CINEMATHEQUE

Into Thin Air Movie: The Vanishing (1988) Dir: George Sluizer     The Vanishing pervades a mood of tension and dread from its very beginning and is unlike any other thriller I had seen. Structurally elegant and subtle--with an air of impending doom that tempt us to believe that things might go wrong at any moment--the film is throttled by chance happenings and eerie omens, that decides the lives of people in it, forever. The movie tells the tale of Rex and Saskia, who were on their on-road holidaying trip in France after they had promised their loyalty towards each other, until suddenly Saskia disappears, while Rex was waiting for her at a gas station.    It has been three years now, since Saskia had been swallowed in by the early morning air of France, but Rex is still perturbed by her vanishing act. He goes about pasting missing-notices of her on the streets, along with his fiancée, and is so obsessed with the search for her that it has its impact on his current r...

Is the Chokehold that Gripping? Movie Review: Choked Dir: Anurag Kashyap    Set in and around the Modi government's demonetization policy, Choked tells the tale of a middle class couple who are trying to make ends meet. Choked is by far the most accessible Kashyap film, and tempts us into its darkly pleasant atmosphere, without asking the viewers to ruminate on what’s been shown to them. Is he, as of recently (the earlier example being Manmarziyaan , that showed us a quirkily mad love story) trying to have a more direct and straightforward conversation with his audience?     While Choked plays well with emotions and has the director's signature style of squabbles ensuing from nowhere (the bedroom fight between the couple while their kid sleeps in between them, is hilariously strange), it lacks the layering and depth that make one to root for a Kashyap film. Maybe, this time he doesn’t want his audience to do that, and is in for a rather immediate approach. ...