Best for the Last

Positioned as the mid-festival attraction is Roman Polanski’s latest Ghost Writer,a political thriller. The controversial French-Polish director completed this film— about a ghost writer who bags the lucrative contract to redact the memoirs of a former British PM — while under house arrest in Switzerland. The movie,scheduled to be screened on Sunday, can be termed as one which will probably step up the tempo at this annual event.

To keep up that tempo in the coming days,the multiple festival venues — facing the Mandovi river — will present interesting bouquet of films such as the Cannes Kaleidoscpe 2010,Neo Noir Mexican Cinema and Taiwanese New Wave Cinema. These packages were not publicised in the schedule that was circulated earlier. So in a delightful coincidence,they will make sure that the festival saved the best for the last.

The Cannes Kaleidoscope is a new initiative that has been introduced at the IFFI this year. “The Cannes Film Festival attracts the best of cinema every year. So this package has been introduced with the aim of showcasing the current best of world cinema at IFFI,” says Shankar Mohan,Joint Director,Directorate of Film Festivals. Under this new feature,the festival will be screening Jean Paul Civeyrac’s Young Girls In Black,Jean-Luc Godard’s Film Socialism,Ken Loach’s Route Irish,Takeshi Kitano’s Outrage Kiarostami’s Certified Copy. Interestingly,the copy of Film Socialism with the IFFI officials is without sub-titles. However,Mohan hopes that the screening,which will be preceded by a detailed introduction,will not leave any scope for Godard fans to complain. Another prominent film in this section is Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives by Apichatpong Weerasethakul. This film won Palme d’Or at Cannes festival this year.

The festival will get the much-needed touch of glamour on Sunday when Freida Pinto arrives here for the Indian premiere of Woody Allen’s You Will Meet A Tall Dark Stranger. The actor,hailed internationally as one of the best-dressed women,will be travelling with her hairstylist and guarantees a golden red carpet moment for the festival album. To keep the buzz afloat,director Mira Nair and actor Nana Patekar will walk into the IFFI premises with part of the cast and crew of Salaam Bombay.

Masterclasses are increasingly becoming an integral part of film festivals. Fatih Akin on Thursday and Resul Pookutty on Saturday made sure that those present in their class were glued to their seats. The festival will host at least three more such sessions — ‘Relevance of Dance in Cinema’ by Jaime Chavarri,director of Camaron (Spanish) on Sunday; ‘Special Effects on Cinema’ by Srinivasa Mohan on Sunday and ‘Evolution of Comedy’ by Boman Irani.

Among the special features of IFFI 2010,Mohan singles out the Digital Cinema section. “The use of this new technology influences a new cinematic narrative and this package will offer a peek into that,” he says. The latter part of the festival puts the focus on Jim Jarmusch,one of the prominent names in independent American cinema. IFFI has intentions to bring the filmmaker to Goa next year.

Curtains on the IFFI 2010 will ring down on December 2 with the French film The Princess of Montpensier by Bertrand Tavernier. This period romance will help Goa slip into its easy-going ways,after the 10-day-long celebration of cinema.

SHOWTIME
November 29
* Shit Year by Cam Archer
* Such a Long Journey by Sturla Gunnarsson

November 30
* Film Socialism by Jean-Luc Godard
* Le Beau Marriage by Eric Rohmer

December 1
* Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives by Apichatpong Weerasethakul
* Route Irish by Ken Loach

December 2
* Eat Drink Man Woman by Ang Lee
* The Princess of Montpensier by Bertrand Tavernier