The High Tide of World Cinema: Satyajit Ray

Internationally renowned director Akira Kurosawa once stated that “not to have seen the cinema of [Satyajit] Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon.” I would not have understood the magnitude of that quote at this time a year ago; until eight months ago, in October 2014, I had never seen a film directed by Satyajit Ray (pictured above, left in the foreground, with Kurosawa during a visit to the Taj Mahal in 1977). From the moment I became curious about in film studies I was probably aware of Ray’s importance in world cinema history, but it was not until my first year in graduate school that I discovered firsthand the virtuosity of Ray’s filmmaking.

My first encounter with a Ray film was when I watched The Music Room (1958) for a film studies class last semester. Unfortunately, due to time constraints and the high price of the Criterion Collection DVD, I had to watch The Music Room on YouTube. The quality of the video’s resolution was pretty good, but I knew it wasn’t the optimum viewing experience. Even so, I recognized the skill of Subrata Mitra’s cinematography and the nuance in star Chhabi Biswas’s performance as an affluent landowner whose desire to impress guests with India’s most talented (and expensive) musicians and dancers in recitals in his mansion’s music room drains the character of his wealth and causes tragedy to strike his family.

In the last three weeks I have renewed my interest in Ray’s filmography when I had the opportunity to see the “Apu trilogy” – Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956) and The World of Apu (1959) – at the Film Forum, where the recently restored films will be playing through Tuesday, June 30. These three classics, which established Ray as a leading voice in Indian cinema, are among the finest films that I have seen in a long time. Pather Panchali, which is my favorite film of the three, is powerful not only because of young Apu, played by Subir Banerjee, but also because of the three main female characters in the film: Apu’s mother, Sarbojaya (played by Karuna Bannerjee), Apu’s headstrong older sister Durga (Uma Das Gupta) and Aunt Indir (Chunibala Devi). Karuna Bannerjee in particular has a quality about her that is similar to Setsuko Hara’s best performances in Ozu’s films: when Bannerjee smiles, her whole faces lights up with joy and we love her for it, but when the smile falls it is like a curtain of darkness has fallen and we weep along with her. I would also bet that the scene in the wheat field next to the train tracks (see the second photo above) inspired similar shots in Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven (1978). An additional note: Pather Panchali and the other two films in the trilogy were scored by the legendary Ravi Shankar.

Aparajito (1956) is a worthy follow-up to Pather Panchali, showing Apu’s growth from age ten to age seventeen and the heartache of Apu’s mother, Sarbojaya, after her husband dies and, later, when teenage Apu wants to go to school in faraway Calcutta. The film was a hit with international film festivals and organizations, capturing the coveted Golden Lion, the FIPRESCI (International Federation of Film Critics) Prize and the New Cinema Award at the Venice Film Festival as well as being deemed one of the five best foreign films of the year by the National Board of Review (USA) and being nominated for the Best Foreign Film (then the “Best Film from Any Source” category) and Best Foreign Actress (for Karuna Bannerjee) honors at the BAFTA Awards (UK). Bannerjee’s work in the first two “Apu” films is revelatory.

While watching the final film in the trilogy, The World of Apu (1959), it occurred to me that I was suddenly cognizant of Ray as his own director rather than his style in relationship to another auteur (I had previously linked Pather Panchali and Aparajito to Ozu in terms of pacing, the beauty of images and the aforementioned connection I perceive between Setsuko Hara and Karuna Bannerjee). As we watch adult Apu (played wonderfully by Soumitra Chatterjee) endure more highs and lows in his marriage to Aparna (Sharmila Tagore) and in his complicated relationship with his young son Kajal (Alok Chakravarty), we know just how much we as an audience have grown to care about Apu.

Last night I finally got my hands on the Criterion DVD of The Music Room and saw the film a bit more properly on a television screen (although admittedly not as “proper” as in a theater). The film was so much more engaging, perhaps in part because I already knew the plot but I believe also because I could better appreciate the style of the film – directing, acting, music, cinematography, editing and otherwise. I paid closer attention to individual shots, especially the first one of the three above (showing the statues) and the third shot that reflects the image of the music room’s ornate chandelier on a glass surface.

