IFFI and Film Heritage

K S. Sivakumaran

Come November last week the 40th International Film Festival of India will begin its 10 day showcase of contemporary classic films from all over the world. Sadly, I, a regular visitor, would miss this time owing to the forthcoming President’s National Film Awards 2009 ceremony which is scheduled to take place in early December. National Film Industry takes its primacy over International cavalcade of films.

However, I wish to share with our readers some information I gathered at the last IFFI. These relate to the showing of some of the outstanding films that come under the category of Film Heritage. What is this feature called ‘Film Heritage’?

The IFFI (International Film Festival of India) and the Thomson Foundation for Film & TV Heritage with Cinematheque Francaise presented such a feature.

It was dedicated to “worldwide film heritage, representing significant cultural and historical documents as well as treasures of inspiration for future cinematic creations” FTII (Film & Television Institute of India) and the Film & TV Office of the French Embassy in India gave support to the event.

We learn that the Thomson Foundation for Film & Television Heritage “acts in the field of preservation and promotion of film and audiovisual heritage, which reflects the history and the culture of a country.”

Hopefully the French Embassy in Colombo would initiate such a venture in Lanka too particularly when beginning with Lester James Peries we have had a contingent of filmmakers who have gained international repute.

‘Women’ was the theme of last year’s programs.

The films chosen were: ‘Lola Montes’ by Max Orphuls (1955 - France- Germany), ‘Cluny Brown’ by Ernst Lubitsch (1946, USA), ‘Subaranekha’ by Ritwick Ghatak (1965, India), ‘Floating Clouds’ by Mikio Naruse (1955, Japan), ‘Loulou’ by Maurice Pialat (1980, France), ‘My Life to Live’ by Jean-Luc Godard (1962, France), ‘The Women’ by George Cukor (1939, USA) and ‘Imitation of Life’ by Douglas Sirk (1959, USA)

I must confess I have not seen any of these films. The local Women Organizations can show these films with the assistance from Alliance Françoise in Colombo, I hope.

Here are some comments I picked up on the above films which may interest our serious film buffs.

“Max Ophulus’ ‘Lola Montes’ paints the portrait of a femme fatale from the 19th century.

She is an enchantress whose life has been shaped by scandalous affairs and a woman not wiling to give up her freedom, or at least the illusive idea she may have of freedom.

Since the birth of motion picture films women have often portrayed as trying to escape their social conditions or in search of independence.

Labelled as victims or rebels, they are represented through many different characters like the impertinent ‘Cluny Brown’ by Lubitsch, the roles of the two single mothers trying to raise their children who don’t understand them any more in ‘Imitation of Life’ by Douglas Sirk and also the role of Sita, the young girl who runs away with the man she has been in love with since childhood in ‘Subranarekha’, of Nellie the frustrated wife who finds comfort in the arms of a bad boy in ‘Loulou’, of Yukiko, hurt by the indecision of her lover in ‘Floating Clouds’ and also of Nana the sublime prostitute of ‘My Life to Live’.”

Talking of women in films, I would like to see the film version of Alberto Moravia’s ‘Two Women’ directed by Vittorio de Sica starring Sophia Loren and the film version of D H Lawrence’s novel ‘Women in Love’ once again for their superb cinematic realism.

We hope some organization show this for us.

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