Paris Je t’aime is not your run-of-the-mill movie; it is more of a film version of a short stories book. And that’s perhaps the most alluring aspect of this film – watching not just one, but eighteen short brilliant vignettes from some of the most revered directors of the modern times – Gurinder Chadha, Coen brothers, Alfonso Cuaron, Gus Van Sant, Gerard Depardieu, Alexander Payne, to name a few. The two-hour film is set in different Arrondissements (municipalities) of Paris. Each story tackles a different aspect of identity, love and relationships..

It is said, that Pablo Picasso once found himself in the erudite company of a certain high society lady who had an accusation to make. “Senor Picasso,” she asked, “why don’t you paint something more wholesome and more realistic, instead of all these incomprehensible abstracts?” Picasso smiled politely and asked her, “Ma’am, do you know Chinese?” “What? Well, I suppose not.” She tried her best to camouflage the surprise by indignation. “Then do you think there has been no great work of literature in Chinese, just because you can’t read it?”

Statutory warning: This is not a film for those who like their movies all tied up in neat little bows of resolution. ‘Doubt’ lives up to its name admirably, leaving you with one long loose thread of just that. Most people will come away thinking they know the answer, but they will come across others with the opposite view, who also think they know the answer. Yet, neither side will be absolutely sure. And that’s where the power of ‘Doubt’ lies. Doubt is written and directed by John Patrick Shanley..

Flight of the Red Balloon is Hou Hsiao Hsien’s 2008 tribute to Albert Limorisse’s thirty four minute short The Red Balloon, the legendary film about the adventures of a little boy who was magically trailed by a willful red balloon through the old-fashioned streets of Paris. This too is about a wondrous red balloon that follows a little boy through his footprints in Paris, but unlike its inspirational film, this docile balloon shadows the lives of the grown-ups the same. The film shows the soft and shy preteen Simon

The Wrestler, a classic tale of an underdog’s life, is an intimate and bittersweet portrayal of the simple joys and tribulations of human existence and the desperate attempts at survival by a man of flesh and blood. The movie is a glowing elucidation of Darren Aronofsky’s storytelling skills. However it is perhaps more a Mickey Rourke vehicle than an Aronofsky one – he’s that good in his portrayal of a once-famous but now has-been professional wrestler. The movie also boasts of a terrific Oscar-worthy original score by Bruce “The Boss” Springsteen.

Arundhati Roy, who is born to a Keralite Syrian mother and a Bengali Hindu father, has her partly autobiographical novel centering on the very themes that she grew up witnessing as a child – there are the Syrian Christian ideals, there’s the Indian caste system, there’s the democracy rule verses communalism, and there are the western and eastern ethics in clash – all in function within the vicinity of a classical Keralite family. The God of Small Things, Roy’s first and only book as of 2009 is written in prose that sets her apart from most iconic writers.

Malaysian author Tan Twan Eng’s debut novel is a tale about the bonds of friendship and family, set amidst Penang Island in the turbulent years leading up to and after the Second World War. The story is told from the point of view of the protagonist, Philip Khoo-Hutton, a man in his twilight years who seeks to understand the events of his youth and his role in bringing them about. As he reminisces to a friend, the story unfolds. This is a voluminous novel, spanning almost 500 pages and was long-listed for the Man Booker Prize 2007.

The thing that strikes you about Harvey Milk is not what an extraordinary man he was, but what an ordinary man he was. While history has written him into its pages as ‘The first openly gay man to be elected into Public Office in the United States’ and as a ‘Martyr for gay rights’, he is portrayed rather more realistically in the biopic Milk. As painted by director, Gus Van Sant and embodied by Sean Penn, Harvey Milk was merely a man, forced into fighting for his right to be seen as merely a man.

Austria is presently the defending champion of the Best Foreign film Oscar following its dream run last year with The Counterfeiters. However, the inclusion of its contender this year, Götz Spielmann’s Revanche, has come as quite a big surprise. With the film pipping heavy-weight contenders like Italy’s Gomorra (2008) and Romania’s Rest is Silence (2008) , it does make me inquisitive as to why the Academy preferred this one. Now that I’ve seen the film, the curiosity still persists. This is a film that doesn’t have spoilers…

The film industry, in the form we understand today, is approaching its centenary. The first attempts to organise and standardise production, distribution and exhibition date from around 1910/11. A few years later, the first Hollywood studio majors began to appear in nascent form (Universal and Paramount in 1912). But it was not until 1927 [...]