#152: The Cinema Edition
In partnership with MUBI India
Dear reader,
Today, we’ve partnered with MUBI India, a curated film streaming platform which offers a fabulous collection of hand-picked films. MUBI, as a platform, exists so that more people can experience cinema at its finest. With its constantly changing line-up of films, and a focus on highlighting local filmmakers, it’s one of the most reliable streaming services for cinephiles like myself.
In today’s day and age of binge-worthy content, it’s imperative to fall back on cinema, one of the greatest art forms there is. My father had impeccable taste in films, and exposed us to the most poignant films, going beyond the essential watching of Mary Poppins and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to films like Hatari, Casablanca and Raiders of the Lost Ark. I may not have understood it all but the experience of the moving picture blew my tiny mind.
In boarding school, I joined Film Club, where my economics teacher Rajan would select mostly foreign films from his DVD collection and play them every Saturday night. We religiously showed up, huddled up front in the tiny screening room with our milk kettles and tumblers, watching the likes of Kieslowski’s Three Colours trilogy, The Lives of Others, Some Like It Hot. The love for cinema exploded in college, where I studied Screenings and Film Study as subjects, and experienced the widest range of Indian and international cinema.
Let me take you into the world of cinema through the mediums I know best:
Words, verse, music and art.
Poetry x Cinema
1. Picture-Show by Siegfried Sassoon
AND still they come and go: and this is all I know—
That from the gloom I watch an endless picture-show,
Where wild or listless faces flicker on their way,
With glad or grievous hearts I’ll never understand
Because Time spins so fast, and they’ve no time to stay
Beyond the moment’s gesture of a lifted hand.
And still, between the shadow and the blinding flame,
The brave despair of men flings onward, ever the same
As in those doom-lit years that wait them, and have been...
And life is just the picture dancing on a screen.
2. The Film by Kate Northrop
Come, let’s go in.
The ticket-taker
has shyly grinned
and it’s almost time,
Lovely One.
Let’s go in.
The wind tonight’s too wild.
The sky too deep,
too thin. Already it’s time.
The lights have dimmed.
Come, Loveliest.
Let’s go in
and know these bodies
we do not have to own, passing
quietly as dreams, as snow.
Already leaves are falling
and music begins.
Lovely One,
it’s time.
Let’s go in.
3. Cinema by Nikita Biswal
My grandparents came
from a movie-going age
He would call from the office
and my grandmother would dress
all her children in evening clothes
and wait.
At the cinema, the world
dissolved into light and sound
the salt of popcorn
on your fingertips, and pink soda
that fizzes up your nose,
the colour they made sunglasses in
in the eighties.
Maybe they picked
matching straws
for their drinks,
and this is how it was
back then.
My grandfather used to sing
late in the evening,
with his technicolour drink
in one hand,
the red heads of Ship matchsticks
lighting the tip of his cigarette.
My grandmother always
sat on his side, listening,
I secretly picture them dancing
and my mother and uncle laughing
as children do, sometimes
there is only memory –
my mother sings a song
as she drinks her cola on the balcony.
MUBI has an exhaustive list of films based on poems, poetry and poets.
Poetry lovers can also check out Cinematic Poems + Film Poems.
Recommended Listening
The MUBI Podcast
Did you know that MUBI now has a weekly MUBI Podcast? The podcast’s first season, aptly titled Lost in Translation, highlights unique film stories from around the globe. Films that were massive cultural phenomena in their home countries but nowhere else. A deep dive into why these films fascinated so many people in one place at one time.
In episode 2 of the MUBI Podcast, host Rico Gagliano gets the inside story of Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (DDLJ), the longest-running film in Bollywood history. Over 25 years after its release, this iconic rom-com is still showing at Mumbai’s Maratha Mandir cinema. Listen to the episode here.
The Alipore Post x MUBI India Playlist:
I’m a BIG fan of film scores and soundtracks and find myself often returning to film soundtracks long after I’ve seen the film. As part of this collaboration, I’ve put together The Alipore Post x MUBI India Playlist with all my favorite songs from original soundtracks. Listen to it here.
MUBI Tracks - A playlist on Spotify featuring a selection of MUBI’s favourite soundtracks from the trailers. Listen to the playlist here.
Uplifting movie themes played in a minor key suddenly become evil
Interesting links for Cinephiles
MUBI Notebook (A daily, international film publication)
Drew's Script-O-Rama (Free movie scripts!)
Blank on Blank (Lost interviews with actors, illustrated)
Art x Cinema
-Classic Movies in Miniature Style
-Rong E Ray by Shreya Roy Chowdhury
-Paintings in Movies + Film Scenes inspired by Paintings
-Books in Movies + Good Movies as Old Books
Pride Month celebrations on MUBI
Happy Pride! To honor the rich and multifaceted nature of Pride, MUBI has put together an eclectic collection of films this June, highlighting some of the most iconic moments of queer history and artistry. From the incendiary power of Lizzie Borden’s Born in Flames to Rohin Raveendran’s The Booth, which portrays a romance beyond time and place, to Emma Seligman’s hilariously chaotic Shiva Baby, each film presents a different, yet equally crucial perspective of the queer experience.
Dive deep into the films this month, and keep discovering these always bold, often joyful, and utterly unapologetic stories all year long. We recommend watching the following films for Pride Month:
-Born in Flames
-Rafiki
-Indianara
-Shiva Baby
-The Booth
-Matthias & Maxime
Read the full article here.
Rohini Recommends: 5 Filmmakers from India worth checking out
1. Chaitanya Tamhane
2. Rohin Raveendran Nair
3. Sai Paranjpye
4. Megha Ramaswamy
5. Ashish Avikunthak
Read the full article here and learn more about these brilliant storytellers.
Sign Up for a Free 30-Day MUBI Film Subscription today!
If you’ve made it till the end, you’re definitely a cinema lover. We’re so happy to share that all The Alipore Post readers get a free month-long subscription to MUBI India!
Sign up for the free 30-day trial at mubi.com/aliporepost.
“Cinema is a mirror by which we often see ourselves.” -Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu
Glad to see Toulumne in your playlist :) it was my phone ringtone for a long long time...
I would have added Promontory from the Last of the Mohicans, Shire theme from LOTR, Elysium/Honor Him from Gladiator and Gift of a Thistle/Main title from Braveheart...
Also, soundtracks work in two ways. one is a score of sorts with a theme (which is mostly an instrumental) and then there are songs which are played in the movie which form part of the OST. in this song collection kind of OST, my favorites are Vanilla Sky, Juno, Baby Driver, and then there the bollywood kind where we have songs made for the movie where a Shree420 or a Rang De Basanti would be great examples.