IFFI 51, Goa, 16-24 January, 2021, 12: Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro to get Lifetime Achievement award              The 51st edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will honour the Italian cinematographer Vittorio Storaro with the prestigious Lifetime Achievement award, at the opening ceremony, scheduled to be held tomorrow (January 16, 2021). He is well-known for the film The Bird with th...

R. Lee Ermey: Off to the last frontier Ronald Lee Ermey, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, in Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket, passed away on 15 April aged 74. Listed as R. Lee Emery in his film and TV appearances, his pet name was Gunny. Gunny’s roar, "What is your major malfunction, numbnut?"remains an iconic line, 30 years later. The performance made him a Globe Best Supporting Actor nominee, and Boston Society of Film Critics Award Winner, for Best Supporting Actor. B...

War for the Planet of the Apes, Review: Ape-o-calypse now Apes riding horses, wielding rifles, and their leader being an English speaking specimen called Caesar is not enough for the makers of this third instalment of the series—they keep stretching your suspension of disbelief every minute, till they lead you to an apocalypse of a climax, perhaps believing that the word ‘war’ in the title has to be taken very, very seriously. Along the way, the War for the Planet of the Ape...

Siraj Syed reviews Passengers: Window seat at the journey of a life-time They’ve got it right. Not perfect, but right. Mind-boggling special effects and a mind-toggling emotional narrative. It’s an elusive, coveted recipé, and for once, somebody nailed it. Use state-of-the-art VFX, but blend them with an equally compelling story-line, sometimes shaken, sometimes stirred, and then pray you hit bull’s eye. Passengers is a journey that starts in outer space, but gets you...

By Quendrith Johnson   Sometimes you forget how intricate filmmaking is based on how easy it all appears on screen. And along comes someone like Oscar winning editor/sound-pioneer Walter Murch who throws light on every aspect that makes cinema loved worldwide. On the nuances of sound design, Murch off-handedly lays down the fundamentals of an art he actually helped shape.  “My mantra is: ‘clarity and density.’ If something in a film is too dense (too rich or intr...

by Marc Rickenbach   The 64th edition of the Cannes International Film Festival opened with Woody Allen’s new film Midnight in Paris. The American filmmaker, who has been honored by the festival in the past, is famously known to keep his films out of any competition and often does not show up, even if nominated. To some this might appear as a slight against those who wish to celebrate his work, but Allen simply does not feel that films, or any art for that mat...

by Marla Lewin Francis Ford Coppola at Torino Film Festival photo by Marc Halperin     Another in our series on the Future of Cinema.   We were attending the Torino Film Lab and I had the opportunity to interview Francis Ford Coppola. I mentioned we are working on a series about the Future of Cinema, and Francis said he has his own theory, but it would take some time to explain and would use up all of our time. He doesn’t think ...