To Be or Not to Be

Osamu Minorikawa, screenwriter and documentary filmmaker, makes his feature debut in the form of an emminently visual cine-poem, that distances itself from the narrative imperatives of dramatic fiction to concentrate on atmospheres, image and sound. The film is made up of five episodes drawn from everyday life: the meditations of a 38-year-old single woman who works as a nude model in an artists’ studio, the life of an elderly alcoholic in Osaka, a young couple making love, the story of an astronomer and his pregnant partner and the reflections of a younger single woman who speculates on the ungraspable ‘somethings’ present in daily life. The film’s cast, headed by Ryuhei Matsuda (Big Bang Love Juvenile A), lend an exquisite tone to each of the five episodes which, despite their routine nature, capture those brief moments and small details that normally go unnoticed from day to day.

When the movie opens, a woman is recalling the events that molded her perspective on the world. Years ago, her husband, a wealthy Western-educated landowner, challenged tradition by providing her with schooling, and inviting her out of the seclusion in which married women were kept, to the consternation of more conservative relatives. Meeting her husband's visiting friend from college, a leader of an economic rebellion against the British, she takes up his political cause, despite her husbands warnings. As the story progresses, the relationship between the woman and the visitor becomes more than platonic, and the political battles, pitting rich against poor and Hindu against Moslem, turn out not to be quite as simple as she had first thought.

While playing outside one day, nine-year-old Michele discovers Filippo, who is chained to the ground at the bottom of a hole. Michele witnesses town baddie Felice nearby and suspects something bad is happening. Michele is unsure whom he should tell about his discovery, eventually spilling the beans to his closest friend.

They call him "the best clown in the world". His Snow Show is celebrated as "a theatre classic of the 20th century" (The Times, London). Recognition came unusually early for Slava Polunin, and from that moment on, his fame was unstoppable. This is probably because Slava doesn't do things "just like that". Everything in his life is very well considered, very finely weighed - even the most crazy, the most incredible, the most adventurous of feats. In achieving his aims, he is concrete, collected and imperturbable.

A brilliant and pretty obscure look at the flip side of swinging sixties London. Narrated by a rather sardonic and sometimes scathing James Mason, we are taken on a tour of the underbelly of London. The film is artfully edited and offers straight factual history with real life characters/street performers/vendors who seem very unaware of the camera. The documentary has extremely surreal and quite tragic scenes by turn and encapsulates a London undocumented in the media of the time.

Acclaimed, award-winning filmmaker Maximillian Schell reconstructs the life and career of the enigmatic film diva. This is accomplished through use of archival footage and commentary from the actress recorded at her home. Schell's job was complicated by the aging actresses's stipulation that her face not be photographed directly.

The award winning director Sion Sono’s latest film is not a documentary but Japan’s first feature drama depicting one family trying to face the hard but true reality of Tohoku Tsunami earthquakes and nuclear power plant explosion.

Naina {Preity Zinta} is a young woman, slightly ticked off for reasons more than one. His father committed suicide when she needed him the most, leaving Jennifer{Jaya bachchan}, his wife all alone. Lajjo{Sushma Seth}, Jennifer's mother-in-law blames Jennifer for the same. furthermore, Jennifer is unhappy because Lajjo refuses to accept Gia, a 6-year old girl whom Jennifer adopted. Even the restaurant Jennifer is running is not going great guns. in short, nothing is well on the Kapur family front. the only factors that redeem Naina's existence are his toiling and tolerant mother Jennifer, and her bumbling stumbling MBA classmate Rohit {Saif Ali Khan}. Meanwhile, Aman{Shah Rukh Khan}, a happy-go-lucky guy arrives in Naina's neighbourhood and soon changes everything around, thanks to his contagious joviality and jest for life. He proves to be the messiah for the Kapur family in every sort. Naina is not a happy camper initially but could remain unaffected by his charisma for long, and …

In July 1969, the space race ended when Apollo 11 fulfilled President Kennedy’s challenge of “landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” No one who witnessed the lunar landing will ever forget it. Al Reinert’s documentary For All Mankind is the story of the twenty-four men who traveled to the moon, told in their words, in their voices, using the images of their experiences. Forty years after the first moon landing, it remains the most radical, visually dazzling work of cinema yet made about this earthshaking event.

For those despairing over the docile nature of today's documentaries, here's a nasty little piece of work that's both shocking and heroic in its audacity. Japanese citizen and World War II veteran Kenzo Okuzaki, who was in his mid-60s during filming, tracks down several former military officers. Through force of will and sheer badgering he manages to lure bits of truth out of rumors of wartime atrocities. Most of these revolve around the act of slaying and cannibalizing other soldiers, due to the severe lack of food in Japan's wartime New Guinea campaign. Okuzaki is not above physical violence and doesn't fear the authorities; truth is all that matters to him. Kazuo Hara directs from the sidelines, without asking any questions or intruding, allowing Okuzaki to run the show. The late, great Shohei Imamura was a producer. Okuzaki passed away in 2005.