Movies
The final entry in Ray's Apu trilogy. One of the cornerstones of Indian (arthouse) cinema and a must for people who want to experience the absolute classics of world cinema. The first two films didn't really move me though and while there's again some slight progression here, this third film too left me rather cold. Apu has finally come of age, but things aren't working out for him. He can't pay his rent and he's forced to quit his education. A chance meeting with a soon-to-be bride nudges him back on the right path, but this being a core arthouse drama means that his happiness will be short-lived. Each cinema niche has its own clichés. Performances aren't very engaging and the soundtrack is a bit overbearing. The drama too left me cold, as it felt too much like a summary of tragic life events. The cinematography is decent but nothing too remarkable, but at least it's not 3+ hours long like so many of its commercial counterparts. Not really my cup of tea.Read all
Second part in Ray's Apu trilogy, slightly better than the first one. Also slightly shorter and less dependent on overbearing drama. This part leaves more time for smaller, more inconspicuous slices of life. It's as far removed from modern Bollywood cinema as you can imagine, but not necessarily better.
So far I've been mostly watching the older Satyajit Ray films, so I was mildly hopeful his most recent work might suit me better (even though Agantuk was also a complete misfire for me). The Home and the World didn't do much for me though. It's an extremely static film, and apart from some notable color work in certain scenes, I didn't find anything of interest. Thanks to the liberal views of her husband, Bimala enjoys a more open-minded education. Unlike her peers, she is allowed to venture outside the house and learn about the world. She gets interested in the views of one of her husband's friends, who rallies against the Brits. But the more she learns, the more difficult it becomes to stick to simple, clear-cut truths. Most of the film is set indoors, statically registering conversations between the leads. If you like a bit of philosophizing mixed in with progressive themes and a dash of history then this might be for you, but rather rigid performances, slow pacing, and dull camera work made it a real chore for me. I don't think Ray's for me.Read all
A romance in name, just don't expect anything too romantic. I've seen a fair share of Ray films and it's pretty clear by now that he's not my type of director. I will say this film looked more polished than most other films I've seen from him, but his work is so damn dry that it doesn't do anything for me. Charulata is married to a wealthy man, who relieves her from her chores. That leaves Charulata with a lot of time on her hands,k but very little to do. So her husband invites his nephew over, knowing they both share a love for literature. What he didn't expect is that soon enough, they also share a love for each other. There's a dream sequence halfway through that is somewhat unique, the rest of the film felt stale and uninteresting. The romance is delivered as pure drama, the cinematography is dull and the performances are poor. It's a far cry from the usual Bollywood cinema, but that doesn't make it any better.Read all
The start of Satyajit Ray's career and the first part in Ray's famous Apu trilogy. It felt like watching an Indian version of Italian neo-realism, not quite my cup of tea. There are maybe one or two small highlights, but the rest left me completely cold. Not my kind of drama.
I'm not a big Satyajit Ray fan, but so far I've been exclusively watching his older films. I was curious to see if his (more) recent ones could be closer to my personal taste, but alas. The Stranger is a rather bland and unattractive drama that goes on endlessly. Not a step up from his other work at all. A middle-class family gets word that an unfamiliar uncle is planning to visit them. They have never met the man, but his invitation intrigues them and they don't dare to deny him, even when they're not certain he's an actual uncle. When he arrives, they do their best to find out his true identity. The cinematography is an absolute eyesore, the performances are uninviting and while the premise sounds somewhat intriguing, the film gets completely stuck in it. The pacing is slow and with about 120 minutes on the clock, this became quite a challenge to finish. I think I'd rather go back to Ray's older films.Read all
Light on story, heavy on music. That's makes it quite a challenging film, especially because the music was absolutely grating. It's probably a cultural thing and it no doubt it needs some getting used to, but I clearly wasn't ready for it yet. Apart from the music, the rest is pretty slow and uneventful too. Terrible film.