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mrmichaelchadler · 6 years

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CIFF 2018: Preview of the 54th Chicago International Film Festival

Next month will mark the 54th year of the Chicago International Film Festival, continuing the gathering’s mission of introducing Chicagoland audiences with new favorites from all over the world. The festival starts on Wednesday, October 10 and ends on Sunday, October 21, with an exciting roster of movies that have played fests like Cannes or Toronto, along with titles making their U.S., international, or even world premiere.

Three particularly major events for your calendar: CIFF starts with with a screening of the addiction drama “Beautiful Boy,” starring Timothee Chalamet and Steve Carell. Reviewing the film from Toronto, Brian Tallerico said that the film includes "another phenomenal performance from Timothee Chalamet, nearly matching last year's turn in 'Call Me by Your Name.'" Director and co-writer Felix Von Groeningen will be there to present the film; there are two (To get tickets for the Opening Night Gala Presentation of "Beautiful Boy," click here)

Then, on October 16, Carey Mulligan will come to the festival to present “Wildlife,” the latest display of her incredible acting talent, and also the directorial debut of Paul Dano. Brian Tallerico said in his 3 1/2-star review of the film that "Mulligan hasn't been this good since her Oscar-nominated work in 'An Education.'" Mulligan will also be receiving a special tribute to her career. (To get tickets for the Centerpiece presentation of "Wildlife" and Carey Mulligan tribute, click here)

The Chicago International Film Festival will end on Sunday, October 21 with a screening of “The Front Runner,” Jason Reitman’s film about Gary Hart’s scandal back in 1988. The film just played at Telluride and the Toronto International Film Festival, and will now play Chicago with Reitman in attendance. (Click here to read Tomris Laffly's interview with Reitman and his two co-writers about “The Front Runner" ; to get tickets for the Closing Night screening of "The Front Runner," click here)

This year’s International Feature Film Competition includes 16 films, and the latest from the likes of Jia Zhangke (“Ash is Purest White”), Alice Rohrwacher (“Happy as Lazarro”), Olivier Assayas (“Non-Fiction”), Christian Petzold (“Transit”) and more. The category will also feature Kent Jones’ Tribeca Film Festival favorite “Diane,” which will be having its Chicago premiere.

Steve McQueen’s highly anticipated “Widows,” his first film after “12 Years a Slave” from five years ago, will be presented at the festival as part of its Black Perspectives programs, which features nine films and a program of seven shorts. The program continues the festival’s goal of “showcasing excellence in filmmaking from African American filmmakers and the African diaspora.” Along with “Widows,” the program will featured a special showing of George Tillman Jr.’s new film, “The Hate U Give,” a new film starring Tessa Thompson (“Little Woods”), a documentary about “roller-skating’s pivotal role in the African-American community” titled “United Skates,” a documentary about Sandra Bland (“Say Her Name: The Life and Death of Sandra Bland”) and more.

The Black Perspectives program will also feature a tribute to Ruth Carter, the costume designer most recently behind “Black Panther” but who was nominated for an Oscar for her work on “Malcolm X” and “Amistad.” (Click here to read our interview with Ruth Carter about her work on “Black Panther”; to get tickets to the Ruth Carter tribute, click here)

Among the festival’s speciality programs, the Masters program is an excellent place to see the latest from the most revered auteurs working today. Included titles are Pawel Pawlikowski’s “Cold War,” Matteo Garrone’s “Dogman,” Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows,” Avi Nesher’s “The Other Story,” and Mike Leigh’s “Peterloo.” There are also spotlight sections on Comedy and Italy.

The festival is a great place to get a leg-up on Oscar contenders in the Best Foreign Language category. Along with Alfonso Cuaron's “Roma,” which is Mexico’s official submission for the category, there’s also Ali Abbasi’s “Border” (from Sweden), “Birds of Passage” (from Colombia) and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Palme d’Or winner, “Shoplifters” (from Japan).

