Hours in the Dark - Essays on Cinema

Author: T G Vaidyanathan
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Year: 1999
Language: English
Pages: 289
ISBN/UPC (if available): 019564915X

Description

This collection of essays covers nearly three decades of film criticism by the author. The book gathers together his essays on individual films in several languages, both Indian and foreign.

The films discussed range from the Taviani brothers' Padre Padrone to Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs and Benegal's Trikaal. There is a special section on Satyajit Ray, general pieces on the concerns of modern cinema in India, as well as accounts of author's encounters with directors such as Roman Polanski and Tomas Gutierrez Alea. The book includes an annotated bibliography with suggestions for further reading.

PRESS REVIEWS:

Hours in the Dark is a joyous celebration of the movies . . . A wonderful read. - Indian Express

Hours in the Dark is an incisive observation into the succession of moving images through most of the century . . Nothing by any other Indian film writer comes anywhere near it. - The Hindu

Contents

Preface

CHAPTER ONE
PERSPECTIVES FROM THE WEST

PART I
Towards a Century of Cinema

PART II
Denouement in the Modern Film

PART III
Western of Anti-Western ?

PART IV
The Welles Charisma

PART V
Fassbinder : Breaking the Heart Without Betraying the Mind

PART VI
Bergman's Swan Song

PART VII
Michelangelo Antonioni, Blow-up (1966)

PART VIII
Coast-Gavras, Z (1969)

PART IX
Milos Forman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)

PART X
Francis Ford Coppola, Godfather Part II (1975)

PART XI
James Ivory, Roseland (1977)

PART XII
Vittorio and Paulo Taviani, Padre Padrone (1977)

PART XIII
Steven Spielberg, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

PART XIV
Hugh Hudson, Chariots of fire (1981)

PART XV
Jonathan Demme, The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

PART XVI
Martin Scorcese, Cape Fear (1991)

CHAPTER TWO
SOME ASPECTS OF MODERN INDIA CINEMA

PART I
The Problems of Post-colonial Cinema

PART II
Art and Commerce : Is There a Choice ?

PART III
Films from Literature

PART IV
Richard Attenborough, Gandhi (1982)

PART V
Aparna Sen, 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981)

PART VI
Aparna Sen, Paroma (1985)

PART VII
Shyam Benegal, Junoon (1978)

PART VIII
Shyam Benegal, Trikaal (1985)

CHAPTER THREE
SATYAJIT RAY : ARTIST AND CRAFTSMAN

PART I
The Humanism of Ray

PART II
Pathar Panchali (1955)

PART III
Death in the Apu Trilogy

PART IV
Nayak (1966)

PART V
Seemabaddha (1971)

PART VI
Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977)

A VIEW OF THE SOUTH
PART I
Kannada Cinema : An Overview

PART II
The Cinema of Girish Kasaravalli

PART III
Girish Kasaravalli, Tabarana Kathe (1987)

PART IV
Girish Kasaravalli, Bannada Vesha (1988)

PART V
Girish Karnad, B.V. karanth, Vamsha Vriksha (1971)

PART VI
B.V. Karanth, Chomana Dudi (1975)

PART VII
Pattabhi Rama Reddy, Chanda Marutha (1977)

PART VIII
Prema Karanth, Phaniyamma (1982)

PART IX
Baragur Ramachandrappa, Kote (1989)

PART X
Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Swayamvaram (1972)

PART XI
M.T. Vasudevan Nair, Nirmalyam (1973)

PART XII
P. Madhavan, Mythological Syndrome in Tamil Cinema

PART XIII
K. Balachander, Arangetram (1973)

PART XIV
J. Mahendran, Udhiri Pookal (1979)

Conversation

PART I
Alea and the Cuban Revolution

PART II
A Portrait of Polanski

PART III
Yourself Chahine, 'Lilli Marlene' and the El Alamein Battle

PART IV
Marianne Ahrne and the Invandrare

Annotated Bibliography