FilmFanatic.org

Synopsis:
When grown Apu (Soumitra Chatterjee) — living in poverty after dropping out of college to work on his writing — receives an invitation from his friend (Swapan Mukherjee) to attend his cousin’s wedding, he unexpectedly finds himself married to the bride-to-be (Sharmila Tagore); but once their life together is tragically altered, will Apu be able to rally himself on behalf of his young son (Alok Chakravarty)?

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Father and Child
• Indian Films
• Newlyweds
• Satyajit Ray Films
• Writers

Response to Peary’s Review:
As Peary writes, this “final installment in Satyajit Ray’s classic Apu Trilogy” shows us a surprising view of an “arranged marriage” in India, in which the new couple “illuminate each other’s lives, falling deeply, madly in love, and living for each other’s company.”

Of course, “as in most of Ray’s films, there will be great tragedy, reflection, guilt, and, ultimately an affirmation of life,” which circles back once again to the grounding anchor of nature.

Peary writes that while this “beautiful film has [a] familiar plotline” (I disagree), “Ray presents everything in unique ways” and the “final shot… is the perfect reward for us having gone through so much suffering with Apu in Pather Panchali, Aparajito, and this film.”

He points out that “Ray has been criticized for failing to give a clear picture of the changing India,” but counters that “here we see industrialization, get a quick view of a picket line, hear of strike-breaking, get a glimpse of a decrepit school where no education is possible and the back room of a factory where workers waste their lives ‘labeling’ for slave wages.”

Peary concludes his review by noting that “even if this isn’t a social document, it manages to give us insight into people (men and women, children) that few filmmakers have been able to match” — and “for viewers, there aren’t many films that are as emotionally rewarding as the Apu films.”

I fully agree. Although I find Pather Panchali (Ray’s debut film) to be the most magical of the trilogy, this one is a close second given its mature depiction of love, heartbreak, and compromise. Young Aparna is stunningly beautiful:

… and she and Chatterjee make a fine couple; her willingness to leave behind a life of relative leisure with servants to follow her unknown husband to his ramshackle apartment speaks volumes about her loyalty and character. We fully understand the depth of Chatterjee’s grief when tragedy strikes, and are grateful that Ray allows us to experience the relentless impact of this as it hits Chatterjee over a period of days, weeks, and years. While this film’s storyline (based once again on a novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay) is far from easy, we know we’ll be rewarded by authenticity and genuine pathos.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Soumitra Chatterjee as Apu
  
• Sharmila Tagore as Aparna
  
• Subatra Mitra’s cinematography
  
• Ravi Shankar’s score

Must See?
Yes, as a moving finale to the trilogy, and a fine film in its own right.

Categories

• Foreign Gem
• Genuine Classic
• Important Director

(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die)

Links:

• IMDb entry
• Q Network Review
• DVD Savant Review (older DVD review)
• NY Times Original Review

Synopsis:
Ten-year-old Apu (Pinaki Sen Gupta) moves from rural Bengal to the city with his mother (Karuna Bannerjee) and father (Kanu Bannerjee). As a teenager, Apu (Smaran Ghosal) decides he wants to go to school rather than becoming a priest — but how will his widowed mother respond to being left alone?

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Childhood
• College
• Indian Films
• Satyajit Ray Films
• Single Mothers

Response to Peary’s Review:
Peary writes that this “second film in Satyajit Ray’s Apu Trilogy” really “conveys [the] special relationship between mother and son,” with teenage Apu (Ghosal) realizing “that he means everything to her, but can’t allow that to dictate his life.” Peary adds that “the scenes between the boy and his mother are priceless — he assuring her that she’s a better cook than the guy at college”:

… “she smiling slightly but with infinite happiness when her son returns home for one extra day of vacation time, claiming to have missed the train.”

Peary describes Aparajito as a “lovely, perceptive film, with a second unforgettable, understated performance by Banerjee (smiling more and acting nicer than in [the] original) as one of Ray’s many fascinating, untraditional women.”