Fans of short films will have certainly have lots to choose from with the festival’s eight different programs. The different sections include: “Around the Corner — City & State”; “Outside the Lines — Animation”; “Bad Don’t Sleep — After Dark” (with a short by Dev Patel starring Armie Hammer); “In Real Life — Documentaries”; “Searchers — Drama” (featuring a short by Guy Maddin); “Laughing Matters — Comedy” (with a short starring Jason Schwartzman and Jake Johnson); “Beyond a Boundary — Black Perspectives,” and “Meditations — Experimental.” The latter features the latest short from Apichatpong Weerasethakul, a short about “a sublimely orchestrated journey into the realms of sleep and landscape.”

Keeping with the festival’s top interest in promoting women filmmakers, the festival’s “Women in Cinema” program is highlighting 36 features and 21 shorts directed by women. Included titles are: Elizabeth Chomko’s Chicago-shot “What They Had,” starring Hilary Swank and Michael Shannon; “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” by Marielle Heller; Julie Bertuccelli’s “idiosyncratic family drama” “Claire Darling” starring Catherine Deneuve and many more.

The full schedule can be found at the Chicago International Film Festival's website here. Be sure to check back at RogerEbert.com often as we dive deep into one of world's finest festivals.

The 54th Chicago International Film Festival runs from October 10-21. For more information, showtimes, and tickets, showtimes, click here

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lazyupdates · 6 years

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Karan Johar or more commonly referred to as KJo, is the man who has played a major role in getting Bollywood to where it is. In fact, for anyone who is watched Hindi films in the 90s will find Bollywood incomplete without Rahul and Anjali’s infamous “cheater” fight from Kuch Kuch Hota Hai or Kajol’s “Aivai” from Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham amongst many other things.

Basically, without Karan Johar, Bollywood would have a completely different feel to it all together. His picture perfect scenes in films like in Kuch Kuch Hota Hai with Anjali’s red dupatta and Shah Rukh Khan’s friendship band line have been ingrained in the mind of the audience so much that most of them wish to have their own love story in a similar manner. His projects without a doubt have been more aesthetically sound than his colleagues in the film industry. Not just the lead, but even every supporting actor in the film breathes life. The reason for this being Karan’s impeccable attention to detail. And his talent is not just limited to direction, over the years, Karan Johar has tried his hand at various things like producing, acting, and even costume designing.

So, we take a look at the maestro’s journey from being an assistant director in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge to being the mastermind behind Ae Dil Hai Mushkil.

Kara Johar entered the industry as an assistant director working on Aditya Chopra’s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, which is considered a landmark in Hindi cinema. Karan Johar mentioned that he considers Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge to be the pillar of all love stories during an interview with a leading daily. He said, “After this (Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge), a lot of love stories were made but nobody could touch that bar. It is the pillar of love stories. I have a lot of memories of ‘DDLJ’. I started my career from there… It is and will be the largest part of my career. The film with its epic love story and innocence had set the barometer.” Although not a pivotal role, Karan Johar also was seen in the film. He played the role of Shah Rukh Khan’s friend.

Karan Johar made his directorial debut with Kuch Kuch Hota Hai in 1998. Kuch Kuch Hota Hai starred Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol and Rani Mukerji in leading roles. The film was a love triangle between the three people set years apart.

The first portion of the film is about their life in college. While the second portion of the film tells the story of a young daughter trying to reunite her dad with his love. Right from his first film, Karan Johar struck gold. The performances, camera work, the music and the story telling, everything was spot on. Anyone who watched the film couldn’t have said that it is the director’s first, mainly because Karan Johar is such natural at the art. And all this work surely didn’t go unnoticed as Kuch Kuch Hota Hai won big at every award show the following year. At the 44th Filmfare Awards, the film managed to bag the Best Film, Best Director (Karan Johar), Best Actor (Shah Rukh Khan), Best Actress (Kajol), Best Supporting Actor (Salman Khan), Best Supporting Actress (Rani Mukerji), Best Art Director (Sharmishta Roy) and Best Screenplay (Karan Johar) awards.

