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consort-pr-blog · 9 years ago

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New Post has been published on Consort PR

New Post has been published on http://consortpr.com/film-and-tv/safe-cannes-film-festival-2016/

"Safe" at Cannes Film Festival 2016

Produced by Paul Thompstone, Directed by Stephen Hall, ‘Safe’, is a short film about a chance encounter which takes place in the darkest of times, where one man’s fight to survive is met with one man’s dying wish.

It has been 2 years since the fall of civilization. Joe (Adam Moylan) has learned the hard way to stay away from the cities forcing him to travel through the most deserted terrain in Ireland. His search for clean water and food is interrupted by an injured man, Pete (Zeb Moore), who is left for dead by the ‘bad ones’. Joe must learn to trust Pete as he is brought to the task of taking his wife home.

Stephen Hall

The Director, Stephen Hall, is an Irish Film-maker, his passion and love for telling stories came from a very young age. Ever since completing a Bachelor of Science in Video and Sound, Stephen has written and directed many projects for the festival circuit and for Irish Television, most recent of which being the international award winning short film ‘Sinners’. Coming from a cinematography and visual effects background, Stephen has a unique eye for visuals. In his final year in college he began teaching film making in another neighbouring college while he wrote, directed and shot his thesis film. This film was then optioned for a television pilot for the national broadcaster RTÉ.

Stephen has recently wrapped up directing Dawn Bradfield (King Arthur, The Clinic) and Joe Mullins (Pilgrim Hill, Glassland) in the upcoming Gerry Stembridge picture, ‘Day Off’ for RTE. Stephen loves ‘high concept’, he creates stories that push the boundaries of genre and has a visual flare that draws you in and holds you there. He is a multi-award winning film-maker, winning awards internationally for Best Film, Best Drama, Best

Quote from Stephen: “Having grown up in the same town as the producer and having had success in our own fields, we decided to collaborate on a project together. I wanted ‘Safe’ to be shot as efficiently as possible with a small crew and a story centered around a ‘real’ hard hitting conversation in a high concept environment. I’ve always had a fascination with the concept of exploring how people react when all societal rules are abolished, ‘what is their moral compass, what is right and what is wrong’. Out of this came SAFE.”

Zeb Moore

Actor (Pete) – Zeb Moore. Originally from Dublin, Zeb moved to the West of Ireland in 2000 and very soon after became involved in the acting scene in Limerick. Since moving he has acted in TV series for RTÉ and TG4. He has appeared in Feature length films, Short films and Web series. Constantly involved with theatre whether its Acting, Producing, Directing or teaching. Zeb set up ‘Magic Roundabout Theatre’ with Writer and Actor, Darren Maher. Zeb has performed most recently in his one-man show ‘Spinal Krapp’, written by Darren Maher. ‘Spinal Krapp’ has toured extensively since 2010. He has also appeared on stage at the Electric Picnic music festival in Ireland, Body and Soul festival as well as the 10 Days in Dublin Festival.

Paul Thompson

Paul Tompson “Shortly after we submitted ‘Safe’ to the Short Film Corner we were astonished to discover it had been accepted to take part. As roughly two out of every three films submitted to this section of the festival get accepted and with thousands of participants attending every year, we knew that ‘Safe’ wouldn’t get half as much recognition or attention from investors or distributors as it would if it had been accepted into the Official Competition. This meant that a lot of work had to be put in if we were to get a leg up on the other participants attending with short films. It would seem luck was on our side as only a few weeks later we received a phone-call through connections that a bar owner, located minutes from the central hub of the festival, was willing to let us host our very own night at their venue on behalf of our film during the upcoming festival. We are hoping that this event will help us immensely when it comes to the marketing and the general publicity of both our production company and ‘Safe’.” Paul Thompstone Head of Production | Greenflash Pictures

For More details check out: www.GreenflashPictures.com

Or contact Paul Thompson via:

https://www.facebook.com/paulthompstone

Feature by:

Penelope Brook Hamilton

Cannes Film Festival – Journalist/ Publicist/ Event Organiser.

www.penelopebrooke-hamilton.co.uk

(If you have any Cannes Press or Event related enquires, please do not hesitate to get in contact).

