INSCRUTABLE LIVES

A PALE VIEW OF HILLS

- NAMRATA JOSHI

OBEL Prize-winning, Japanese-born British writer-musician Sir Kazuo Ishiguro proved to be the big surprise at the premiere of Kei Ishikawa's A Pale View of Hills in the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival. What's more, he charmed everyone with the disarming critique of his first book, which came out in 1982 and on which the film is based. "It is bad. I was 25 when I wrote it," he said, going on to talk about adapting books to films. Films might largely be infamous for not living up to the books that they are based on, but he hoped Ishikawa's interpretation would improve on his own work. The jury, however, is still out on that.