film appreciation #4

A group of people from diverse backgrounds assembled at SETU MULTIMEDIA HALL for Screening cum Discussion of the movie THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN on April 16, 2009.

THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN (Bashehaye Aseman) is a 1997 Iranian film by Majid Majidi. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 1998.

CHILDREN OF HEAVEN

A little secret…their biggest adventure.

The frames of the film are so captivating that  everyone is  mesmerized by its simplicity and the beauty of the storytelling is that language is not a barrier in understanding the import of the frame.

It is a film everybody could relate to since it transports one to childhood memories and there is hardly any fictitious depiction so, all of us praised its sober content and treatment.

BHAKTI SHAH : ” Children of Heaven truly was not only wonderful visual treat but an excellent source of understanding life through different eyes and how beautifully it can be made.”

The film was a depiction of Iranian culture but it was so communicated that you understand the psyche of people there. the people have UNCOMPLAINING FORBEARENCE. The culture reflects the pains of childhood of two children from middle class family but how they choose to keep the secret and not burden the parents.

Thus the TITLE. the children shouldered the responsibilty of the house. the manage to keep the secret and never complain of anything..never accusing the family status but rather even in most difficult times, keep the self -esteem high and never let the parents down.

When young Ali’s late arrival at school generates unwanted attention, not once does he explain the real reason is because he is sharing his shoes. He would rather have his teachers think he is slovenly than think his family is too poor to buy shoes. Ali and Zahra were divine kids.

CONTRAST BETWEEN RICH AND POOR

1. The palatial, gated communities, tall buildings, mansions uptown vs the cluttered home space of Ali where a single room served purpose of kitchen,resting room and study room together.

2. the lonely streets uptown where people hardly interact socially vs the streets bustling with energy, lively sounds of children playing on road and the store keepers and the junk collector for exchange of salt..

3. the  loneliness of the rich class kids we could sense when we heard the little boy talk to Ali through the intercom persuauding him to come and play vs carefree group of kids playing of streets or helping parents at work but still enjoying life..alongside work and how ALI AND ZAHRA share good times despite so many difficulties.

THE BUBBLE SCENE

It came a respite for the tension developed due to the lost shoes between the siblings. How they lovingly play with bubbles reflects the tendency of children to take worries easy, their pure state of mind. the floating lightness of the children when they blow worries  like bubbles and transparency and purity of the bondthe siblings shared.

These artistic elements lighten up the film issue and engage the audience.

spellbound audience!

from left to right in centre picture: Aman, Manan, Freeman,

The values cherished in the family

1. Ali’s father, poor as he is, refuses to take even a spoonful of the sugar entrusted to him by the mosque for his own tea.

2. His mother rages at the landlord who calls to intimidate her when her husband isn’t at home.

3. Ali and Zahra communicate in whispers and glances, keeping all their worries and fears to themselves.

4. Zahra had the ability of postponing judgement. when she encounters the girl wearing her pink shoees Roza,she decides not to react at her till she is sure and later when she sees that the girl’s condition was even more pitiable, she chose not to ask her. later  Roza approaches her for the fallen pe, she forgives her and the two become friends.

5. the mother was an angel of forbearance and charity. she despite being so ill sends soup bowl to an elderly neighbor.

The discussion

now rolling tongues to speak!!

From front : Ankit Vyas, Aman, Bhargav, Jai, Jignesh, Shweta,  Chetan Patel,Shyam bhai teacher, sb (a friend of  pradip), bhakti, Pradip sharma

After the screening, we started discussion. everyone shared their thoughts and clarified doubts regarding the justification of characters’ action.

the keys were :Children of Heaven excels in its intimate portrayal of the minutiae of life in Tehran,

the character action motivation, the non fictitious, close to reality film, no high end special effects or sound effects,

simplistic issue of lost shoes, beautiful shots etc..

Some points worth highlighting:

1. the narrow alley in which we see the children running most of the time, projects the economic state of the community and the director’s insight to enhance the proximity of the situation and also the realistic projection of how many hardships the faced to keep the secret: running in dirty uneven lanes, with gutters, children playing, crowd moving about..

2. how does a director decide what camera movement for what shot?

the decision is a combination of Director’s POV i.e. what he wants to communicate or what does he want the audience to focus on and the audience tendency of observing things i.e how best can he leave an impact on them.

Bhakti commented:” I felt the camera angles used in the alley where the main subjects dwell are done in a sense as if to convey the crunch for space each time and to enhance the proximity of the situation.

