Few days back, I learned about an Indian film called ‘All we imagine as light’ which was rated as the best Indian film of 2024 ahead of Kottukali, my favorite film. It got me curious. On the same day in the evening, I see this post below from Barack Obama and found the movie on top of his list of year end movie recommendations. It got me even more curious.
I googled to find where I could watch this movie. One of the first listings that came was about a screening in Geneva organized by ‘Les Cinemas du Grutli’. I was like ‘wow’. I was looking for an internet link and here there was a screening at a theater here. The google search suggested that there was a show at 16h on that day itself. I took my wife and went to the cinema only to realize that the show was at 20h30. The ticketing staff said that they have the show at 16h on all other days but since they were playing an Italian film that was 5 hours long, they had to move this to 20h30. A film that is 5 hours long? It made me even more curious. The film titled 1900, on the right below, was the 5 hour long film. I would have loved to watch a 5 hour long film but apparently that was the only show available for that film.
Everything about the cinema and its setting was cute. Apparently, they play the best movies from all languages all the time here. In addition, they curate classic movies also. For example, the 5 hour long Italian film was part of a series of classic Italian films from 1945–1981. This was the golden age of Italian cinema that produced classics such as Bicycle Thieves, Shoe Shine to name a few. I was like ‘wow’ again.
I am someone who spends a lot of time choosing my movies. I watch a classic every week. Last year, I watched Wild Strawberries (Swedish) by Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal (Swedish) by Ingmar Bergman, L’argent (French) by Robert Bresson, The diary of a country priest (French) by Robert Bresson, The Mirror (Russian) by Andrei Tarkovsky to name a few. I search for these films on the internet and watch. It is so hard to find these movies and on top of it, it is so irritating to watch these cult classics on a TV screen. And I live in a city where there is a Cinema that curates cult classics all the time and I didn’t know for the last 12 years. Finally, an Indian film only brought me in touch with this amazing local cinema. Synchronicity!
Here, at this Cinema, they don’t screen a movie that is entertainment. They screen a movie that is art. The young lady at the ticket counter was very friendly and she spoke good English. She gave me a booklet which had all the movies and the show timings. Everything about the place was cute — the posters, the booklets, the ticket counter, the passion for classics … I told her that I will come again during the weekend, picked up the booklet and returned from there with disappointment that I couldn’t watch the film.
Next day, we decided to go again. I reached the Cinema 10 mins ahead of time. But it wasn’t cake walk. This is not a Rajinikanth film where one has to fight your way to get tickets. Paradoxically, in Geneva, Rajinikanth films have no fight for tickets. All mainstream Indian films (Rajinikanth, Allu Arjun) get only 3 shows runtime at the most. If I remember correctly, Ponniyin Selvan got an extended run and it got 5 shows in total whereas for such classics, there was indeed a fight for tickets. The lady at the counter said that her colleague is checking whether there were any seats left. While waiting, she said that they might have 1 or 2 left. There were 10 people behind us.
It was a revelation for me. The ticketing staff said that the movie was launched on Dec 18 and almost all the shows were full. They are screening the movie everyday until 28th January. While Indian people would not even know about this film amidst the frenzy of Pushpa2, there is a massive audience for such films in Europe. Art films are profitable at the box office. How refreshing to hear!
‘All we imagine as light’ is a cinematic art that was directed by Payal Kapadia. The film was a Gran Prix winner at the Cannes Film Festival. I had no idea what the film was about but told my wife not to expect melodrama and hyper emotional scenes.
By this time, her colleague came back and said, ‘Il y a deux places’ in French which means ‘There are two seats’. That brought a lot of smile on my wife’s face. However the ticketing lady told that we may not get the seats together. We t
Her colleague took us in. It was a 75 seater theater. I got the first seat on the extreme right in the front row and I had to watch the screen at a 45 degrees inclination. My wife got the seat behind me.
I am usually very punctual. Having studied in Japan and now living in Swiss, this is one quality that is ingrained in me. I don’t even remember when was the last time I was late to a meeting or an appointment. However, even though we were on time before the show started, we were the last people to come in. It was beautiful to witness such a decent and disciplined audience.
The screen started with the following banners
- Please don’t eat or drink inside the movie hall
- Please switch off your cellphones or please keep in airplane mode
- Please don’t smoke inside
I could not help but compare my movie watching experiences in India. The cinema experience varies greatly across cultures. Indian theaters offer a more festive atmosphere. Movies are like festivals with fans celebrating the movies of their favorite stars very loudly. There will be frequent movement, phone usage, and food service during shows, which can be challenging for those used to different viewing customs. The social nature of Indian movie-going reflects a unique cultural approach to cinema, though it may require adjustment for viewers expecting a different environment. I was reflecting that perhaps there is an opportunity in India to create a niche with dedicated showings or theater sections for those preferring quiet viewing and bridge these different expectations.
This crowd had already settled in before the movie started. On top of it, there was not a single disturbance for the entire 2 hours. This behaviour is something that you can see even among mainstream movie audience here but this audience was even more enlightened. It was almost as if we walked into an art gallery.
The movie justified the hype and was well deserved for this kind of audience. It was about three nurses and their intermingling lives set in Mumbai. Since the nurses are usually from Kerala, the dialogues constantly moved between Malayalam, Marathi and Hindi. There were German and French subtitles.
The film was like visual poetry. It was shot in such a way that we felt that we were inside the film living with them. It gave such an immersive feeling. Also, there was a beautiful rhythm and the film was flowing like a river. There were few intimate scenes and there was a scene where one of the lead characters urinates in an open space. Everything was shot so well that you would be engrossed in the reality of it without getting worked up by fake emotions.
Three scenes stood out for me
- when Prabha and the elder nurse throw stones at an advertisement billboard of the property developer who had cleared the building where she lived, thus rendering her homeless. It was like two children in adult bodies throwing stones, giggling and running away. Beautiful!
- the constant struggle for intimacy for Anu and Shiaz beautifully picturized by the kissing scene at a playground and even nature was not allowing them to be intimate by causing a heavy downpour.
- the scene when the three women drink liquor and dance. It was a stellar scene that showed how people at the edges have fun.
Also, the film captured the main elements of the city — the monsoon rains, the local trains — with such beauty. Anyone who had lived in Mumbai knows how the monsoon rains are such an integral part of the city. The constant monsoon rain shots add more flavour to feel Mumbai. Also, the night shots with the train in the backdrop make us feel more closer to Mumbai.
The film was free flowing, unadulterated and magical. It was pure art.
I was just so grateful to the universe that I got an opportunity to witness such art work along with such an enlightened crowd and that too in that cute setting. Even more so, the fact that art films have such a massive and great audience was heart warming.