In an interview with a leading portal, Karan Johar spoke about how the idea for the story of Kuch Kuch Hota Hai came about. He said, “It existed in various versions in my mind. I first wrote a story, which was a love triangle between a tomboy, a very pretty looking girl and a slightly insensitive boy but I was not very satisfied with it. So I kept it aside. Then I thought of another plot about a widower and his child. Again, I was not very happy with that and so I kept it aside. Then I started work on a third idea but simply could not get things in place. But, frankly I was not even thinking of making a film. Till Aditya Chopra told me: Don’t be silly, you must make this film. It is a lovely story. It will work. I was worried about the child aspect, whether Shah Rukh would be accepted as a father. But that seems to have worked in my favour. People have loved him in a different kind of role.” The film became a major blockbuster at the box office and received mostly positive reviews from critics.

Kuch Kuch Hota Hai was also a turning point for Dharma Productions. The film managed to breathe new life into the company which was helmed by Karan Johar’s father Yash Johar.

His next directorial venture was Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham which boasted of a star-studded cast of Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Kajol, Hrithik Roshan and Kareena Kapoor Khan. This film was also produced under the Dharma Productions banner. Like the title suggests the film showed us that in life, there will be moments when we are happy and feel that everything is perfect and there also will be moments where you will hate everything. But, life goes on. With Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Karan Johar just didn’t rely on the big star cast to carry the film to success. The fine writing, excellent direction were equally if not more important for the film’s success. Every Karan Johar is always so full of life and with features so subtle that you don’t even realise that how it is influencing you. Like Rani Mukerji’s character’s unrequited love with Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol’s chatterbox character… they stay with you. The film became Karan’s second major blockbuster at the box-office and received mostly positive reviews from critics.

After Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, Karan Johar took a five year long break before he directed a film again. In the meanwhile, he also began focusing on growing Dharma Productions as a brand by producing films like Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003) and Kaal (2005).

In 2006, we saw his next directorial venture Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna hit the screens. The film dealt with the controversial subject of marital infidelity of people set in the backdrop of New York city. In the film, we see Dev (Shah Rukh Khan) who is always ignored by his wife, Rhea (Preity Zinta) as she is too involved in her work and Maya (Rani Mukerji) who just never happened to love her husband Rishi (Abhishek Bachchan) have an affair. Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna was not only a success at the Indian box office but also did phenomenally well abroad. It was also screened at the Tokyo International Film Festival. The script which was co-written by Karan Johar received recognition by a number of critics and was invited to be included in the library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

In his biography, An unsuitable boy, Karan Johar spoke about what made him take such a risk with this film since Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna was based on infidelity, something that our society didn’t even speak about openly at that time. He wrote, “I wanted to be very modern about it because there was so much talk about marriage being a crumbling institution and how divorce was the new marriage and infidelity was a part of every home. I experienced it around me, with friends, with family. At the time when it released, a lot of scenes in the film were, I realized, uncomfortable viewing for many couples. I remember a couple came up to me and said, ‘If my wife says she liked it, I would say why did you like it? Similarly, if I say I liked it, she’d say what did you like about it?’”

He even mentioned that all the actors in the film except Abhishek Bachchan, had doubts for their character during the shoot of their film as well. For example, Rani would say, “Arre, give me one scene to justify my behaviour… Itna achcha husband hai. Main kyun affair karoon?’. Getting Bollywood’s lover boy to cheat in a film is a risky move. This feeling was shared by Shah Rukh Khan as well which is why during shooting he said things like, “I can’t do this. What is this nonsense!”

He also mentioned that the audience couldn’t get why many things happened in the film. He wrote, “I was so angry. I kept trying to tell people, ‘Can’t sexual chemistry be a reason for people to leave? Maybe she wasn’t aroused by him. He may have been a great guy but she was not turned on by him. She found a crabby, crotchety, angry man attractive.”

