When you turn around and look back at all the screenings on campus, save and except a few here and there, the essence of the light movies seems to have been sidelined since the inception of the club. Apparently the intention with which film club was started was to expose people more to movies that are otherwise not readily accessible but are critically acclaimed, keeping the same in mind over the past two years film club has screened movies accordingly. But amidst all this the fun of movie watching seems to have become redundant and is evident at the poor turn-outs. The solution to this when discussed, its results culminated into the Amitabh Bacchan Screenings, the turn-outs bears the testimony and I shall not delve any deeper into it.
Since Film Club is an informal club we do not work on a mandate per se, we suggest that please attend the open meetings and suggest movies that you would want to watch, if you want to watch French new wave we will all sit together and decide on how to go about with it, if you want to watch Govinda-david dhawan combination we will still sit together and decide how to go about it. Its just a matter of taking initiatives and its the fillum club after all
P.S. The aforementioned is mere suggestion, kindly take it as same.
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On fun, turnouts, "French new wave":
I'm for an exclusionary committee which screens only movies deemed to be worthy by the select group that attends our meetings.
I personally do not care to attend nor organise any David Dhavan screenings. On caring about turnouts, I help screen movies for personal pleasure and the gratification afforded by the fact that I'm helping expose people (may it be a lone first year) to movies they ordinarily wouldn't have seen.
"French new wave" is a particularly interesting example as when Goddard , Renoir, Bunuel et al set out screening movies they made they didn't care for public appeal or popularity. In fact theirs were some of the most hated and least attended screenings, with only college students turning up. See The Dreamers by Bertolucci for an interesting insight into this culture.
Finally on the organisational front I have a small grouse, when it comes it selecting movies everyone turns up enthusiastically and adds their two bits. But when it comes to lugging speakers and getting projectors to work or putting up posters, people are conspicuously absent. Please share the burden.
P.S. : This not against any one person, so don't misunderstand the intent. Also add me on please.
Dear Rishabh,
I sent an invite to your email address a long time back. You just haven't accepted it. And how are Buñuel or Renoir part of the "French New Wave"?
i agree with rishabh as regards sharing the burden while screening the movies, ive seen him and some others painstakingly lugging speakers before screenings. as regards french new wave Renoir if i am not mistaken is a part of the new wave, i could be wrong since i am making no effort to check the veracity of the same.
Lastly while re-reading the post it projected itself to be unlike what i intended it to be like. to clarify it further i am not proposing that we only show popular movies what i am suggesting is at least one or two intermittent screenings of light movies to arouse the interest of the people. while i completely agree with rishabh and screening the movie for a lone viewer who is interested has its own rewards i think there should be more movies that would increase movie watching.
My question: Why? Why do you want to increase turnouts?
PS: No invite received.
PPS: Apologies on fact, Renoir I'm told was appreciated by and not a part of the New Wave directors while poor Bunuel had for all practical purposes retired to Spain by then. The point I was trying to make stands, both Renoir and Bunuel's work came under heavy criticism and was extremely "unprofitable".
While I do appreciate that you have actually been thinking about the decline of our beloved NLS Film Club, I do disagree with you on a point or two. Please note, however, that the ideas I am criticising might not be ones that you hold.
First, I don't think it is correct to suggest that more people would turn up if we had lighter films: a Woody Allen film might be very light, as might a Charlie Chaplin film; people still would not turn up. It is also incorrect to suggest that more people people would necessarily turn up for a more "popular" film than for an artsy-fartsy one. Crowd behaviour and audience turnouts depend on a number of things, the most significant of which is the NLS schedule.
That brings me to what I think is main culprit behind low turnouts: timing. We cannot have timing as a mantra for our endeavours (like "location, location, location" for realtors) simply because the NLS schedule is perpetually jam-packed. We just have to make the most of it, and try (as we'd originally envisioned) to screen a film each week. Timing shall always remain a problem. (But we can work on another major problem: sound. Many people don't turn up for screenings just because they find they have a better viewing experience in the comforts of their rooms. And I think bad sound quality is something that ruins the films we screen for many people.)
That apart, I have absolutely no problems with the screening of Govinda-Dhawan films, provided that we provide people with some new insight into films and film-making and not mere entertainment by such screening. If we are able to source good material that provides us with a new way of looking at Govinda flicks, then why not? The reason I oppose the screening of Govinda films for the sake of mere entertainment (unlike, say, Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas!) is that they are too readily available for mass consumption. All one has to do is rent it from the VCD shop. I believe that for such films, we have to find an additional reason as to why the film club should screen it.
I am part of the NLS Film Club to be entertained by the films that we screen. I like popular, light films like Andaaz Apna Apna as much as the next guy. But I do not believe that entertainment is the sole purpose (or "mandate") of the existence of such a film club; it is but one of the purposes. How we go about promoting these other purposes, I think, is the question before us.
The point is this: The Film Club, as we have been running it, has worked on what I perceive as a snobbish attitude that we have had (I'm all for that attitude. I have nothing against it) - "We have watched more films than you guys. We think there are better 'films' (as opposed to 'movies') to be watched. Come. Try them."
Now, I quote what Sumati once told me in a private communication,
"a good movie, like a good book, is at least a bit of a nervous shake-up, and takes you over so the mood and 'smell' follow you around like smog for a while. i loved 'taxi driver' - have re-watched it many times - and it has wonderful ambiguities - you can always find something new to chew over. but who can blame people for wanting an hour and a half of a good laugh and the sugary certainty of the end? cinema as escape has a lot of value - and i'm sure we both like pirates, too :) - it just can't be compared to scorsese, it's be like apples and bananas."
The problem lies in the fact that even when we do screen 'lighter' movies, like "The Apartment", people assume that it will be some 'psuedo shyte' and don't attend. What they don't realise is that good cinema does not necessarily have to be 'psuedo shyte', and partly because of the way Film Club has been run for the last two years, and largely because law schoolites are anal, anything that Film Club screens, unless it is blatantly light (like the Amitabh festival) is presumed psuedo.
Changing attitudes in Law School is like trying to have a polite conversation with Lizzy with an extension letter in your hand. Changing Film Club to Fillum Club for that reason is pointless. Keep at it. There will be one or two people in Law School always interested in screening movies, and five people interested in each movie we screen.
On the other hand, try what I tried as a better model in fifth year. When people came and asked me, "Dude, you have a movie?" I gave a couple of 'films' to them - the Apartment apparently did the rounds of the girl's hostel. I know Consul watched and loved "Breathless" (French New Wave, o labellers). One day, the breakthrough will come!
Hear, Hear!
it gr8 to come accross your site qand discover a film club...we are from kolkata JU Film Studies. i have a small short-film makers' group named ROUGHCUT. and for the past 3 yr we are in the process of making experimental shorts(both fiction n non-fiction) till now we have made 8 films and in the process of production of another 4.
so is there any way that u can help us..
in any way i mean!
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