#Greenflash Pictures #Paul Thompstone #Penelope Brooke-Hamilton #Stephen Hall #Zeb Moore

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paulthompstone · 10 years ago

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A Trip to Bollywood

The Vibrant Mise en Scene of Bollywood

In this article ‘The Vibrant Mise en Scene of Bollywood’ I will be taking you through a journey of Bombay Cinema as well as primarily focusing on Mira Nair’s colourful spectacle Monsoon Wedding. My reason for writing about the topic of Bollywood cinema is due to the vibrancy of music, colour and overall life which it tends to bring to the foreground of a cinematic experience.

The enormity of Indian cinema is almost as massive as its population which today is a little over one billion. Eight million films per year are shown in over thirteen thousand mainly urban cinemas and viewed by an average of eleven million people each day, which are also exported to around one hundred countries. (Temples of Desire, Vijay Mishra, 2002.) The majority of these films would have been from the Bollywood genre, which is now India’s sixth largest industry, grossing around $600 million annually and employing some three hundred thousand workers.

Until the late 1920s, some ninety percent of all films screened in India were from abroad. (Rajinder Kumar Dudrah, 2006.) This soon changed when aspiring filmmakers within the country realized they needed to do something that would share the experience of their culture with the rest of the world. Indian cinema was vaguely recognized throughout the world if not at all, until the invention of Bollywood, so to speak, arose. Bollywood allows a unique opportunity to pin point the contrasting move of globalization in popular culture. It is a hybrid of both the film industry in Bombay or as it is now known as Mumbai, and the famously known Hollywood industry of America. Mostly, contemporary Bollywood sticks to the fantasies and representations of the middle-class Indian lifestyles through which tensions and modernity are portrayed.

As oftenly seen throughout Bollywood films, traditional Indian song and dance is a very regular occurrence. (Rajinder Kumar Dudrah, 2006.) This form of cinema is seen to represent an ideal India in one’s creative imagination, the shared cultural fantasy of an ideal India which is seemingly and constantly striven for and not the real, problematized nation. All of these aspects within Bollywood films are a lot of the time centralized through the use of song. Actually, the film song and dance is not only central to the cultural and musical aspects of film, but also has become a major aspect of diverse Indian life. Song sequences can also operate on a metaphorical level, giving them the opportunity to do what they like with the film itself. For example, they can be dream sequences that are often fantasies for the protagonists but also for the audience.

Monsoon Wedding is most definitely one of the fine line Bollywood films in which case uses its music accordingly for the spectator’s experience. It is a beautifully phenomenal film, which takes you on an adventure through a world of colorful flowers, intimate relationships and traditional dances which all tends to revolve around a family in crises.

Essentially Monsoon Wedding is a romantic film. This genre of film seems to be the dominant factor when talking about the current success at the box office in both India and throughout South Asian diaspora. (Raminder Kaur and Ajay J. Sinha, 2005.) Predominantly, the majority of successful earners within Bollywood have come from the romantic genre. Erotic and romantic elements have always featured highly across the wide range of Indian cinema and films from the romantic genre have always been seen as quite popular within the mise en scene of Bollywood. Whilst open sexuality is prohibited in Indian film, a lot is conveyed through the means of suggestion and semiotics.

Use of the musical aspect of Bollywood plays a crucial role whereby sexuality and eroticism are often closely portrayed with the particular songs and dances used (Rajinder Kumar Dudrah, 2006.) It is believed that good songs make a good movie, in the production process of Bollywood; Music directors are given only the broadest of outlines to work with for a film. This includes a story outline as well as the main stars that will usually act and mime their voices on screen. Music directors draw a range of musical traditions and styles for their song choices in the movies, from Indian classical and folk music to western pop. This becomes a link between signifiers of tradition and modernity, so that western and traditional instruments are combined together.

