The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz
The Malaysian Insider :: Showbiz |
| Bertolucci to lead Venice film festival jury Posted: 10 May 2013 01:41 AM PDT ROME, May 10 — Oscar-winning Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci will lead this year's Venice film festival jury, organisers said yesterday, defining the filmmaker as "one of the most influential in cinema history".
"Few directors can bring together like Bertolucci a long experience with the fact of living in the present of cinematography," festival director Alberto Barbera said in a statement. Bertolucci, who previously headed the jury in 1983, accepted the post, saying the festival "manages to probe the most mysterious cinematographic niches of the most mysterious countries in the world". Bertolucci started out working with Pier Paolo Pasolini on "Accattone" (1961) and his latest film "Me and You" came out in 2012. "The Last Emperor" in 1987 won nine Oscars and was the first and only Italian film to receive a golden statue for best director. —AFP/Relaxnews |
| India plans to relax Bollywoody censorship Posted: 10 May 2013 01:28 AM PDT NEW DELHI, May 10 — India's all-powerful censor board is planning a lighter approach to Bollywood after decades chopping tens of thousands of film scenes, from onscreen kisses to violent endings.
But as the country rapidly modernises, the government must walk the tightrope of catering to a more liberal, youthful India without angering still deeply conservative strands of society. "The rules are old. We have to write them with a modern and honest outlook. The Indian value system has changed hence censor rules must change," admitted R. Singh, joint secretary of the film department in New Delhi. The government attempted to show its more open-minded approach at the recent "Cut-Uncut" festival in the capital, which screened originally censored film clips for the first time as part of Indian cinema's centenary celebrations. Directors such as Ramesh Sippy, who made the Hindi action blockbuster "Sholay" (Embers) in 1975, also had the chance to vent their anger at censorship culture. Sippy said he was forced to change his film's plotline at the insistence of the censors, who decided it was too violent. "The board said: 'We will tell you how to end the movie', and I was forced to shoot the ending again. I realised that if I keep fighting, my film's release will not be allowed." K. Hariharan, a critically acclaimed filmmaker from south India, said he felt like "an anxious student waiting for his performance card" whenever censors watched his film. He thinks it is time to disband the board, which he sees as a colonial remnant that restricts freedom of expression — an idea that the government may slowly be agreeing with. "This whole business of brutally chopping scenes or forcing the filmmakers to alter the climax will have to end," said Singh, who oversees the task of issuing certificates to all Indian movies. A more relaxed approach is already allowing filmmakers to experiment. Aamir Khan tested the limits in 2011 with comedy "Delhi Belly", a film that outraged conservative critics for its toilet humour and dialogue strewn with profanities, which surprisingly passed the censors uncut. Despite protests at cinemas and even a court case on charges of obscenity and insulting religion, the movie ran to full houses and became a cult hit for its reflection of young people in modern, urban India. Censors admit that regulating content is becoming an unwieldy job in a country of 1.2 billion, which has witnessed an explosion in its television and media industry along with growing Internet access. In the last two decades, the country went from having two just state-run channels to nearly 400 private ones, and filmmakers are increasingly keen to get their work on the small screen to generate more revenue. But as censor board chief Pankaja Thakur points out, they run a greater risk of being chopped on television. In April last year "The Dirty Picture", a popular film about the life of a 1980s Indian soft-porn star, was stopped hours before its television premiere after two court petitions objected to its content. It took 60 cuts before it was allowed on to the screen. "Television is a much more mass medium than the movie halls, so we have to ensure that content on TV is suitable," Thakur said. The censors' dilemma reflects a larger debate about freedom of expression in India, which is proud of its status as the world's largest democracy but can also be quick to enact bans for fear of provoking agitation. In 2011, northern states banned "Aarakshan" (Reservation), which tackled the thorny issue of caste quotas in government jobs and education, because they said it "could incite civil disorder and violence". Southern Tamil Nadu state in January forced spy thriller "Vishwaroopam" out of cinemas after Muslim groups complained that they were portrayed negatively, until the director finally agreed to make alterations. Objections to sex or nudity have mainly come from conservative Hindu groups who see themselves as champions of traditional Indian values — and censors too still see their role partly as one of "moral guardianship". — AFP/Relaxnews |
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