The Director

Daniel Kehlmann (trans. English)

Recommended by Aditya Shrikrishna

Daniel Kehlmann's "The Director" (translated by Ross Benjamin) is a work of historical fiction based on the life of filmmaker G. W. Pabst. Pabst escapes volatile Europe for Hollywood, but unlike other migratory artists, he finds little success. The colossal flop of his first American film and his mother's ill health send him back home to Austria, where the Nazis are quick to borrow his talents. A reluctant Pabst begins making films for the Nazis. With cameos from Greta Garbo, Leni Riefenstahl and Fritz Lang, The Director is about the loss of moral compass, cinema, both as a tool as well as an all-encompassing force of the masses and how complicity in the creation of even innocuous artwork can amount to significant ethical compromise. Banality of evil demonstrated through film.

The Director

Knowing How the Magic Trick Works Doesn't Diminish Its Effect

Rohan Naahar

In an interview with doctoral philosophy student Yiyang Zhuge, "The Odyssey" director Christopher Nolan spoke about the decline of civilisation, the religious undertones of his new film, and his problems with modern film criticism. The 17-minute interview soon went viral, with everyone from film fans to academics weighing in on the wide-ranging topics discussed in it. The Guild, on the other hand, would be eager to unpack Nolan’s comments on criticism.

Highlighting the “fundamental flaw” with amateur criticism, he said, “The criticism that’s often levelled at movies in general is, ‘Oh, the character has to be made sympathetic, so the character is manipulated in different ways or changed in different ways.’ And that’s a fundamental flaw of film criticism in a way, or storytelling criticism. Because to be able to identify the mechanism does not invalidate the mechanism.

He added, “I’m thinking more of amateur criticism, because they feel they’ve identified the mechanism, they feel that it invalidates it. That can be true of certain elements, and film grammar, film language evolves with that. So when a trope becomes too familiar to an audience, then it has to be changed. But we do, as filmmakers, avail ourselves of that common language. We build on that understanding. Our audience has seen many films and they understand that language.”

Sucharita Tyagi is a prominent video film critic who divides her time between New York and Mumbai. With two decades of experience across various broadcast media, she now runs a popular movie review channel on YouTube and frequently covers international film festivals. As a member of the Critics' Choice Association in the USA and vice-chairperson of the Film Critics Guild in India, Sucharita is an active voice in fostering a deeper understanding of cinema for her audience.

Through a contemporary feminist lens, Sucharita discusses film with honesty and clarity. On her self-funded, independent platform, she regularly interviews filmmakers, actors, and other artists contributing to the evolving cinema landscape. Her writing, geared toward a young audience interested in engaging meaningfully with pop culture, has also appeared in global publications like Vox and Mashable.

The first film that moved me:

Steven Spielberg’s "Jurassic Park" was taking over the world, and in the pre-high-speed Internet era, it slowly made its way to our home as well. I remember watching it on a VCR tape; it might have even been a Hindi dub. Every experience I have ever had of feeling “movie magic” explode from a screen has paled since. The awe reflected in the faces of Sam Neil and Laura Dern when they first see a Brachiosaur has had a permanent place in my heart since that day, invoking a lifelong love both for dinosaurs and the power of the moving image.

An overrated masterpiece:

I was never a fan of "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" because of how it reduced Simran to a crying or confused mess each time she was around a man. Even as a kid, the power dynamic in her home irked me (and yes, I understand the whole point of the film is that her father was wrong). But why did her mother not stand up for her more? Why did it have to be a man eventually fighting for her? Why did others always get to make choices for this young woman? Why couldn’t she speak her mind in front of her father? What was she so afraid of? I never liked the film because I never could empathise with the leading female character, and haven't felt any warmer toward her even in subsequent viewings.

Film you return to:

None in particular come to mind, but I recently rewatched "The Godfather" series for a video I am working on, and the euphoria of watching it for the first time came rushing back.

UPCOMING TITLES

I'm Game (Malayalam), Theatrical, Sept. 3

Sardar 2 (Tamil), Theatrical, Sept. 10

Haiwaan (Hindi), Theatrical, Sept. 11

Jayanti 2 (Marathi), Theatrical, Sept. 11

Autobi (Bengali), Theatrical, Sept. 18

The Paradise (Telugu), Theatrical, Sept. 24

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