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. 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. 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. 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. 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
I know Satyajit Ray as a more arthouse-oriented director, the Indian representative of the neo-realist style. The Chess Players promised to be a very different kind of film though, closer to the Bollywood style that dominates their industry now. I was intrigued by the idea, but the result turned out to be terrible. The performances are horrible, the presentation is iffy (costumes and cinematography are subpar) and the soundtrack is just irritating. I didn't really care much for the plot either, so the film started to drag pretty quickly, which ain't great knowing you're stuck with it for two full hours. Ray missed the mark here.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.