In Monsoon Wedding we see the juxtaposition of the ingenuous and the sexual. The film has found its place in an international audience due to its addressing of the issues of sexuality and human relationships, in which everybody relates to. Throughout the organization of the Punjabi wedding we begin to see the blossoming of numerous relationships, the strongest one being between the wedding organizer PK also known as Dubey and the Verma’s live-in maid Alice, whom both have rich flirtations of beautiful imagery. This gives the audience that dreamlike fantasy of true love but also refers back to the reality which is true love being so hard to find. Dubey makes marigold flowers the central theme of the wedding for the decorative part and is often seen throughout the film to be munching away on the flowers. This relates back to the first time in which Alice sees Dubey, she is in a state of daydream and moving in slow motion to clean up broken glasses whilst harmlessly chewing on marigolds. We begin to see the passionate love that the two have for each other as Dubey’s assistants throw the marigolds over the pair, pronouncing them as man and wife, as they participate in a mock up wedding underneath the parasol of marigolds. These flowers in this context can be shown as the symbolic aspect, which is portraying both Alice and Dubey’s love for one another, and the metaphor, which is the suddenness of their love.

A lot of the romance contained within Monsoon Wedding also accounts for the films downfall. After a certain period in the film, it begins to feel quite empty and filled with too much fantasy. The relationship for Dubey and Alice for example, may be exotic, but at the same time they are not even offering anything towards each other, but then again so is the film itself. Without all of the exoticism, which is the dancing, singing, flying saris and even monsoon rain, Monsoon Wedding is essentially a western romantic film made predominantly for a western audience. Whilst some may view the film this way or Bollywood in general like this, is that not the point? They do what they are supposed to do which is, giving us that feeling of euphoria whilst retaining and portraying those deeper meanings. An obvious key feature of the film is the portrayal of a masculine figure.

Gender is seen as what it means to be masculine or feminine based on the society in which they live and what is seen as social standards (Rajinder Kumar Dudrah, 2006.). In Monsoon Wedding we see the character of Lalit Verma as one whom grew up under quite a strong influence of traditional social values. These values would have included a big emphasis on male masculinity but also discipline. Throughout certain sequences within the film we see that Lalit’s son Varun as the complete opposite, generating conflict between himself and his father due to his femininity which would have grown on him throughout the years as the generation he grew up in was one of a heightened process of globalization. Monsoon Wedding shows us Varun as he continues to grow up in a world, which is overflowing of this globalization portraying him as an aspiring cook whom wants to be a chef whilst simultaneously juxtaposing Lalit’s view of a man, which is to have a successful job and study hard in areas such as medicine or engineering.

This film is extremely active when it comes to the twists and turns of a writer’s imagination and seems to accurately convey the happenings of a not so distant reality, which is family life. There are ups and downs in almost every second sequence. We constantly see joyful sequences in Monsoon Wedding, like when the family’s woman, gather together and sing folksongs about getting married and participate in some, what would seem as, quite sexual humor. All of a sudden we are watching real people, not a group of exotic foreigners from a fantasy novel, enabling us to see the universality of family love.

Throughout the movie, it is apparent that there is a conflict between traditional Punjabi customs and more modern western customs. In one scene, Aditi’s (The Bride’s) father, Lalit, and the wedding organizer Dubey, get into a small disagreement over the colour of the wedding tent. Lalit wanted a traditional colorful tent of Punjabi origin, whilst Dubey had already began the construction of a westernized white tent, “Y2K style” as he explains. They both continue to flesh it out until Dubey finally agrees to re-doing it in the “old style” which Lalit is so keen on having for his daughter’s wedding.

As the previous section of this case study has shown the modernized change which Bollywood but most of all India, had undergone. I would like to pause for a little while and focus on the Indian Diaspora as well as the impacts in which films like Monsoon wedding have had on them. As I have previously mentioned is one of the fastest growing Diasporic communities in the world. It is currently estimated at around eleven million people, with one and a half million of them living in Europe alone.

This diaspora of Bollywood and Indian Cinema lovers, has grown out of two quite distinct moments in history. As Vijay Mishra explains in his book ‘Temples of Desire’ the starting moment which was of late capitalism had developed the movement of binding labor to the colonies and the second movement of late modern capitalism was the 1960s movement of the economic migrants, two substantial moments.

This space, which was occupied by the new wave of diaspora, for a lot of people, was too the desired space for the wealthy and the luxurious in which case was approved and taken over by Indian Cinema itself. (Vijay Mishra, 2002.) However, in reality, the dreams of wealth were often disposed of in the new diaspora’s by the rise of a neo-racism even as the nation state redefines itself through an idealized project of multiculturalism (Balibar and Wallerstein, 1991.)

