his Apu trilogy, has played at Cannes thrice. It marked his debut in Cannes, was in the In Competition section and won the Best Human Document Award at the 1956 edition of Cannes. It was part of its Special Screenings programme in 1992 and a restored print featured in the Cannes Classics segment in 2005. Just three years back, in 2022, Pratidwandi (The Adversary) was shown in the same Cannes Classics segment, as was Charulata in 2013.
Mint
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Mint
Lounge Loves: A film club, ‘Toward Eternity' and more
There are two titles restored by Film Heritage Foundation in the Cannes Classics selection this year. One is Satyajit Ray's 1970 film with Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore, Aranyer Din Ratri. The other is a lesser-known film, though just as accomplished, only now getting the refurbishing it deserves: Sri Lankan director Sumitra Peries' Gehenu Lamai (1978). This was Peries' debut, but the direction is assured and intimate. Set in a village, this delicate black-and-white film is about the lives of two teenage sisters dealing with the complications of first love and societal pressure. Wasanthi Chathurani, also making her debut, is tremendous as Kusum. I'd seen breadfruit in carts and stalls in Goa, but hadn't tasted it till the personable bartender at Petisco in Panaji, Sherwin, recently suggested it as a pairing for his 'Imli pop', a tangy cocktail made with seasonal urrak, jaggery and a brine spiced with jalapenos and chilli. Breadfruit, like jackfruit of which it is the more elegant cousin, is the new favourite of chefs looking for inventive non-meat substitutes. Its versatile potato-like flavour and bready texture lends itself to all sorts of dishes, including the breadfruit fritters with a salad that Petisco has on its menu. But breadfruit made the shift from 'nice' to true favourite when Sherwin opened up his tiffin box and made us taste his mother's nirponos, or shallow-fried breadfruit lightly coated with rava, which she'd packed for his dinner. Old style hospitality beats fine-dining any day. Writer and translator Anton Hur's debut novel Toward Eternity has been an absolute joy to read. Curing cancer by replacing human cells with inorganic 'nanites' that not only makes the recipient cancer-free but also immortal? An AI trained on Victorian poetry that develops consciousness, and an appreciation for Christina Rossetti? A far future scenario with Biblical undertones? Inject it directly into my veins! I may sound flippant but this is a novel absolutely bursting with ideas. It feels like Hur (who I was delighted to discover was on the panel of judges that has just bestowed the International Booker Prize on Heart Lamp)—could have spun three or four books out of this cornucopia, but somehow they all fit together in one perfect novel. A friend co-runs a movie-screening initiative in Mumbai, @Secret7Cinema on Instagram, and it has become my favourite weekend activity of late. Each session begins with two iconic films pitched against each other. Everyone in the room gets 1-2 minutes to present their case—why this film, why now—and then we vote. The majority gets to decide if they want to flip a coin, otherwise, the losing team sits through the winning title. Last week, it was a fight between two Sanjay Dutt anti-hero flicks, Khalnayak and Vaastav. I voted for Vaastav, and that's what we watched, although someone else made a better case to swing votes in our favour. It's a playful but passionate exercise in debate, far from the noise of social media hellsites. No quote tweets, no hot takes, just voices in a room, arguing for the love of cinema. Paradiso.