While I’m not nearly as enamored with this second installation in the Apu trilogy as I am with the first (which remains a truly unique gem), I appreciate Ray allowing us to continue Apu’s journey with him, seeing his passion for learning and clear trajectory towards a life of the mind.

And while nothing can compare with the beauty of rural Bengal captured in Pather Panchali, Ray makes excellent use of location shooting in the city of Varanasi, showing citizens praying, exercising, gathering, and bathing near or in the Ganges River.

This classic Indian film remains well worth a look by film fanatics — and I’ll be back shortly with my assessment of the third entry in the trilogy.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Fine location shooting in Varanasi
  
• Atmospheric cinematography
  
• Ravi Shankar’s score

Must See?
Yes, as the second in a highly regarded trilogy.

Categories

• Foreign Gem

(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die)

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• TV Guide Review
• TCM Article
• Q Network Review
• Movie Diva Review

Synopsis:
A young boy (Subir Banerjee) and his sister (Uma Das Gupta) grow up with an aged “auntie” (Chunibala Devi) in rural Bengal while their mother (Karuna Bannerjee) struggles to make ends meet, and their dad (Kanu Bannerjee) is gone looking for work.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Childhood
• Elderly People
• Family Problems
• Indian Films
• Satyajit Ray Films
• Survival

Response to Peary’s Review:
Peary writes that this “debut film” by Satyajit Ray — based on an autobiographical novel by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay — has “an almost documentary feel to it, so authentic is his depiction of life in a small Bengali village, circa 1915.” The rambling storyline primarily shows the young children playing and observing the world around them while their “father remains optimistic despite having little money:”

… instead “letting his wife do all the worrying about town gossip, about Auntie’s bad influence on her daughter (who steals fruit for her, and is accused of snatching a necklace), about the kids not having enough to eat (they get less because Auntie must eat), about the house being in disrepair, and most of all, about their poverty.”

Peary notes that Karuna Bannerjee (who only made 12 films over her career through the mid-’70s) “is a remarkable actress — with a slight turn of the head, a worried look inward with her beautiful eyes, an almost imperceptible intake of air, she conveys immense anguish.”

Meanwhile, as Peary points out, while “the characters are distinctly Indian,” the “picture begins as if it were stressing universal qualities that the two children possess: they lick their lips as the candy man passes by, the attend festivals, they run through the fields and woods:”

… “they get excited when they see trains (Ray’s favorite fate symbol), [and] they fight when Apu gets into [his] big sister’s stuff.”

Peary describes the movie as “beautiful” and “unpretentiously sensitive,” with “humor” but “extremely sad,” noting that while “the characters in the film (including neighbors) love each other” this “doesn’t stop them from hurting each other repeatedly” — but “what is so special are those rare moments when they reveal their love.” This groundbreaking film — directly inspired by The Bicycle Thief (1948), and featuring a haunting score by Ravi Shankar — is both gorgeous and devastating; viewers should be forewarned that it’s an emotionally wrenching, albeit essential, cinematic experience.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Fine performances by the entire cast
  
  
  
• Subrata Mitra’s cinematography
  
  
• Numerous memorable moments
  
  
• Ravi Shankar’s score

Must See?
Yes, of course.

Categories

• Foreign Gem
• Genuine Classic
• Historically Relevant
• Important Director

(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die)

Links:

• IMDb entry
• NY Times Original Review
• Criterion Collection Essay (Apu Trilogy)
• TCM Article
• Q Network Review
• Movie Diva Review

Synopsis:
A prostitute (Giuletta Masina) whose boyfriend has just pushed her in the river and left her to drown recovers and gets back to work, heading out with a famous film star (Amedeo Nazzari) whose petulent girlfriend (Dorian Gray) eventually returns to him, and wandering into a show by a hypnotist (Aldo Silvani) who gets her to be highly vulnerable on stage — at which point a stranger (François Périer) attempts to woo her into marriage.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Federico Fellini Films
• Italian Films
• Prostitutes and Gigolos
• Strong Females

Response to Peary’s Review:
As Peary writes, this “often sad but magical film by Federico Fellini” stars “Giuletta Masina [as] an aging, sweet streetwalker in Rome” who is “tired of hanging around with sleazy street types and being used by disrespectful men” and “dreams of a better life.” However, “she keeps getting knocked to the ground (or thrown into a stream, pushed into a closet, almost tossed off a cliff)” — though “Fellini is compassionate and gives her a moment of festivity and happiness,” which she “deserves… because of her indomitable spirit.”

