Director Ritesh Batra may have released his debut feature film The Lunchbox in 2013, but on Sunday 8 February his gentle romantic comedy will compete in the ‘Film not in the English Language’ category at the 2015 British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA). The Lunchbox kicks off the week on Rialto Channel, and is my first pick for the week.
Director Ritesh Batra may have released his debut feature film The Lunchbox in 2013, but on Sunday 8 February his gentle romantic comedy will compete in the ‘Film not in the English Language’ category at the 2015 British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA). The Lunchbox kicks off the week on Rialto Channel, and is my first pick for the week.
The Lunchbox
Starring: Irrfan Khan & Nimrat Kaur
Directed by: Ritesh Batra
Screening: Rialto World, Monday 26th January, 8.30pm
Ending our collection of Indian films screening in Rialto World this month is the understated and charming The Lunchbox, directed by writer/director Ritesh Batra. After graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts film program, Batra made a name for himself through his short films, including the award-winning Café Regular, Cairo about the Arab Spring. The Lunchbox was launched at the Cannes Critics Week, and went on to win an Honorable Jury Mention at the 2012 Cinemart at the Rotterdam International Film Festival. Batra describes the film as a being about “a lunchbox sent by a housewife that is misdelivered to a stranger and how this starts a relationship via a daily exchange.” It’s not your average rom-com. It follows a less predictable format, and has a detached, at times almost documentary feel, about it as it unfolds. All this makes for a sweet and quietly rewarding watch. Batra’s next feature film is currently titled Photograph and is a story about a photographer and his muse. If The Lunchbox is anything to go by, it will be worth seeking out.
Palo Alto
Starring: Emma Roberts, James Franco, Jack Kilmer
Directed by: Gia Coppola
Screening: Rialto New Wave, Wednesday 28th January, 8.30pm
Palo Alto, an adaption of a short story by James Franco, sees Gia Coppola become the latest member of the Coppola clan to join the family business. Gia takes after aunt Sophia more than grandfather Francis Ford, working hard to conjure an ambient aesthetic reflective of her character’s moods and ambition. A story about the lives of a group of privileged, bored and brooding Californian teenagers, little of this high school story takes place at school. Instead we follow popular but shy April (Emma Roberts) as she drifts from soccer practice to babysitting for her coach and to parties. It is a rather aimless narrative, but Coppola’s naturalistic approach, and the fact she obviously knows her subject matter well, make this a solid, intriguing debut.
Enemy
Starring: Jake Gyllenhaal, Melanie Laurent & Isabella Rossellini
Directed by: Denis Villeneuve
Screening: Saturday 31st January, 8.30pm
From the director of Incendies comes an extraordinary film adapted from Nobel Prize-winning author José Saramago's 2004 novel, The Double. Part doppelganger movie, erotic thriller and parable about totalitarianism, Enemy is one of those films you really need to see twice to piece together. It stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Adam Bell, a history professor encouraged by a colleague to check out a film. While watching Adam discovers his double, an actor (also played by Gyllenhaal, obviously) called Anthony St. Claire. Adam becomes obsessed with meeting and infiltrating Anthony’s life, which leads to a perplexing and quite startling climax.