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Cinema with substance: screenwriting, film classics, European, Asian, African, Hollywood, short films

An Independent Filmmaker's Journey

Chicago filmmaker Ligy J. Pullappally practiced public interest law for seven years before boldly setting out to write and produce her first feature film, "The Journey." The film, shot on location in India, in the Malayalam language, is being released in the US with English subtitles. The Journey aka Sancharram has already won international critical acclaim and bagged the Award for "Best Film" at the 40^th Chicago International Film Festival. More

Micro-movie reviews collection updated
Short-short reviews on films from around the world
Martin Paule's Reviews:
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Lifetime TOP 10 movies: Lists from around the world

Martin Paule's TOP 10:

Thomas Palakeel's TOP 10

1. Citizen Kane 2. The Godfather  I&II 3. Chinatown 4. The Apu Trilogy: Pather Panchali/ Aparajito/ The World of Apu  (on Ray) 5. TheGeneral (1927) 6. 8 1/2. 7. 2001: A Space Odyssesy. 8. The Conformist 9. El Topo 10. Oh Luky Man (to Martin's Main Page)

1. Devi (The Goddess). Dir. Satyajit Ray 2. Elipathayam. Dir. Adoor Gopalakrishnan 3. Seven Samurai. Dir. Akira Kurosawa 4. Fanny and Alexander. Dir. Ingmar Bergman 5. Andrei Rublev. Dir . Andrei Tarkovsky 6. Farewell, my Concubine. Dir. Chen Keige 7. The Birds. Dir. Alfred Hitchcock 8. Caligula. Dir. Tinto Brass 9. A Man Escaped. Dir. Robert Bresson 10. The Godfather. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola (go to his Internet2 screenwriting course)

Excerpt from the Satyajit Ray entry: While some find these films glacially slow, I consider the trilogy to be one of the greatest and most honest works committed to celluloid. Thedirector, Satyajit Ray undertook this series in 1955 with neither much film experience nor funds. Thanks to the Merchant/Ivory team, the trilogy has been reissued in video with sharp new prints and legible (and literate) subtitles. When I originally saw these films in the 60s, the prints were awful and the subtitles were practically illegible, so watching them in pristine condition proved a great delight. Read more...

More TOP 10 lists: Top 250 films list IMDB. American Film Institute 100 great film quotes:

Musings from Hollywood by Nicholas Thurkettle Profile


Nick's lifetime Top 10 Films:
10) The Seven Samurai
9) Miller's Crossing
8) Annie Hall
7) Tootsie
6) A Fish Called Wanda
5) The Apartment
4) Goodfellas
3) Network
2) Lawrence of Arabia
1) Casablanca


Go to detailed discussion and lists A California native, movie buff, and Jeopardy! contestant, writer Nicholas Thurkettle graduated from Bradley University, in Peoria, Illinois, in 1999 with degrees in Theatre and Music and a Global Scholar option from a semester of study in the U.K. His script "Queen  Lara"  is  slated for production at Room 9 Entertainment. See Indiewire

Regular column on screenwriting and Hollywood: Nicholas Thurkettle's 10 Rules of Screenwriting

Why are there so many bad movies?

by Valerie Perry
The secret to selling a screenplay is the same as publishing a novel, a memoir: write something really great! Something fantastic! Something with integrity!  This advice was reiterated at the first meeting of the Heart of Illinois Screenwriters's Troupe I attended in December, 2005. At one point I raised my hand to ask what sounds like a smartass question, but one to which I needed an answer: "Then where do all the terrible movies come from?" Read more...

Another answer is right there in William Goldman, Adventures in the Screen Trade: "In Hollywood, NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING."
Beverly Hills: snapshot

My Life at the Movies 

by Thomas Palakeel
As a boy growing up in India, I never really believed that movies existed. Once my sister rolled up the edge of her textbook and let the pages unfurl quickly, trying to demonatrate how pictures appeared to be moving. I remained skeptical until my father took me to a movie that summer. It was also the first movie for my mother, not to mention my sister, the movie expert.

On our way to the distant town of Pala, I heard the driver talk about the famed movie. Best picture of the year in all of India. Winner of the President's Gold Medal. Made in our Malayalam language. Shot in Eastman color, starring Satyan, Madhu, and Sheela. Based on the famed novel, Chemmeen (Prawns, 1966. Director: Ramu Kariat) was now heading out to the foreign lands, Russian, China, and the United States. Read more...

Top Screenwriter Sites: Writer's store Creatitve Cow Creative Screenwriting Magazine Euroscreenwriters ScreenTalk Wordplay Screenwriter's Utopia Recent Script Sales: Archive Also interviews with producers	Blogs by top screenwriters John August( Big Fish) Michael Chabon (novelist and screeenwriter) Hanif Kureishi (My Beautiful Laundrette) Charlie Kaufman interview (Adaptation) Ethan Wiley (Children of the Corn) Nick Thurkettle' (our columnist) Agent Ryan Saul bio and his huge shelf of screenplays new screenplayers speak from salary.com Director	Archival and Festival Sites: Harvard Film Archive UCLA Film and Television Am. Screenwriter's Association Chicago Screenwriters Screenwriters: alphabetical list Script Magazine Cannes Film Festival Sundance: the Channel CS: Daily (check the archive)
Asian Film.Org Visit Project Greenlight Register scripts: Writer's Guild Final Draft screenwritig Contest Wikipedia: Screenwriting terms	Free Scriptwriting Software: Celtx.com Get the right film books Variety and Hollywood Reporter Bright Lights Film Quarterly Filmmaker Magazine	Great Directors: Senses of Cinema Film Comment: free articles archive Gay and Lesbian film journal Masters of Cinema (excellent) and you ned Rotten Tomatoes
Canyon Films Arab Films Ambrose Video	Women Make Movies Great Foreign cinema  DVDs All Contests: open source list	Film Finance info portal American Film Market Japanese Film culture

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Cinema with substance: screenwriting, film classics, European, Asian, African, Hollywood, short films