One of the greatest filmmakers to have ever lived, presents his greatest cinematic achievement; the Apu trilogy directed by Satyajit Ray is a must buy for all fans of film. Now that it's on DVD, there is simply no excuse to not buy it!The trilogy is made up of three feature length movies, each on a separate disc, concerning the life of an Indian villager, called Apu.
The first film concerns his childhood in his village, where the boy lives in childhood innocence with his parents, sister and ailing grandmother. The film is particularly poignant due the tragic ending, casting a shadow over everything you have seen before. There are so many highlights, but my favourite moments of the film are seen between the subtle observations over the competition between various famillies in the village.
In the second film Apu's family moves to the big City- Calcutta, where the father tries to earn more than an occassional pittance he received back in the village as a priest. This is my favourite out of the three movies, only because you have a fair idea of the characters already, and many of the events relate back to events in my life.
The third film concerns merely Apu, when he finally manages to escape his troubled adolescence and his tragic past in the city of Calcutta. Some people have accused this one of melodrama, due to some of the sad events which occur during the film's course. However they seem to overlook the fact that the film conveys each event with such searing, almost deadpan, honesty, sentimentality or melodrama are almost redundant comments, due to the complete lack of embellishment the director gives the events.
To say much more about the trilogy is to perhaps spoil some of the surprises that it offers to the viewer. The films, on the surface, don't seem to have that much going for them. First of all, they're set in a very different time and place to where we find ourselves today, already putting off some viewers. Indeed, it is quite hard to try and find parallels between our lives and the lives of some of the characters we are presented with during the course of the three movies. Secondly the movies are black and white and subtitled (the original language is Bengali), already cornering them into a niche market. People seem to think these films don't concern them. I don't know why this is-- these films aren't overtly arty or difficult to understand, for example.
Neither of these elements should be issues, as the filmmaker manages to go beyond this problem and present us with themes that concern all of us. We are confronted with themes such as deaths of loved ones, soaring ambitions which end up not to be as fruitful as they should have been, romance, loneliness, the terrible effects of illness on famillies, to name but a few.
Now to the DVD package. The three films have been obviously remastered to an extent- you can see the wonderfully crisp cinematography come through nearly all the time. The negatives seem to have been rather scratched though, and we occassionally get those irritating scratches and marks films detrioriated and neglected films get, which is a real shame obviously. It's not a massive problem, but if you're watching with a home cinema system, the occassional lapses in sounds can be annoying. Also there are slight lapses in subtitle coverage, so for several minutes in the film you may be without subtitles, for some reason. However, this doesn't seem to detract too much from the narrative, even though it is obviously irritating.
The extras are not all that plentiful, either. You get no commentary by any of the parties involved (which is not really surpising as the writer/director died a while ago), but a commentary from a film historian or critic may have appreciated. As this is quite an obscure film, some of the cultural references are lost, and maybe a commentary would have illuminated some of this content somewhat. You get excerpts from a BBC documentary, which are interesting as long as they last (which isn't very long). The only real decent feature is a masterclass on the film, where we get brief interviews with some of the main parties involved, which are absolutely fascinating.
A solid DVD package then, of some great movies. If you can afford the rather hefty price tag, I suggest that you go get this box set straight away. You will never see such filmmaking again; honest, funny, seriously moving and above everything, extremely redemptive, the Apu Trilogy should never be forgotten.
More details
Soundtrack
Good
How does it compare to others by the same director?
Outstanding
Value for Money
Good
What format are you reviewing?
DVD
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