KOCHI: Banner Film Society is back with a new set of classic movies to entertain cinema lovers in the city. This time there are four movies from cinematographer Ramachandra Babu's favourite picks on the menu. The visual fiesta will have a good mix of movies which give a satirical take on different times, classic movies where fantasy becomes the medium for narrating the story of different times, alongwith a re-adaptation of a Shakespearean play.
The day's screening will start with Charlie Chaplin's 1940 film 'The Great Dictator', which has Charlie lampooning Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. In his first film with dialouge, Chaplin plays the dual roles of a Jewish barber and Adenoid Hynkel, dictator of Tomaninia. The highly controversial political satire, written, directed, produced as well as scored by the icon of the silent era, became the most successful film of his career, despite the film being banned in several countries including Germany. The movie which was well received across the United States as well as the United Kingdom after its release went on to become the second most popular movie in the US in 1941.
The next movie to be screened will be the 1957 Swedish film 'The Seventh Seal' by Ingmar Bergman. Set during the time of the 'Black Death' pandemic, the film deals with a game of chess played between a medieval knight(Max Von Sydow) and the personification of death, who is here to take away the knight's life. More than just a fantastic tale, the film, which is considered one of the classics of world cinema, speaks of the dread of death that people of that era had.
'Gabbeh', a 1996 Iranian film by Mohsen Makhmalbaf is a simple fable about a young girl who emerges out of a 'Gabbeh', to narrate her story. The film which was screened at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival, and was selected as the country's entry to the 70th Academy Awards. 'Gabbeh' also bagged the best director and the best artistic contribution awards at the Catalonian International Film Festival and the Tokyo International Film Festival respectively. The movie also got the Silver Screen Award at the Singapore International Film Festival.
Another classic offering on the cards is 'Throne of Blood' from 1957, Akira Kurosawa's take on Shakespeare's 'Macbeth'. Kurosawa relocates the setting of the film to feudal Japan, and the film, with the legendary Toshiro Mifune in the lead, interweaves elements of 'Noh' a traditional theatre art form in Japan.
The one-day-long Banner Film Festival will be held on March 20 from 9.30 am at Lenin Balavadi behind Tagore Theatre.