#783: RAY, Satyajit: Pather Panchali (1955)
THE APU TRILOGY {Spine #782}
**
A talented artist, Ray’s storyboards are spectacular.
Audio recording
Interviews
Excerpts
RAY, Satyajit (India)
Pather Panchali [1955]
Spine #783
Blu-ray
Blu-ray
With the release in 1955 of Satyajit Ray's debut, Pather Panchali, an eloquent and important new cinematic voice made itself heard all over the world. A depiction of rural Bengali life in a style inspired by Italian neorealism, this naturalistic but poetic evocation of a number of years in the life of a family introduces us to both little Apu and, just as essentially, the women who will help shape him: his independent older sister, Durga; his harried mother, Sarbajaya, who, with her husband away, must hold the family together; and his kindly and mischievous elderly "auntie," Indir — vivid, multifaceted characters all. With resplendent photography informed by its young protagonist's perpetual sense of discovery, Pather Panchali, which won an award for Best Human Document at Cannes, is an immersive cinematic experience and a film of elemental power.
125 minutes
Black & White
Black & White
Monaural
in Bengali
1:37:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2015
Director/Writers
Based on the novel Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhusan Banerjee.
Satyajit Ray was 34 when he wrote and directed Pather Panchali.
The Film
Other Satyajit Ray films in the Collection:
The Film
What a magical treasure!
Criterion’s restoration brings a nearly destroyed film (the negatives were brought back to life after a devastating fire) — and what life! From the opening shot with birds chirping, insects trilling, cows chewing, and dogs and cats on the prowl, human life is on view from a wide, life-affirming perspective.
From a middle-class Kolkata family, Ray would have seemed to be an unlikely choice to locate his first film in a far-off isolated village, without a hint of urban activity. This would come in the sequels.
But he was a deeply knowledgeable intellectual. A huge influence was his lifelong friendship with the great writer Rabindranath Tagore.
**
A few moments not to be missed:
- 0:05:09: A reversed POV shot of young Durga (Shampa “Runki” Banerjee) opening a large jar to pull out a kitten.
- 0:07:03: Auntie (Chunibala Devi)‘s hand in a bowl of mushy rice. Ray cuts to a two-shot of her and Durga.
- Ray had to provide Devi with a daily dose of opium. She died before the premiere, but Ray projected the film at her home in the red-light district of Kolkata before she passed away.
- 0:15:30: Our first look at baby Apu.
- 0:21:43. Durga (now played by Uma Das Gupta) tries to wake up Apu (Subir Banerjee). As she slowly pulls up the blanket over his face, we see what we first think are his lips; but it’s his eye! A cute trick.
- 0:34:22. Reflection in the water.
- 0:43:03: Stolen necklace scene. Who did it? Ray leaves us hanging for the rest of the film.
- 0:49:18: Auntie is telling a scary fairy tale to the kids. Ray first films her looming shadow against the wall.
- 1:03:53: The drums, the troupe of traveling actors.
- 1:09:41: Durga and Apu have a fight. She runs away; he follows.
- 1:09:57: See how Ray pans up to highlight the sky, which takes up the majority of the frame — ala John Ford!
- 1:17:40: The train!
- 1:20:16: Auntie.
- 1:24:12: After usually getting turned down, this time Apu gets a coin from father (Kanu Banerjee) and the siblings pay to peep into a hole to see pictures of the wonders of the world.
- 1:29:20: The kids run into another surprise from civilization — a brass band!
- 1:31:44: One of Durga’s girlfriends is getting made up for her wedding.
- 1:34:42: Mother (Karuna Banerjee) is reading a letter from her traveling husband. It is good news; he’s made some money. Ray dissolves her smile into a long sequence of lily pads and water striders:
- 1:39:55: The monsoon rains have arrived. Durga is enjoying the feeling of the rain on her face (in a fantastic close-up!) …
- 1:43:53: As the monsoon threatens to break down the whole house, dark forces are at play with life itself.
- 2:02:12: As the family is packing, Apu reaches up to the highest shelf and pulls down a bowl. Inside is the purloined necklace and a giant spider.
