Kolkata Film Festival inaugurated

The week-long 12th Kolkata Film Festival got off to a colourful start here Friday night with West Bengal Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi inaugurating the carnival in presence of delegates from across the world.

“Cinema is not just an image. It is many textured and many layered,” Gandhi said. West bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, city mayor Bikash Bhattacharya and veteran filmmaker Mrinal Sen were among those present.

The festival opened with the screening of “Adam’s Apples” of Danish filmmaker Andres Thomas Jensen.

Cine lovers here can keep their date with Swedish maestro Ingmar Bergman, Italian directors Luchino Visconti and Roberto Rossellini as well as with the best of contemporary world films.

At least 225 films - as against 149 last year - from 53 countries are being shown at the festival which features a retrospective of Bergman and pays tributes to Italians Luchino Visconti and Roberto Rossellini, whose birth centenaries are being observed this year.

Films revolving around writer Franz Kafka and a visit by Chilean filmmaker Miguel Littin are some of the highlights of the festival.

“We are getting more films and more delegates - about 90 foreigners - this time on a budget of Rs.10 million, which is the same as last year,” Bhattacharya said.

While the state government is pumping in Rs.6.5 million, the rest will be raised through sponsorships.

Eight films by Bergman will be screened in the Great Masters section. In the Centenary Tribute two films of Visconti and four films of Rossellini will be shown.

In the Celluloid Diamonds section, five films by Czech filmmaker Jan Nemec and four of Chilean filmmaker Miguel Littin will be screened.

There will be films on the works of writer Franz Kafka in the Celluloid Pearls section besides contemporary Chinese cinema and French films, including comedies.

In the Special Tribute section, there are four films of Italian filmmaker Nanni Moretti, and in the Homage section works of Japanese filmmaker Shohei Imamura, who died this year, would be shown.

Films in Indian languages like Assamese, Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi and Tamil would be screened. There will be 20 short films and five documentaries in the total of 225.

“The aim of the festival is to promote film appreciation and film culture, and that to an extent is reflected in the local film industry. It is our window to world cinema,” said festival chairman and veteran actor Soumitro Chatterjee.

— IANS

 

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