The film is based on several short stories by Saadat Hassan Manto, one of the greatest modern Urdu writers. The interior of the film is painted by Bhupen Khakhar, a famous Indian painter. The stories take place in the underbelly of Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay). The director Fareeda Mehta graduated as a film director from the Film and Television Institute in Pune in 1989. She has worked on several films directed by Kumar Shahani and directed several short films and documentaries. "Kali Salwaar" is her first feature film. It has been shown in many international film festivals, including the Indian Panorama in the International Film Festival of India, Goteborg film festival, Rotterdam International film festival (2003) and Durban International Film festival (2003). It was nominated for 'Best Film' at the Bogota film festival.
In her own words: "Perhaps cinema is the best form to show the unfolding of Destiny. Destiny, not as predetermined fate, but as it is getting made – as an unfolding of time and events within time. It gets made as people meet and exchange – a few words, or a look, or money. Seemingly inconsequential encounters change you forever and each time. In "Kali Salwaar", I try to come close to this pulse of random movement and imperceptible ‘happening’."
Post-war France at its best and worst - the communists trying to prove their patriotism by catching collaborators, everyone trying to prove their innocence with someone else's guilt, with the inevitable results - some innocents are punished and some guilty remain unpunished but not very happy either. A very theatrical production featuring some of the greatest contemporary French actors: Gérard Depardieu as a touching bar owner who is passionate about alcohol and Racine, in that order, Philippe Noiret as a cynical but happy professor, Michel Blanc as a level-headed but headstrong communist, Michel Galabru as a war profiteer, and Jean-Pierre Marielle as a Petainist with a guilt conscience. As a bonus, a very young Fabrice Luchini plays a communist from a bourgeois background and the baggage that comes with it. All in all, the kind of Cinema of Quality that Truffaut and his fellow new wave directors abhorred, but that thrives in France and is popular the world over. A kind of Merchant-Ivory production in the French tradition.
The kind of film only Americans can make. A nice blend of bleak irony, wry humour and southern warmth; some great dialogue (thanks to Cormac McCarthy, of course) in the midst of epic Western visuals. The golden Western of bygone days made modern. Fal...ls a fair bit short becoming a modern classic, though.
A brilliant film from a brilliant director. The crumbling of a former oligarchy during the communist regime. The son is in denial of his bourgeois roots, but can't really escape who he is. Excellent performances by two giants of Polish cinema - Daniel Olbrychski and Maja Komorowska as the son and daughter of the oligarch.
A Korean period film about a painter from humble origins, his struggle to keep painting according to his vision and not commissioned works that please people. Excellent visuals; replete with aphorisms about art. Won the best director award at Cannes 2002.
