GB Film Club Screening on Sunday July 14th at National College, Bandra The three main films for this Sunday's GB Film Club screening all share a loose connection which, I have to admit, I didn't realise until I started writing this. The connection is grief and how to deal with it and even, in the last film, manipulate it, and this may not sound like a fun way to pass a Sunday, but the films themselves are emphatically not sad quite the opposite, in fact, for the first and last ones and they are all really well made and worth seeing.
Details on the films follow, but please note that along with this we are probably showcasing a short film called "PR (Public Relations)" by Nakshatra Bagwe, a very talented young filmmaker who many of us know. This will be the launch of this film and all I'll say about it, other than the fact that Nakshatra will be there to talk about the film and answer questions, is that the `PR' of the title means more than what it claims, and the other part is something many gay men are very familiar with! The second main film we will show after this is a tribute to the queer filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh, who died recently, tragically way too early in his life. Many of us have seen his films at festivals and in theatres, but we felt we should mark his passing by showing one of his best, and most openly queer themed films, in which he shows his skill both as a filmmaker and actor. Because of all this we will be having a really packed screening, so we will have to be strict on times. Please ensure you come on time since, as always, soon after the screening starts we will not allow people in and if anyone leaves, for any reason, you will not be allowed back in. Sorry to be strict about this, but as people who are familiar with National College know, the filmscreen is close to the entrance and people going in and out is very disruptive to everyone else inside. Films and timings: 1.30 Yossi 3.45 PR (Public Relations) and Memories in March 6.15 The Love Patient (there will be short breaks with tea and samosas in between each session). This screening is absolutely FREE. The films are excellent quality original DVDs that were purchased by us or by friends on our behalf. We do NOT show pirated or illegally downloaded films. 1. Yossi This film is by Eytan Fox, the Israeli filmmaker who is making some of the best gay themed films at the moment. We have shown some of these at GB before like Yossi & Jagger, the film that this is a sequel to. If you have seen Yossi & Jagger before it adds to the considerable power of this new film, but its not really necessary to have seen it. Yossi stands on its own, even though it is directly related to what happened in the earlier film. Yossi & Jagger was the story of two Israeli soliders, Yossi, who is the senior, in charge of a crack forward deployed team, and Lior, who is nicknamed Jagger because he is so good looking and charismatic. Everyone loves Lior, but it is Yossi who has a relationship with him, which they conceal because its not clear how the Army will accept it, and also Yossi is still quite closeted about his personal life. Lior is not willing to be the same though, and he keeps pushing Yossi to be more open. When their military term ends he wants them to go openly to the Israeli resort town of Eilat and check into a hotel as a couple. But before this can happen they are caught in fighting and Lior is killed, dying in Yossi's arms. As he dies Yossi manages to say out loud, for everyone in the battalion to hear, that he loves Lior. Yossi & Jagger was beautiful and heartbreaking. Yossi the sequel is not heartbreaking, though it does seem quite sad at the start. This is because Yossi, the man, seems to be terminally sad, unable to get over the loss of Lior. He has become a doctor now, perhaps because saving lives helps compensate for the one life he couldn't save, and he tries to drown himself in his work, living alone, often sleeping in the hospital, never meeting another guy. And it shows. In the first film Yossi was a fit, tough looking guy, but here he is both physically and mentally a wreck and Ohad Knoller, the actor, inhabits the role so fully it is almost painful. He is very closed, rebuffs attempts made by friends to lighten him up, works too hard, doesn't exercise, eats badly and hardly ever meets anyone for a date or even just sex. The one time we see him trying it is such a humiliating experience we can see it drives him further into his shell. But then a coincidence forces him to confront his relationship with Lior in the one way he never had earlier and through this he almost seems to get a command from his dead lover, to go to Eilat and finish that journey. Which he sets out to do, and on the way he picks up four soliders, one of who is beautiful as Lior was, and openly gay and, it seems, interested in Yossi No more details, but I'll just say that the penultimate scene in the film is one of the most beautifully revealing scenes I've ever seen in a gay film revealing in a real and moving way which most would not show. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1934269/ http://www.npr.org/2013/01/24/169985660/yossi-out-in-israel-and-thats-just-fine 2. PR (Public Relations) and Memories in March PR (Public Relations) is by Nakshatra Bagwe, who will be at the event to talk about his short film. Memories in March is one of the best films to showcase the remarkable talent of Rituparno Ghosh which sadly was cut short barely six weeks back. This film showcases both his talent as a director and an actor and while I didn't know him, one does get the sense that Ornob, the character he plays in this film was much like Ghosh himself openly feminine and even flamboyant, yet also soft-spoken and with a sense of real steel in him, He is brilliant in the film, but is matched by Deepti Naval, who captures all the shades of an intelligent, decent woman and grieving mother. They come together because of the death in a car accident of her son, who was working in an ad agency in Kolkata. Ornob was his boss and, it emerges in the film, also his lover, which is a considerable shock to his mother, who had no idea he was gay. This is clearly material for much melodrama, and the film skirts with it at times, and fully signals that it is doing so. But none of the characters really are made for melodrama and its easy escapism they are too honest and intelligent and it means they must suffer and understand. There are several moments of real anger and fury, but these are not sustained these characters aren't like that. This could all have made for a really depressing film, but I think it shows Ghosh's real skill in that it is not. He balances things out, distracts us with side characters, like Raima Sen as her son's creative partner who admits she wouldn't have minded being his partner in other ways too, and whose relationship with his mother is shown to develop in a really moving way. The film moves quickly, and the atmosphere is kept balanced between grief and an acceptance of life. The core of it is the relationship between the mother and her son's lover and how they have to accept the roles that each had in his life. This is truly brilliantly done and the final bit, which involves a gift from one to the other, was in its low key way one of the most skilful ways of handling such a moment as I've ever seen. The real sadness one will feel at the end of this film is both for the characters, and for the loss of Ghosh who created them. http://www.indianexpress.com/news/memories-in-march/776242/0 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1895476/ 3. The Love Patient The first two films were about grief and dealing with it The Love Patient is about grief and how to manipulate it in order to get your boyfriend back! This is a total screwball comedy of the kind that involves a central character who is completely crazy, obsessive and untrustworthy and yet so charming and attractive and fun that you give in and go along with his scheme. The crazy character is Paul, an advertising executive, who has split with his boyfriend Brad even though Brad is handsome and nice and stable and perfect for Paul, except Paul is too crazy to recongise this until they split and Brad gets into a relationship with another nice, stable, handsome guy. Paul now realises that Brad is what he wants and needs and if he can't have him, he doesn't mind doing something completely crazy to get him back. And the completely crazy thing he hits on is dying, or at least pretending to. With the help of his best friend, a doctor who needs money to save his hospital, Paul pretends he has cancer and sure enough is quickly surrounded by his family and friends who are all grieving at the thought that he might die. Which is just what Paul wants and it is all seems to be going great, even down to Brad sleeping with him again except for the one small detail that he isn't really dying. All of which is a nice, if slightly morbid, premise for a screwball comedy, but what brings it to life is Benjamin Lutz as Paul. He is a total livewire, self-obsessed, scheming, no scruples and yet so fun and charming and hot especially with head shaved to simulate chemotherapy that you can't help falling for him, and going along with his really quite reprehensible schemes. He's the one who makes this film work and shows that you can even make a comedy out of something like grief. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1737798/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUo2C1DMOzs