I’m not sure I fully agree with the rest of Peary’s assessment — particularly his remark that Cabiria “doesn’t wise up and remains completely trusting of men.” Even as Cabiria seems to soften in later portions of the film (her eyebrows literally shift from angled to curved), it’s not men she begins to trust, but rather her ability to make the best of life no matter what is thrown at her.

She fights off jealous or combative women, and while men continue to attempt to take advantage of her, she is always on the ready to defy and deny their assertions that she needs them in order to thrive. For instance, she rejects an offer by a smug pimp (Ennio Girolami) to come under his protection:

… and enjoys dancing in her own inimitable style when taken to a nightclub by Nazzari, caring not a whit that he doesn’t join in.

While Cabiria is temporarily taken in by a “wise” magician who gets her to literally let her guard down:

… and she is slowly flattered by the gentle and insistent attention Périer pays to her:

… she never loses her sense of self-worth or dignity for more than brief moments at a time. Cabiria will get up again and again, and keep joining in the festival of life.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Giulietta Masina as Cabiria
  
• Aldo Tonti’s cinematography
  
• Nino Rota’s score

Must See?
Yes, for Masina’s performance and as an overall powerful show.

Categories

• Foreign Gem
• Important Director
• Noteworthy Performance(s)
• Oscar Winner or Nominee

(Listed in 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die)

Links:

• IMDb entry
• Roger Ebert’s Review
• NY Times Original Review
• Salon Review (Stephanie Zacharek)
• Spinning Image Review

Synopsis:
A tuberculosis-ridden Japanese soldier (Eiji Funakoshi) rejected by both his platoon and the local hospital wanders the desolate plains of the Philippines near the end of World War II, attempting to survive.

Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:

• Cannibalism
• Japanese Films
• Kon Ichikawa Films
• Soldiers
• Survival
• World War Two

Response to Peary’s Review:
As Peary writes, this “shocking vision of war by Kon Ichikawa, adapted by his wife, Natto Wada, from Shohei Ooka’s novel,” is a “unique, unforgettable anti-war film,” focused on the “defeated, retreating Japanese” soldiers “scattered about” the island of Leyte (in the Philippines) who are “awaiting death from starvation, disease, the Americans, or Filipino guerillas who are lighting signal fires off in the wilderness.”

We follow the simple yet horrifying tale of a soldier (Funakoshi) who “wanders deliriously around the island, willing to kill for food, encountering depravity and madness everywhere he goes.”

As Peary writes, “The island becomes a graveyard, with the corpses of the invaders rotting in the mud” and “the survivors hav[ing] become ghouls, cannibalizing their fellow soldiers”: yet “our soldier is a lost soul — his rotting teeth prevent him from eating human meat, his tubercular condition prevents others from eating his flesh, so his misery will not end.”

Yes, this film is exactly as bleak as it sounds, with no reprieve other than glimpses of Funakoshi’s enduring humanity, and the beauty of cinematographer Setsuo Kobayahi’s landscapes.

Alongside Ichikawa’s earlier, more hopeful anti-war film Harp of Burma (1956), this film remains essential if brutal one-time viewing.

Notable Performances, Qualities, and Moments:

• Eiji Funakoshi as Tamura
  
• Setsuo Kobayashi’s cinematography
  

Must See?
Yes, as a horrifying yet essential entry in Japanese cinema.

Categories

• Foreign Gem

Links:

• IMDb entry
• TV Guide Review
• Criterion Essay (Terrence Rafferty)
• Criterion Essay (Chuck Stephens)
• TCM Article