Scenes from the American film Powaqqatsi and (below) Italian film We have a Pope. Telegraph pictures

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 21: At its monthly show, Film Society of Bhubaneswar (FSB) screened an experimental American film and comical Italian drama.

The screening was held on Thursday evening at Jayadev Bhavan auditorium.

Powaqqatsi (1988), the first film of the evening, was a follow up to last month’s screening of American director Godfrey Reggio’s 1983 film Koyaanisqatsi (life out of balance).

While Koyaanisqatsi focused on man’s relationship with technology in the northern hemisphere, Powaqqatsi, meaning life in transition, had a different take.

Looking at countries in the southern hemisphere, the film moved its focus to farming and fishing, the use of land and the sea on which many people’s livelihood depends and showed the effect of modern western technology on these societies and their age-old traditions.

Using the same methods as in the earlier film to extend the very form of cinema, with no conventional plot, but a montage of images and sound, it created a cinematic audio-visual experience through the remarkable collage created by cinematographer Ron Fricke and composer Philip Glass.

We have a Pope (2011), the second screening of the evening, was by the Italian writer, director and actor Nanni Moretti. Cardinal Melville, an unassuming old priest, finds himself elected as the next Pope.

Unwilling to take the job, Melville panics as the believers wait for their new Pope to appear at St. Peter’s Square.

To prevent a worldwide crisis, the Vatican calls in an unlikely psychotherapist to find out what is wrong with Melville and get him to take the position. But Melville manages to slip out of the Vatican City and wanders anonymously through the streets of Rome and meets various kinds of people who seem to be enjoying simple everyday pleasures. He finds the resolve to take up the duty while meandering aimlessly. The great French actor Michel Piccoli, who has worked with almost every great European director and now in his late 80s, played the Pope in this gentle comic-satire. This 101-minute film remains as one of Piccoli’s most endearing roles.

“I have seen a few of Michel Piccoli’s films and We have a Pope is one of his best. A must watch for any cine lover,” said Rosalin Parida, a film enthusiast.