Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan’s new film The Last Lear opens in Mumbai today. It is the latest in a string of English-language movies to hit the screens as Indian cinema explores new themes and content.
Based on Utpal Dutt’s Bengali play Aajker Shahjahan (Today’s Shahjahan), Bachchan, 66, plays Harry, a retired, silver-haired Shakespearean actor who yearns to play the English playwright’s tragic hero King Lear.
The film, first shown to critical acclaim at the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, is a far cry from Bollywood’s usual formula of lavish, set-piece Hindi song and dance routines.
It is Bachchan’s first full-length feature film in English in his glittering four-decade-long career.
Even though the popularity here of song, dance and romance “masala” movies is unlikely to fade anytime soon, Bollywood watchers believe that Bachchan’s involvement could prompt more filmmakers to follow suit.
This year’s Toronto film festival features a documentary about the celebrity we all hear far too much about. It’s not easy being Paris Hilton, always being photographed by the paparazzi doing things as mundane as ordering a hamburger at a drive-in.
Paris, Not France, a documentary about the life and business of being Paris Hilton, debuted on Tuesday at the Toronto International Film Festival. From one perspective, it doesn’t seem like much fun being a 27-year-old global celebrity.
The movie from director Adria Petty, daughter of rocker Tom Petty, shows Hilton at work on red carpets and at home with her family and friends. Petty spent a year documenting Hilton’s life and came away with an insider’s view.
Hilton, derided by some as a spoiled rich kid with little real talent but adored by her fans, is given largely sympathetic treatment.
Petty said the documentary is designed not to sway Hilton doubters but to entertain. Petty wanted to make this generation’s Truth or Dare, referring to Madonna’s behind-the-scenes look at her 1990 Blond Ambition Tour.
Hilton discusses her infamous sex tape, growing up in the media glare and her critics and fans. Petty follows Hilton as she promotes products that bear her name such as perfume, television shows, a book and album.
The business of being Hilton seems to carry on non-stop. In one scene, a makeup artist prepares Hilton for a public appearance — while she’s asleep.
In other Toronto Film Festival news, Steven Soderbergh’s Che Guevara film biography Che has found a US distributor that will release it in theaters this December to qualify for the Academy Awards.
IFC Films announced on Wednesday that it acquired US rights to the two-part, four-and-a-half hour saga, which stars Benicio Del Toro as the Argentine doctor who became a hero of Fidel Castro’s Cuban revolution and a global icon.
The film will play a one-week qualifying run in Los Angeles and New York in December for Oscar consideration.
Che earned Del Toro the best-actor prize in May at the Cannes Film Festival, where the film premiered. The acquisition was announced at the Toronto International Film Festival, where Che also screened.
“Che is nothing less than the film event of the year,” said Jonathan Sehring, IFC Films president. “By giving us the rise and fall of one of the great icons of history, Steven Soderbergh and Benicio Del Toro ... have humanized him and given audiences around the world something that will be discussed for years to come.”
Chinese action star Jet Li (李連杰) said on Wednesday he wants to cultivate the spirit of philanthropy among Asians and has taken this year off from making movies to focus on his One Foundation charity.
“I don’t need to wait till I am retired to help the world,” Li said at the Forbes Global CEO Conference, an international gathering of top corporate executives in Singapore.
Li founded One Foundation in 2007, which at the moment is focused mainly on aiding charitable causes in China. Li said he plans to eventually set up branches in the rest of Asia.
The foundation has raised about US$14.6 million to help with rebuilding efforts following the devastating earthquake in China’s Sichuan province in May, Li said.
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