Contrast to that, the usage of the long shots during the scene of the uptown highways and bridges shown to convey the expanse and create the stark difference of the two parts of the city we are exposed to as an audience is quite magnimous.”

the director serves what he likes in a mnner the audience will love and enjoy it!!

3. Pankaj Chauhan dwelled upon asking Mehul the various shots used and how the selection plus the importance of Editing.

it was a technical but enjoyable discussed as Mehul explained to him using the example:

” if i want to shoot a scene where I want to show someone thirsty, i will take a shot where he is rubbing hands on neck for reveling his quench..may be the next shot he reaching hurriedly for a water bottle offered and then the close up of his lips where we see parched, dry lips relishing each single drop as if it was an elixir!”

the discussion took place in generalised way..so that people not with any background in film could understand the technicalities.

4.We talked about the emerging role of management in Film Production.. as AMAN Remarked ” Bollywood is most unorganised so it needs IIM people to manage it”.

we discussedthat the scope of managment in Cricket and Film industry in India is most!

Despite some shots being repetitive in the film, noone found them boring.

FUN TOPICS:

The pirated cd issue :

how piracy works?

..Ankit Vyas explained some ways including involvement of Islamabad  and how in theatres people shoot using handycam and make film available, then how films are available online even before they are released..

Mehul told his views about the increased use of DIGITAL MEDIUM in film production these days and how he thinks its use will reduce the original content distribution cost in CD form and inturn will lead to no need of people acquiring pirated CD’s or DVD’s.

learning with fun!

upper right corner pic: Freeman Murray and Pankaj Chauhan

Beauty of the last shot

The last shot, with the boy sitting in the calm waters soothing his tired feet and with fish near em..

1.Bhakti : it was calm below the surface yet a slight turbulent on the surface conveying in a way Ali’s state of mind. It was empty and drained owing to not achieving sneakers in the race.. yet  filled with a turbulence of emotions due to his racing thoughts.

2. Mehul: the fishes are used for healing wounds..its a scientific fact. so Ali was sitting calm trying to relieve him from pain of wounds plus lost in thoughts to get over the thought of not winning sneakers in the race.

3. Shweta: Amy be it has an artistic touch to it that the fishes are paying homage to Ali for the humble act of trying his best to get his sister the shoes in exchange for the sneakers he wished to get in return for winning race. he is guilty but the are kinda pampering him that you have done your best!

4. Aman: the fishes are expressing gratitude for the love of a brother for his siter and his act of apologising and giving best returns to his beloved sister to counteract the lost pair of shoes.

metaphorical last shot

so the session ended with the note of upcoming DFM workshop in May and some suggestions for marketing it better.

thanks to all who came..Hope to see more people joining in this time..Keep watching films and observing the beauty of life cos all fiction is inspired by reality.

and the reel life you wanna depict in a film will be good only if you perceive Real life as good!

C U SOON..

Shweta Babbar

Film Appreciation Session #1

Yes…We started at sharp 1:30 pm…. Bhargav was the host for Session #1….at 1:35 pm vikram and his friend joined us. and before 2 o clock Japan also joined us. He could have joined session on time but he was lost in finding Bhargav’s home….

We strongly discussed characterization of Guru (abhishek bachchan),aishwarya rai (i forgot her name in movie while writing….)and Guru’s father.Ritesh drawed our attention towards the symbolism used in first part. Jaimin (studying in std 9th) was quite viewer and inquisitive during the session. Japan throwed few query regarding single cam shoot or multi cam shoot…he was satisfied by knowing the continuity rules.
I reveled few mistakes ,lighting facts and special effects issues. Bhargav too was on the same track…he also explained his point of view regarding symbolism used in previous part. We couldnt finished whole movie.
we fell short of time…Ritesh and Vikram has quite different image of FTFM before they came… But after meeting FTFMites very first time he totally painted again the previous image of FTFM in his mind….Yes Just reading mail and blogs wont give you the feel of FTFM… B A Part of US….B A part of our activity….
B the Feathers of the spreaded wings of FTFM….keep track on yahoo group for next session next sunday…..
Next sunday A cinematographer (12 year exp in mumbai film industry) is joining us……

keep rolling

Mehul

FTFM MEET

From left to right (shweta,bhargav,niravbhai,japan,rahul,nirav,mehul)

We discussed and enjoyed alot. Topics of discussion were , film appreciation sessions, documentary film on global worming and full DFM workshop of 20 days.

We are planning to conduct Full DFM workshop from 1st May 2009.

Keep rolling…

Mehul

Yammy FTFM !!!

Its chocolate...yum yum