The crowded Fun Republic probably has Bollywood's 'blockbuster' makers green with envy. After all, which was the last film that had people sitting in the aisles?
Mumbai Film Festival: Day 3
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The screening of the film Dogtooth (Greek film by Giorgos Lanthimos) was so packed that those who wanted to leave could not get out.
The most-enjoyed film on the programme yesterday was Armando Iannucchi's hilarious satire In The Loop, breaking the myth about festival films being boring.
Stark and shocking was Shirin Neshat's Women Without Men, which is about the lives of four women in Iran, the political turbulent '50s a film she might not have been able to make in Iran, where nudity would be as frowned on as politics.
Anurag Kashyap was seen wandering around with two Rs 500 notes, looking for a place to register as a delegate for the Festival.
An eyewitness said he was dressed in a sweaty t-shirt, and looked like he had just got out of bed. None of the volunteers or festival personnel recognised him (were they from another planet?).
When a security man was told he was the director of Dev D, his reaction was "Huh?"u00a0 On the other hand, Paul Schrader was spotted sitting in the lounge, while fans stood outside nudging one another, but couldn't muster up the nerve to go talk to him.
One of the traditions of a film festival is the Open Forum, where a group of panelists talk on a chosen topic and invite an open discussion with the audience.
It began with a session on film writing, which was fairly well attended. The next one will be held today on The Importance of Craft in Cinema with Ashutosh Gowariker leading the discussion.
Goutam Ghose, Abhishek Kapoor, Aruna Raje Patil, Ketan Mehta will also be among the panelists.
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Sharmila Tagore and Soha Ali Khan will attend the screening of Sangeeta Dutta's Life Goes On from the Film India Worldwide Section, curated by Uma da Cunha.
Melanie Vincent, from the Danish Film Institute, has come with a package of six films from Denmark.
Among them is Martin Peter Zandvliet's Applaus, which is about an actress battling alcoholism. Actress Paprika Steen will attend the screening with the director.
Another much talked about film is Antichrist by Lars Von Triers, who is one of the founders of the Dogme style of filmmaking, which shuns artifice and uses an austere form of filming.
Festival audiences worldwide adore him, even if his films are a bit tough to watch. "People are getting a bit tired of the Dogme style, but people have either loved Antichrist or been very upset by it," said Vincent.
A Fun Republic card before every screening invites people to come to the movies to get away from "office, nagging wife and K-serials". Somebody sue them for sexism!
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