The first generation of non-resident Indians are seen to desperately try to hang on to values that mark their difference from the rest of the nation state. The differences in which are seen here are generally and most commonly about tradition, family and most often, the importance which is given to arranged marriages, as seen in Monsoon Wedding. This is one of the areas in which the Indian diaspora which is now spread almost completely worldwide, can relate to one another, giving them that fulfilled felling of what it means to be Indian, from the words of Mishra, “There is a remarkable parallel here between the way in which a shared sense of reading newspapers defines belonging to a nation and the way in which the consumption of Bombay Cinema constructs an Indian diaspora of shared Cultural idioms”.

Voyeurism can be seen as quite a significant element when we are talking about Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding. For Indian’s as much as Westerners, it is a pleasure which is both primal as well as constructed through an absence in the body of dispora (Vijay Mishra, 2002.). The absence in which Mishra is referring to is that of a two sided result. The first is the sense of being excluded from the racial politics of the nation and the second is the need for self-representation. The predominant point in which Mishra is trying to make is that non-westerners too, take part in a voyeuristic culture. They too are spectators of which take notice and pleasure at that matter of viewing the female body, as a natural human being would.

Although a natural element, consequences do so follow this practice of an imperial gaze. It “Infantalizes”, “animalizes”, and “sexualizes” the spectator. The spectator comes with a narrative of this “gaze” as a frame of filmic reception (Vijay Mishra, 2002.) In Monsoon Wedding it is possible that wedding elements of song and dance directs the diasporic gaze to the “ideal arranged love marriage”, therefore in some sense making it unlikely to be realized in the diaspora, where in fact men and women negotiate between public notions of partners in marriage as well as private expectations. The diasporic woman in this case, enables Bollywood to extend sexual desire in cinema even as forbidden sexual relationships are not tolerated in the culture.

This notion of sexual desire brings us right to Nair’s Monsoon Wedding, as she introduces into the film, the notion of a pedophile in the form of Tej, one of the oldest family friends. For a culture in which sexuality was and still is quite a dangerous subject, Nair’s bravery could be seen as one of the key elements to the international success of her film.

Ria, whom throughout the movie was seen as a very held back character and quiet, addresses in front of her family and her loving uncle Lalit, that their family friend was not what they all thought of him to be, but in fact a pedophile who was about to repeat his action once again on another young family member. This sequence is one which is quite powerful as Lalit who desperately attempts to salvage what is left of his family, essentially expels Tej from the family wedding and pretty much the family forever, along with his wife.

However, these drastic turn of events do not for one minute mean that Monsoon Wedding is a dark and gloomy film, because it is not. Monsoon Wedding is beautiful, colourful and visual film which brings us through a state of family affairs, song and dance as well as the medium of love. Each and every aspect of love plays out near the end of the film as the audience are surprised with not one, but two beautiful weddings. Away from Aditi’s banquet, we watch as Dubey and Alice marry and become one in beautiful romance.

The final sequences of Monsoon Wedding shows the endless monsoon rain wash down on top of the colourful wedding tent which was once argued over. All previous anger and conflict disappears into thin air as we watch the entire family, friends and wedding planners dance away to the sounds and feelings of Sitar’s and the monsoon rain, connecting diaspora’s and Indian families from all over the world directly back to their home place in this Monsoon Wedding.

Reference List:

Bollywood Cinema, Temples of Desire – Vijay Mishra. (Ch.1, Inventing Bombay Cinema, Ch.2 Auteurship and the Lure of Romance, Ch.8 Bombay Cinema and Diasporic Desire.)

Sociology Goes to the Movies, Bollywood – Rajinder Kumar Dudrah. (Ch.2 Singing for India, Ch.5 Queer as Desis, Ch.6 Between and beyond Bollywood and Hollywood.)

Bollywood, Popular Indian Cinema through a Transnational Lens –Raminder Kaur and Ajay J. Sinha, 2005. (Ch.6 Sexuality, Sensuality and Belonging, Ch.11 Belonging and Respect vis-à-vis Modern East Indians, Ch.13 Diasporic Representations and Reception of Popular Indian Movies.)

#bollywood #Indian Cinema #hollywood vs bollywood #Paul Thompstone #bollywood review #Monsoon Wedding

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