His fourth directorial venture was My Name is Khan, which also marked his fourth collaboration with Shah Rukh Khan and his third with Kajol. The plot of the film revolves around a Muslim suffering from Aspergers syndrome. He is living a happy and normal life in the United States of America until the dreaded 9/11 takes place. After which, the entire country begins treating Muslims badly. His wife even loses her son as he was killed by his classmates only because his mother was married to a Muslim. So, he decides to take matters into his own hands and decides that he will personally go the President of United States and tell him that, “My Name Is Khan and I’m not a terrorist.” This is obviously easier said than done, since meeting one of the most powerful men in the world isn’t a cakewalk for sure. Shah Rukh Khan was so convincing in playing the part that you actually buy into the idea that this guy will stop at nothing to fulfil the promise he made to his wife.

Most of the people never agree when they could have done something better even when they know it themselves. But, as you might have guessed by now, Karan Johar is not one of them. During an interview with Filmfare, Karan was asked if he would like to change anything in the film. To which he replied by saying, “Har film jab bant jaati hai, to ek evaluation ka mauka mil jata hai. Hum use film ke bare mein sochte hain ki kya sahi tha aur kya galat. In all my films I find some flaws. Like there was a section of hurricane in My Name Is Khan which I feel directorially I didn’t handle nicely. Which was my mistake. If I have to go back in 2009 when we were making My Name Is Khan, I would have shot perhaps those fifteen minutes differently. Apart from that, I have to say I’m very proud of that film, I’m proud of communication of that film, I’m proud of the context of the film was made for. More than anything else, I’m proud of Rizwan Khan, which Shah Rukh Khan did. I’m very greatful to Shibani Bhathija who wrote that film for me.”

Next up for Karan Johar was Student Of The Year (2012). This was the first film in which he didn’t cast Shah Rukh Khan. Also the first film in which three of the main characters of his film were making their debut. The plot of the film revolved around three friends who are fighting for the title of Student Of The Year in their college. The film was a moderate success at the box-office and received mixed reviews from the critics.

Karan also teamed up Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, and Dibakar Banerjee for Bombay Talkies (2013), a film that celebrated the century of Hindi cinema by collaborating some of the best talents in the business at the time. The plot of Johar’s film followed a magazine editor (Rani Mukerji) who discovers that her husband (Randeep Hooda) is gay after an interaction with an intern at her office (Saqib Saleem). The film did not perform very well at the box office but earned positive reviews from critics.

His next and also the last film he directed was Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (2016) which starred Ranbir Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Anushka Sharma and Fawad Khan in leading roles. The film gained positive reviews from the critics and also went on to be a success at the box-office.

Not just directing, Karan Johar has also tried his hands at acting. He made his full-fledged acting debut with Anurag Kashyap’s Bombay Velvet (2015) which also starred Ranbir Kapoor and Anushka Sharma. Although, the film failed to impress the viewers, Karan earned some appreciation for his performance. A leading critic commented, “The only consolation in the film is Karan Johar who brings a lot of dignity to the character of Khambatta… which is commendable since this is totally outside his comfort space.”

Karan Johar has also worked as a costume designer in many of Shah Rukh Khan’s films like Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Duplicate (1998), Mohabbatein (2000), Main Hoon Na (2004), Veer-Zaara (2004), and Om Shanti Om (2007).

Besides becoming one of the most renowned directors in the film industry, the biggest achievement of Karan Johar has to be the way he’s carried forward the legacy of Dharma. After the death of his father, the entire responsibility of the company fell upon his shoulders. While many would crumble under the burden, it made Karan even more stronger and determined to take Dharma to the position they are at today.

So, on his birthday we thank him for all the contributions to the film industry and hope that we get to see many more of his films in the future.

The post Birthday special: Karan Joharâs magical journey in Bollywood appeared first on Lazy Updates.

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