- 2:02:45: Apu hurls the necklace into a scummy pond, momentarily creating a clear hole in the water which Apu watches as it disappears. An unforgettable image.
- 2:03:27: Birds chirp. A sinister-looking snake slithers into the empty house.
The score by Ravi Shankar is omnipresent (covering the many scenes with no dialogue, as well as background for scenes with dialogue) … in addition to the sitar and Indian drums, he occasionally adds a flute — usually for somewhat melancholy moments.
A great masterpiece made over a three-year period (lack of funding) from a first-time filmmaker with an inexperienced crew. The two sequels which follow make for one of the best film trilogies of all time.
Film Rating (0-60):
The Booklet
Forty-eight page booklet featuring essays by Terrence Rafferty and Girish Shambu, and Ray’s storyboards for the film.
57
The ExtrasThe Booklet
Forty-eight page booklet featuring essays by Terrence Rafferty and Girish Shambu, and Ray’s storyboards for the film.
Rafferty:
“Ray never had a finished script for the movie because, he said, he saw and heard it in his head. Perhaps that accounts for the film’s remarkable evenness of rhythm, its mood of sustained contemplation. The story of Pather Panchali is episodic, but it moves forward with a force of a held thought. Akira Kurosawa put it another way: ‘It is the kind of cinema that flows with the serenity and nobility of a big river.’ In making a film whose narrative depends almost entirely on the rhythmic arrangement of minute observations, the first-time director was in some sense putting into practice a ‘little theory’ of his about the fundamental flaw in his country’s cinema. ‘Indian directors,’ he believed, ‘tended to overlook the musical aspect of a film’s structure . . . The sense of form, of a rhythmic pattern existing in time, is what was mainly lacking in our directors.’ It is not lacking in Pather Panchali.”
Shambu:
“By the time Ray came along, a certain ruling Mumbai film ‘formula’ was in place. This recipe produced, in large numbers, films that were ‘all-inclusive entertainments,’ driven by stars and containing ‘something for everyone in the audience: songs, dances, fights, romance, stunts, and comedy packaged into a melodramatic narrative form.’ This template not only reigned in Mumbai but also spread to the other regional-language film sectors, such as Bengali-language commercial cinema. And while the template was enormously fertile, giving rise to a large body of rich and inventive popular art, Ray was seeking to do something else: create a cinema that turned away from the extravagant style and genre moves of popular cinema and toward a finely textured rendering of lived life. Seven years before Pather Panchali, he staked out his position in an essay titled ‘What is Wrong with Indian Films?’”
A talented artist, Ray’s storyboards are spectacular.
Commentary
None.
Audio recording
From 1958 of director Ray reading his essay A Long Time on the Little Road.
“Problems of filmmaking began to recede into the background, and you found yourself belittling the importance of the camera. ‘After all,’ you said, ‘it is only a recording instrument. The important thing is truth. Get at it, and you’ve got your great humanist masterpiece.’ But how wrong you were! The moment you are on the set, the three-legged instrument takes charge. Problems come thick and fast. Where to place the camera? High or low? Near or far? On the dolly or on the ground? Is the 35mm [lens] okay, or would you rather move back and use the 50mm? Get too close to the action, and the emotion of the scene spills over. Get too far back and the thing becomes cold and remote. To each problem that arises, you must find a quick answer. If you delay, the sun shifts, and makes nonsense of your light continuity …”
Interviews
With actors Soumitra Chatterjee (Apu in Apur Sansar):
“We were curious how a novel like Pather Panchali that was so deeply rooted in nature could be made into a film by a director. But when we saw the film, its effect on us far surpassed all that curiosity and all those expectations.”
“My mother (Karuna Banerjee, IRL & here in the role) was an extremely beautiful woman; she was conscious of that, but not vain at all. She was more educated than a lot of other women during that time; she was allowed to go to school — college, university — where she met my father.”
“I went up to Ray, and said, ‘Sir, the camera is set up. What should I do now?’ He said, ‘have some breakfast first, and then I’ll tell you.’”
Excerpts
From the 2003 documentary The Song of the Little Road, featuring The Apu Trilogy composer Shankar.
Extras Rating (0-40):
Extras Rating (0-40):
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