News18
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- News18
Wes Anderson Says The Memory Scene In Asteroid City Is ‘Stolen' From Satyajit Ray's Aranyer Din Ratri
Last Updated: Aranyer Din Ratri features Soumitra Chatterjee, Subhendu Chatterjee, Samit Bhanja, Rabi Ghosh, Pahari Sanyal, Sharmila Tagore Kaberi Bose, Simi Garewal and Aparna Sen in keyr oles. Aranyer Din Ratri features Soumitra Chatterjee, Subhendu Chatterjee, Samit Bhanja, Rabi Ghosh, Pahari Sanyal, Sharmila Tagore, Kaberi Bose, Simi Garewal and Aparna Sen in key roles American filmmaker Wes Anderson is making headlines after completing a six-year restoration of Satyajit Ray's Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest), which will now be featured at Cannes Classics. Here's a fun fact – a scene from Anderson's 2023 film Asteroid City was 'stolen" from Aranyer Din Ratri. The memorable memory game sequence in Asteroid City is directly inspired by Ray's 1970 classic. In a conversation with The Hollywood Reporter India, Wes Anderson was asked if he recreated the memory game scene from Aranyer Din Ratri for Asteroid City. To this, the filmmaker said, 'Yes, well, stole it… First of all, the concept of the scene is very odd because it's a game. But we learn about these characters so much while they play these games and they're saying these names. And then the way it's photographed, I mean, the cast is obviously special cast, but the way it's photographed is very striking. And the moment when we choose to start going from face to face, there's more emotion in this scene than you would think there's any reason to be." According to a Variety report, the restoration of Aranyer Din Ratri began in 2019. As a member of Martin Scorsese's The Film Foundation board, Wes Anderson helped start the project to bring this classic back. Inspired by Satyajit Ray's work, a team from The Film Foundation's World Cinema Project, Film Heritage Foundation, Janus Films and The Criterion Collection came together to make it happen. The entire restoration was funded by the Golden Globe Foundation. Aranyer Din Ratri features Soumitra Chatterjee, Subhendu Chatterjee, Samit Bhanja, Rabi Ghosh, Pahari Sanyal, Sharmila Tagore, Kaberi Bose, Simi Garewal and Aparna Sen in key roles. This Bengali-language adventure drama is based on the novel of the same name by Sunil Gangopadhyay. First Published:
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
German Works by Fatih Akin, Mascha Schilinski, Christian Petzold Unspool in Cannes, Animation Set for Major Market Showcase
German films and co-productions in Cannes this year are sure to entice festgoers and buyers alike with an eclectic selection heavy on historical drama and animation fare. Highly anticipated works by Fatih Akin, Mascha Schilinski and Christian Petzold are premiering at the festival along with German co-productions from Wes Anderson, Sergei Loznitsa and Kirill Serebrennikov that explore postwar Germany, lives intertwined through time, loss and grief, international espionage, Stalin's Great Purge and a war criminal's escape from justice. More from Variety Wes Anderson Mocks Trump's Movie Tariffs at Cannes: 'Can You Hold Up the Movie in Customs? It Doesn't Ship That Way' Wes Anderson Powers Satyajit Ray's 'Aranyer Din Ratri' Rescue for Cannes Classics Wes Anderson Delights Cannes as 'Phoenician Scheme' Lands 6.5-Minute Standing Ovation, Leading Lady Mia Threapleton Overcome With Tears Unspooling in Cannes Premiere, Akin's 'Amrum' is a family drama set in 1945 on the titular North Sea German island and based on the autobiographical novel of screenwriter Hark Bohm, who also penned the script. It centers on 12-year-old Nanning (Jasper Billerbeck), who does everything he can to help his mother feed the family during the last days of the war, only to face all new challenges when peace finally arrives. The Beta Cinema title also stars Diane Kruger, Laura Tonke, Lisa Hagmeister, Detlev Buck and Matthias Schweighöfer. ''Amrum' is a very special project: it combines Hark Bohm's personal story with Fatih Akin's signature style and brings a piece of Schleswig-Holstein to the Croisette,' noted Helge Albers, CEO of regional funder MOIN, which supported the pic. Vying for the Golden Palm, Schilinski's sophomore work, 'Sound of Falling,' produced by Studio Zentral and handled internationally by MK2 Films, tells the story of four women from different time periods who spend their youth on the same farmstead and whose lives are eerily intertwined. Petzold's 'Miroirs No. 3,' sold by The Match Factory, screens in Directors' Fortnight and marks the director's fourth collaboration with Paula Beer, who plays a music student struggling with the sudden loss of her boyfriend and the mysterious family who offers her assistance. Anderson's U.S.