John Schlesinger’s Darling is the pure embodiment of swinging London in the 60s. In certain respects it plays like a time capsule, capturing and locked in a particular moment in time. In other ways it transcends its period, creating something that remains compelling and engaging, a film that seems at times to step out of [...]

Modern Times is slapstick with a Marxist bent. It is the 1936 silent comedy directed by legendary British comedian Charlie Chaplin, who still made silent films well into the sound era. It is not a film of belly laughs, as, say, Buster Keaton’s sublime The General, which ranks among my favorite films; Chaplin’s broad physical [...]

The Reader is a complex film in many ways. Films of this genre often find it formidable to capture the essence of the story, characters and events in a manner that stay with you much after you’ve watched them. It is no surprise really that sensitive stories are hard to tell and sell. And it doesn’t help the case of The Reader, since the events it attempts to chronicle raise more controversies than sympathies. The film revolves around an unusual and brief love affair between a 15 year old boy, and a much older woman..

Adapted from Vikas Swarup’s novel Q&A, and directed by Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire is a movie that is easy to rave about but difficult to avoid. With a fairy tale storyline concerning the triumph of an underdog against all odds, that viewers are bound to find inspirational, the movie is never didactic in its approach, and manages to pack a strong punch. What sets the movie truly apart is the searing and uncompromising honesty of the director. The movie is full of hope and life despite the graphic and unsettling physical poverty depicted on screen.

“The Girl with a Pearl Earring” , which is also known as the Mona Lisa of the North, or the Dutch Mona Lisa motivated the making of a chart-topping novel and cerebral film that goes by the same name. Based on Tracy Chevalier’s best-selling novel, Peter Webber’s 2003 UK Film Girl with a Pearl Earring is a story that speculates the events that led to the spectacular painting’s creation. Set in the 17th century, the film shows Vermeer (Colin Firth) as the passionate artist who puts his heart and soul into his work..

Following stretched the concept of low-budget films to its very extreme. Shot in 16-mm grainy black-and-white stocks, the movie at first glance might appear to be a deeply experimental and esoteric film – something like Darren Aronofsky’s mind-boggling Pi. Thankfully, it has turned out to be a far more engrossing effort. Shot only on weekends, with a budget of $6000, with non-professionals, without the use of any artificial lighting, and by a person with little hitherto experience in this field, Following is a fascinating treatise on minimalism and efficiency.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife” this famous first line is one of those which can by instantly recognized by any lover of dare I say literature or more specifically Jane Austen.
One of the first pieces of classic [...]