INT. UNKNOWN ROOM / LOCATION - DAY
CASSIEL
How about you, how are these holidays going? I heard that you have been spending a lot of time at the movies.
ASHA
That's right, and just yesterday I had a real crush! I went to see La Dernière Séance by Pan Palin.
CASSIEL
Last Film Show ? It rings a bell.
ASHA
It sure should! The movie came out in 2021 in many countries, it won several awards internationally including "Best Feature Film in Gujarati" at the 69th National film awards in India, and is now finally released in France.
CASSIEL
Why did this movie become one of your favorites?
ASHA
First and foremost for its use of the light and composition. After Samay's first exposure to a movie, the world around him becomes cinema. Colored broken glass bits become tools to shape light. Everyday scenes become a succession of shots that make up the film of his life.
One particular scene caught my attention. Shortly after the beginning of the movie, Samay is sitting with his family around a meal. His family is facing him, lit with warm light coming from the fire in the center. Samay has his back to us and the outline of his head in the night stands out from the rest of the frame.
This separation gives the impression that Samay is not really there having a meal with his family, but that he is rather observing the scene as if on a screen. This evolution in the composition of the shots brilliantly illustrates the birth of a filmmaker's eye.
CASSIEL
Is Samay the lead character?
ASHA
Yes, he's played by Bahvin Rabari.
CASSIEL
I've never heard of him.
ASHA
That's quite normal, Last Film Show is his only film. Initially, Pan Nalin had set up a standard casting, but he was disappointed by the auditions. Many of the children were far too influenced by popular Indian cinema and their acting was really over-the-top.
Undeterred, Nalin and his casting director searched the countryside for non-professional actors. He was struck by Bhavin Rabari's expressive gaze and that's what got him the part. Thanks to this casting choice, the acting stayed natural and understated, pulling us closer to the character's emotions. The undisguised wonder in Samay's eyes when he and his friends build their first projector from scraps is a perfect example. His joy spreads to his friends and rapidly reaches the spectators in their seats.
CASSIEL
Wow, that's quite an experience. If I got it right, it's the story of a young boy who discovers a passion for cinema?
ASHA
Yes, but it's more than that. The film is rich in thematic content. First of all it's a tribute to cinema itself showing off lighting, film stock and the ritual of projection. It also depicts many aspects of India's remote countryside life and questions social determinism. It touches on learning film-making through love for the medium itself. It also shows the drastic change in the world of cinema brought about by the transition from analog to digital filming.
CASSIEL
Honestly, I'd like to see it now. It's not just a movie about cinema but it's almost like a film that thinks with cinema.
ASHA
Exactly. I think that's what will stay with me over time: the idea that a view can be conveyed. Samay doesn't become a filmmaker all alone. He transforms everyone around him along the way, his friends, his family and even us sitting in the movie theatre. The scene I was describing earlier where he is backlit at the family meal as if he is already watching it on a screen says it all: cinema is not an escape from reality, but a new way of looking at it. That is perhaps the film's inner strength: it not only shows us the birth of a vocation, but for a couple of hours, it makes us feel what it is to see the world for the very first time.