A couple of great films

During the time of Bangalore International Film Festival (BIFFES), the general busyness on my side begins to seek ways of loosening up. This has remained true even after art house cinema has ceased being a rarity in the OTT era. There is something about experiencing great cinema on the big screen, about picking the right film amidst the several jostling for the same time slot, about standing in line early enough to make it inside, about failing to make it to the chosen film but nonetheless ending up with a nice alternate film, about rushing to get a snack between films, about exchanging film notes during the run-ins with friends – the film festival pleasures run on.

Unlike film lovers who take in four to five films daily all week long, I can just about watch three films if I have a full day at hand, or two if I only have an evening. On the lone occasion of being a jury member for the Indian Cinema section at BIFFES eight years ago, I had watched three or four films each day and felt severe eye strain by the close of the festival week.

Three of the four films I watched at BIFFES this year were worth the time. The British director, Ken Loach’s The Oak Street took on the very serious theme of the cultural tensions in a host society following the relocation of refugees there. In Northeast England, the ageing workers in a mining village, who were already hard up economically and vulnerable to the manipulation of local property prices by long distance realtors, find it difficult to accept the Syrian refugees brought to their village. Why doesn’t the government, they ask in fairness, settle them in prosperous regions? But live they must along with the new settlers. Their initial hostility and scorn for the Syrian refugees slowly makes way for sympathetic understanding in a fairly uncomplicated manner, and ends with everyone in the village marching together in solidarity against an economic exploitation common to them all.

The French director Anais Tellenne’s debut film, The Dreamer, was simply stunning in its ambition. The eventless and unexceptional life of Raphael, a big-built, one-eyed caretaker of a medieval chateau, who is 60 years old and lives with his aged mother, changes course when Garance, the estate owner and a well-known artist, shows up suddenly and goes on to make him model for a new sculpture. Unfolding slowly against the slow time of rural France, the film lets us discern the smallest of shifts in Raphael’s inner world as he gains a new spiritedness, a new life zeal through his encounters with Garance.

Tran Anh Hung’s The Taste of Things, another French film, offered an exquisite narration of the evolving relations between Eugenie, a cook, and Dodin, her employer, in late 19th century France. Much of its action taking place inside the kitchen and the dining room, the film celebrates the elaborate care and labour that both of them bring to cooking. The even-paced camera dwells lovingly on the cleaning, chopping, and boiling of vegetables and meat in a variety of pans and vessels and lets the great skill and knowledge behind cooking show slowly. United in their deep regard for cooking and admiring of each other’s culinary talents, Dodin and Eugenie have been lovers for long but have remained unmarried since Eugenie prizes her freedom. This quietly energetic film is as much about their passions as it is about the virtues of a serious, creative and unhurried life.

BIFFES extends a valuable cinema experience despite being housed inside a mall whose problems are easily guessed: the milieu is stiff and the overpriced food and drink beyond ordinary reach. But there is an issue that needs to be addressed on priority. Year after year, the state government appoints the festival director when the festival date is close, making for a rush that can only undermine the festival design and curation. An early appointment of the festival director with an assurance of full autonomy will make a difference that everyone will be thankful for.