ÉCU - THE EUROPEAN INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL

The 2022 film RRR (meaning Rise, Roar, Revolt), directed by S. S. Rajamouli, is a gripping story about friendship, community, and the uprising against British colonial rule in the 1920s. The Telugu action drama (the industry of which is frequently dubbed Tollywood) is a 3-hour-long spectacle. Its main characters, Bheem and Raju, are loosely based on real personalities. With its tremendous cinematography, award-winning soundtrack, and magnificently choreographed action sequences, it leaves little to be desired. Except for one thing: its disappointing female characters. Bheem (Ram Charan) and Raju (N. T. Rama Rao Jr.), the heroes of RRR A recent BBC article highlighting a study about female representation in the Indian Hindi film industry – also known as Bollywood – points out some of the main problems that remain in Indian cinema. RRR , while not being outright misogynistic, still falls into the trap of giving its female characters little room to grow. This, despite how highly enjoyab...

In the dead of night, an engineer at a pioneering tech company slips a journalist into his office. He wants her to interview what he believes to be the first sentient AI. Several years ago, the premise for Quinn Halleck’s upcoming short film ./sigma_001 would have been classed as science-fiction, or perhaps dystopian. Now, though, the exponential advances in artificial intelligence mean that this scenario could barely even be categorised as ‘speculative fiction’.  Whilst director Halleck is careful not to name any specific companies or incidents as his principal source of inspiration, the film’s concept integrates seamlessly into the real-life clamour surrounding the tech industry in recent months. Last July saw the dismissal of Google engineer Blake Lemoine after he voiced his belief that LaMDA, Google’s AI chatbot, was displaying signs of sentience. In March of this year, leading tech figures, including Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, signed an open letter calling ...

Rita Hayworth as Gilda, Gilda (1946)  Released almost a decade ago in 2014, what has come to be known as blockbuster movie Gone Girl ’s ‘Cool Girl monologue’ is a continuing object of fascination for female audiences worldwide.  From the cool girl to the scorned wife, author of Gone Girl Gillian Flynn’s protagonist Amy Dunne traverses a plethora of identities associated with tropes of female victimhood; but in a twist that would catapult the novel and subsequent movie adaptation to fame, Dunne subverts audience expectations to emerge as the veritable villain of her story.  Having previously gone underrepresented in both literary and cinematic spheres, Flynn’s unapologetic portrayal of feminine rage and vengeance resonated deeply with contemporary audiences. In the ‘Cool Girl monologue’ now-notorious online, Dunne reclaims her autonomy to orchestrate her disappearance and frame her unworthy husband for her own violent death, shedding in doing so the oppressive image of th...

“The greatest thing you’ll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return,” we hear again and again in the film “Moulin Rouge!”. Originally lyrics from the song “Nature Boy,” which also features on the film’s soundtrack, this line encompasses the central story of the film like no other. “Moulin Rouge!” is, if nothing else, a film about love. The 2001 jukebox musical romantic drama, directed by Baz Luhrmann, which most often comes to mind because of its remarkable production design and costumes (for which it has won two Oscars) or Luhrmann’s typical fast-paced filmmaking style, also offers a fantastic soundtrack which includes songs by David Bowie, Madonna, Elton John and many more. Christian and Satine singing Come What May during the finale The “Moulin Rouge!” soundtrack, brought to us by music director Marius DeVries, Composer Craig Armstrong, and music supervisor and executive music producer Anton Monsted, is a colourful mix of pre-existing songs (often covered by the cast) and s...

Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio as Calum and Sophie in Aftersun (2022) Claiming the most awards of any other nominated film at the 25th annual British Independent Film Awards, Aftersun (2022), with seven victories out of sixteen nominations, won the acclaim of critics and audiences alike for its gentle melancholy ambience and nostalgic yet masterful production value. A Palm Springs International Film Festival Director to Watch, Charlotte Wells explores in her outstanding debut the complex relationship between father and daughter as revisited through a clouded veil of memory. Combining the delicate themes of joy and grief and the nuances that adulthood brings to childhood memory, Aftersun is all at once rich and profound, subtle and light.  Though Wells makes sure not to lose the joy of Aftersun , explaining in an interview with AnOther how she removed a lot of tension and conflict from her original script in order to maintain the integrity and brightness of the story at its core, t...