Now, a global film fest at commercial rates

In perhaps the first such experiment of its kind in the country, an international film festival will be held in the major cities of Karnataka just the way commercial movies are screened. The festival will later on move to other states.

From June 9-15, Pallavi Theatre in Bangalore, Rajkamal Theatre in Mysore and the New Chitra Talkies in Mangalore will screen the movies. The rate will be similar to those charged for commercial movies in theatres.

In Bangalore's Pallavi theatre the tickets will be priced at Rs 50 for balcony, Rs 35 for rear stall and Rs 25 for the front stall.

The films in the package include a selection of top award winners from international film festivals like Cannes, Berlin, Locarno and the Academy Award winners.

Among them is a Golden Palm winner for the best film at the Cannes International Film Festival, 2005. The films are a new crop not screened before in Bangalore or the other cities selected for the film festival.

The second round of screening of these films will be held in Hubli and Belgaum from June 16 to 22.

In Bangalore, the festival will take off with the screening of the French-Belgian movie L'Enfant (The Child). The movie speaks of a 20-year-old youth Bruno and Sonia (18). They live off Sonia's benefits and the thefts committed by Bruno.

Sonia has just given birth to Jimmy, their child. How can Bruno become a father being so carefree and living as he does for the present, solely concerned about the money from his 'deals'?

S Narayan, chairman and managing director, Forum Films who has been director of film festivals and with the National Film Development Corporation (1983-1989) is the man behind the show. He has bought the rights of the films to be screened.

"Some may be slow and others racy and well-paced, but none boring," said Narayan.

Most of the films in the package have either been produced or co-produced by France. These films reflect a spectrum of life in several countries in Europe.

The common element in them is tremendous humanism, combined with everyday humour which is elegant, brisk and at times heart-rending.

Narayan doesn't want to restrict these movies to the big cities or just 'sophisticated' audience. He dreams of holding a similar festival in Patna.

He wants to take a risk by trying to make money out of screening good films at places earlier not used to 'good' international films.