-German co-production 'The Phoenician Scheme,' co-produced by and shot at Studio Babelsberg near Berlin, also premieres in competition. Boasting an all-star cast, the period film stars Benicio del Toro as a European business magnate facing major international challenges to his ambitious infrastructure project in the fictional West Asian nation of Phoenicia. Focus Features is distributing the film globally. Likewise in competition is Loznitsa's 1937-set 'Two Prosecutors,' whose producers include Leipzig-based LOOKSfilm. The Coproduction Office title follows an idealistic young Soviet prosecutor who comes across a letter written by a prisoner. Believing the man to be a victim of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) — at the time, the Soviet Union's dreaded interior ministry and secret police — the prosecutor embarks on a dangerous journey in the pursuit of justice in Stalin's USSR. Serebrennikov's 'The Disappearance of Josef Mengele,' based on the novel by Olivier Guez and co-produced by Berlin-base Lupa Film, screens in Cannes Premiere, with Kinology handling international sales. German actor August Diehl stars as the notorious Nazi doctor who, as a fugitive, flees to South America following World War II, eluding capture for his crimes. Also vying for the Golden Palm are Joachim Trier's Scandinavian drama 'Sentimental Value,' which counts Berlin-based Komplizen Film among its co-producers; and Kleber Mendonça Filho's historical thriller 'The Secret Agent,' set in 1977 Brazil and starring Wagner Moura and Udo Kier and co-produced by Berlin's One Two Films. Other competition titles with German co-producers include Carla Simón's Spanish drama 'Romería' (Ventall Cinema); 'La petite dernière' by French filmmaker Hafsia Herzi (Katuh Studio); and Tarik Saleh's Egyptian drama 'Eagles of the Republic' (Films Boutique). German producers likewise backed a number of Un Certain Regard selections, including Morad Mostafa's Cairo-set 'Aisha Can't Fly' (Mayana Film); Francesco Sossai's Italian drama 'The Last One for the Road' (Maze Pictures) and Diego Céspedes' 1980s-set Chilean tale 'The Mysterious Gaze of the Flamingo' (Weydemann Bros.). Also unspooling in the sidebar is Arab and Tarzan Nasser's 'Once Upon a Time in Gaza,' which counts Hamburg companies Riva Filmproduktion and Red Balloon among its co-producers. The film follows on from the Nasser brothers' festival hit 'Gaza mon Amour.' This year's Cannes Film Market, meanwhile, boasts German comedy, family, drama, documentary and animated fare. Picture Tree Intl. (PTI) is presenting Simon Verhoeven's 'Old White Man' from Wiedemann & Berg and Sentana Filmproduktion. The comedy stars Jan Josef Liefers as advertising manager Heinz, who sets out to prove he's no old white man with a carefully orchestrated dinner party intended to secure a promotion but that instead turns into a minefield of political correctness, awkward revelations and unexpected chaos. PTI is also screening 'Prank,' a family adventure-comedy directed by Benjamin Heisenberg ('The Robber'), who co-wrote the script with Peer Klehmet ('The Famous Five'). Produced by Berlin-based Kundschafter Film and Zurich's Tellfilm, the film follows 12-year-old Chinese exchange student Xi Zhou (Max Zheng), whose seemingly innocent April Fool's prank spirals out of control and drags his host family, their son Lucas (Noèl Gabriel Kipp) and his crush Charly (Maïmouna Rudolph-Mbacké) into a tumultuous adventure. Among the titles presented by Pluto Film are two award-winning German works: Julia Lemke and Anna Koch's Berlinale documentary 'Circusboy,' about 11-year-old Santino, a child of the circus; and Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay's film crew thriller 'Hysteria,' which won the European Cinema Label in Berlin. The Playmaker Munich offers Christina Tournatzès' 'Karla,' based on a true story, about a 12-year-old girl who, in 1962 Munich, files a complaint against her own father, seeking protection from years of abuse. The company also presents Viktor Jakovleski and Nikias Chryssos' 'Rave On,' which follows Kosmo, a reclusive music producer who tries to deliver his latest record to a legendary DJ playing in Berlin's most notorious techno club, but what begins as a simple mission soon derails into an existential rave odyssey. Aaron Altaras and Klemens Schick star. Likewise in The Playmaker lineup is Norbert Lechner's 'The Secret Floor,' in which 12-year-old Karli, newly arrived in the Alps, where his parents have acquired a hotel, discovers he can travel back in time in the building's old elevator – to the year 1938. There he befriends lively Jewish girl Hannah and shoeshiner Georg and witnesses the rising menace of the Third Reich. Family entertainment specialist Studio 100, meanwhile, is showcasing a slew of animation productions: 'Heidi – Rescue of the Lynx,' by Tobias Schwarz and Aizea Roca and set for release this year, follows the spirited 8-year-old Swiss heroine who lives in the Alps with her gruff but loving grandfather. After rescuing an injured lynx cub, she uncovers a dastardly plot by a sly industrialist that threatens her beloved home and the entire alpine ecosystem. In 'Arnie & Barney,' by Sean Heuston and set for delivery in 2026, an ant platoon tries to save their community during a severe drought. Not cut out for heroics, inept ant soldiers Arnie and Barney decide to tackle the problem by themselves, inadvertently becoming the most unlikely of heroes in the process. 'Conni – Mystery of the Crane,' by Dirk Hampel, follows a young girl and her friends who help a hurt crane recover from his injuries in the hope that he can fly south with his flock. Currenty in production, the film is also set for delivery in 2026. In Rob Sprackling and Raúl Garcia's 'Flamingo Flamenco,' a dancing flamingo named Rosie is left traumatized after losing her sister to an attack by wild dogs. A shadow of her former self, the grieving Rosie has also lost the joy of dance – until she meets Carlos, a carefree and exuberant lizard who encourages her to dance once more. Currently in production, 'Flamingo Flamenco' is set for release in 2027. 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