The Uncensored Household
My sis and I went to watch Attacking The Devil: Harold Evans and the Last Nazi War Crime at the Picture House Cinema (Central London) on Tuesday this week and it was so worthwhile. It’s hard to describe a moving documentary on such an important subject matter with the usual ‘must-see, fantastic’ as the subject matter is so upsetting.
The documentary charts Sir Harold Evans’ rise to the top of newspaper editing which is very inspirational itself but the real gem
An indie flick from Pakistan has been wowing critics and I found myself part of a 300 strong crowd at its premier in London last week.
Manto is the kind of literary figure that my mum becomes glaze eyed about and she’ll suddenly recite passages and look at me with an air of pride at how, clearly, all artists in Urdu are superior to any other.
Manto was a controversial writer whose career spans the 40s and
I sort of hobbled over to the Bloomsbury Curzon to catch The Danish Girl with Bunty as I had just knocked back a bottle of prosecco with another friend.
I arrived before Bunty and temporarily forgot what I was meant to be watching, asked the bar staff which screen The Danish Lady was in. I was duly informed that The Danish GIRL was upstairs and that the toilets were behind me. I was pissed and confused: But I never asked about the toilets. I clearly looked like I needed a mirror or something.
Bunty and two more girlfriends joined me, we got another bottle of prosecco, I spilled popcorn in the foyer (mortified!) and we finally sat down to watch the film. What kind of pathetic girl does this character want to be??
As we all know, amazing films come out in January and this month is definitely filled with excellent films to check out. If you’ve already seen the Danish Girl and the Hateful Eight is way too violent then we recommend Jennifer Lawrence’s new flick, Joy. The film is the true story about the rise of Joy Mangano from poor singe mom to global entrepreneur. Robert DeNiro is her dad, Isabella Rossellini plays his girlfriend. What is there not to like?
My ONLY regret from last year was that on the 18th of December 2015, instead of joining the entire Western hemisphere at the cinema for the movie release of the decade, I was freezing my tits off in Delhi.
Oh, does Delhi get cold in Winter? Yes indeed. And there is no central heating or double glazing!!
My disloyal family went to the cinema without me ‘oh but we will watch it for the second time with you’ thanks guys! One of my dear cousins even spoiled it for me by revealing a key part of the story.
A few weeks ago I had realised that there were no Hollywood in Bollywood films on the horizon. Could it be? Could the Slumdog Millionaire franchise actually fail to produce another saccharine feel-good Hollywood blockbuster? Are there no more Americans that need to travel to India and “find him/herself” and return a changed human being for the greater good?
And then just like buses, three films come at once. One I’ve forgotten about already. I couldn’t face the Helen Mirren cooking one. But the baseball one seemed palatable, not least because the hunk (haven’t said that for a while) from Mad Men was in it. Enter… Million Dollar Arm.
As I have yet to read Americanah, this is my favourite Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie novel and I was very excited to see the film. I was not disappointed. Ignore other reviewers who are moaning about this film as, apart from some dull gratuitous Newton nipple shots, the film is wonderful.
I was pleased to see that the film didn’t just concentrate on the despair and woe of the Biafran war but actually showed a raw human side, a middle-class educated side that is rarely seen in films about West Africa (or indeed any African nation).
Believe the bad reviews everyone, I regret to say that Peter Jackson’s new addition to the Tolkein films is a disaster and should be avoided at all costs!
It is roughly 1.5 hours too long, with many pointless and boring scenes (including ones clearly cut and pasted from previous films). Is it me? Do I simply not care about dwarves? Why do all the thicko trolls have East London accents?
I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover but I have to confess that if I’d known a little more about the film I watched last night, I probably would have thought nope, not for me!
A film starring and directed by Ben Affleck? And George Clooney? Urgh! About the Iranian hostage crisis in late 70s/early 80s. Double urgh, stars and stripes waving??
To my dismay (and enjoyment) it was really good. There is so much
No, No and No Way! These were the answers I received after going through my phone contacts of so-called family and friends asking them if they wanted to come and watch a fashion documentary film with me. It soon became apparent that if I really wanted to watch the film, and I did, I would have to cross one of the great tests of growing up and (gulp) GO ALONE!!!!
“We used to wish for any mother but this one.” So lamented the sons of, arguably, one of the world’s greatest fashion editors and icons: Diana Vreeland. Their loss was fashion’s gain.
Diana Vreeland lived from 1903 to 1989 and she spent her last years with the same energy and enthusiasm as her younger years – she always wanted to be where the action was. The Eye Has to Travel is a new documentary all about Diana and since she was inseparable from fashion and photography it is is a celebration of that too.
With a wicked and mischievous sense of humour, Diana Vreeland narrates
The crooner synonymous with one of the greatest movie songs of all time, Andy Williams died this week at the age of 84. Moon River is of course featured in Breakfast at Tiffany’s surely one of the most amazing movies ever.
Originally featured in the film in 1961, Andy Williams made the song his own
It’s not Movember, but this film looking at the decline of the moustache in India is really interesting, funny and worth a watch…
Who committed the biggest fashion crime of them all? The movie version of Snow White premiered in London last night and OMG what were these two thinking?
Kristen Stewart decides to go for a Wild West prossie-with-frilly-pubes look and her co-star, Charlize Theron tries to go one step further:
I don’t agree with an article published in The Telegraph over the weekend listing ten movies that changed the world. Although I’m not as dedicated to film as the writer I have hardly seen any of the films on the list and they don’t sound particularly life-changing. So, without giving the list too much thought I came up with a list of movies that may not have change my world but were certainly milestones in my life from childhood and beyond, please add yours:
The Guardian reported a new craze of divorce parties taking place in the States to help women get rid of their possessions, make some cash and give to charity – turning a negative into a positive and so on. It’s sort of the theme that runs through a movie I watched over the weekend, First Wives Club.
This movie is on constant repeat on Sky and Freeview but it’s such a gem of a movie I love it every time (such as last Sunday). It’s a hilarious movie starring Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn and Bette Midler
The London Indian Film Festival is in its second year and kicks off from today until 12 July. There will be a showcase of apparently independent Indian cinema, however, the event is beginning with a movie starring Amir Khan’s nephew – pretty conventional: family connection = starring movie role.
I have just heard that Dame Elizabeth Taylor has died aged 79 after suffering from a long term illness.
It has been some time since we have seen her on our screens, but I remember as a child how my Dad used to love watching her and husband Richard Burton.
Oscar nominee 4 years in a row, this screen icon’s greatest work were in masterpieces of Hollywood cinema such as Cleopatra, National Velvet and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?.
The film industry will be mourning the loss of Dame Elizabeth Taylor.
Bunty
The Chatterjis Blog 