Something to watch tonight: Tuesday 1 October

Pather Panchali (Ray, 1955)

Working my way down the Sight & Sound list of the best 50 films ever made, I get to number 35 and a film I wrote about for RNZ the first time I tried this quest, back in 2019.

Then, Ray’s debut masterpiece was #41 (equal with Rosselini’s Journey to Italy) but over the years of the survey it has been as high as #6 and as low as #79.

Ray was a graphic designer by trade who had spent time in London and watched over 100 films while he was there, being especially taken with the Italian neo-realism exemplified by Bicycle Thieves . He believed that Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay’s 1929 classic Bengali novel about a young boy growing up impoverished in a remote village would be perfect for that kind of grounded and realistic treatment but he struggled to raise the financing – grounded and realistic never being a popular characteristic of Indian cinema.

Eventually, after selling his gramophone record collection, he had enough money to commence and he found his Apu (Subir Bannerjee) in the local neighbourhood. He soon ran out of money, though, and had to pause filming for a year until the influence of the great director John Huston (who had seen some of the footage while location scouting in India) recommended that he be supported.

Apu is a small boy of about 7 or 8, living with his family in a rural Bengali village before World War 1. His father is a priest but dreams of becoming a poet and leaves the village to follow that dream – big city poet was a more lucrative career than country priest in those days. Without his income, the family struggles and a feud with a neighbour over a ‘stolen’ necklace only makes things worse. Tragedy ensues and the family is forced to leave the village.

The whole story is told through Apu’s eyes and what beautiful, soulful, sensitive eyes they are. Pather Panchali is the archetype of the cinema ‘coming-of-age’ story as our hero learns how the world works – usually before they are ready.

Other notable features of the film are the soundtrack by India’s master musician Ravi Shankar – his first film score and music that would help introduce him to western audiences and eventually The Beatles – and the luminous blank and white cinematography by Subrata Mitra. This cinematography was almost lost when the negative was thought to be lost in a fire but a global search for replacement materials and a painstaking 2015 restoration means we can now see Pather Panchali – and its two sequels – in close to the best format imaginable.

Next on this list is Jean Vigo’s L’Atalante (1934) which I haven’t seen before. Look for it sometime in November.

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Where to watch Pather Panchali

Aotearoa: Streaming on Kanopy and Prime Video

Australia, Ireland and UK: Streaming on Prime Video

Canada: Streaming on Criterion Channel

USA: Streaming on Max and Criterion Channel

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Favourite comment

Reader Ros C reached out on the weekend to thank me for the Pig recommendation:

Hat-tip Dan, we watched Pig on NZ Netflix last night and were happy we did so. Wish there were more 92 minute movies!

And so say all of us!