You can learn some more about Ray’s career in this clip from a 1989 interview with Pierre Andre Boutang.

Ray was the recipient of an Honorary Academy Award in 1992, which he received only twenty-four days before he passed away. At the ceremony in Los Angeles, presenter Audrey Hepburn told the audience of Ray’s “rare mastery of the art of motion pictures” and of his “profound humanism, which has had an indelible influence on filmmakers and audiences throughout the world.”

I look forward to seeing many more of Satyajit Ray’s films, particularly The Goddess (1960), Kanchenjungha (1962), The Big City (1963) and Charulata (1964), which star some of my favorite actors who appeared in his work, like Karuna Bannerjee, Chhabi Biswas, Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore. The films are undoubtedly expertly crafted and from what I have read of their plots, they provide thought-provoking portraits of women and girls in the narratives. It took me far too long to wade into these cinematic waters, but it feels like the right time to immerse myself. The tide is high!

365 Day Movie Challenge: 2014

For the second year running, I gave myself the goal of watching 365 films. I managed to get very, very close (357!) and here is the complete list of everything I saw that was either something I had never seen before or something I had not seen for so long that it was like an all-new experience.

1910-1914: His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz; The Magic Cloak of Oz; The Patchwork Girl of Oz

1915-1919: The Little American

1920-1924: The Indian Tomb

1925-1929: The Docks of New York; Kiki; The Letter; Old San Francisco; Our Dancing Daughters; Our Modern Maidens; The Passion of Joan of Arc; The Phantom of the Opera; The Red Kimona; The Smart Set; Spring Fever; They Had to See Paris; Torrent; The Wizard of Oz

1930-1934: Abraham Lincoln; Anna Christie [US]; Anna Christie [Germany]; Are You Listening?; Arsène Lupin; Beggars in Ermine; Blessed Event; Blonde Crazy; Bright Eyes; The Cheat; Christopher Strong; The Divorcee; Doctor Bull; Doctor X; Drácula; Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde; Five Star Final; Forsaking All Others; Hell Divers; Hell Harbor; The House of Rothschild; I’m No Angel; Judge Priest; Ladies They Talk About; Lady by Choice; Laughing Sinners; Merrily We Go to Hell; Murder!; Nana; Of Human Bondage; Penthouse; She Done Him Wrong; The Smiling Lieutenant; The Struggle; Virtue; We Live Again; Zoo in Budapest

1935-1939: Café Metropole; Captain Blood; David Copperfield; Day-Time Wife; Drums Along the Mohawk; The Flame Within; Flirting with Fate; Gone with the Wind; The Good Earth; Go West Young Man; Grand Illusion; Love Before Breakfast; Love Is News; Mayerling; A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Nothing Sacred; The Passing of the Third Floor Back; Personal Property; The Princess Comes Across; The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex; Ready, Willing and Able; Second Honeymoon; Stagecoach; Stolen Holiday; They Won’t Forget; The Toast of New York; Triumph of the Will; True Confession; Young Lincoln; You Only Live Once

1940-1944: Bathing Beauty; The Bridge of San Luis Rey; Buffalo Bill; Casanova Brown; Cat People; The Curse of the Cat People; Dance, Girl, Dance; Down Argentine Way; The Fleet’s In; The Grapes of Wrath; Heaven Can Wait; His Girl Friday; It Happened Tomorrow; Johnny Apollo; Lady of Burlesque; Mr. & Mrs. Smith; My Little Chickadee; Old Acquaintance; Seven Sinners; The Seventh Cross; The Shanghai Gesture; The Shepherd of the Hills; Skylark; Son of Fury: The Story of Benjamin Blake; Strange Cargo; This Gun for Hire; Tobacco Road; The Uninvited; Waterloo Bridge

1945-1949: An Act of Murder; Act of Violence; And Then There Were None; Beauty and the Beast; Brewster’s Millions; Caught; Dillinger; Doll Face; A Double Life; East Side, West Side; Embraceable You; Gilda; Holiday Affair; The Horn Blows at Midnight; If I’m Lucky; In the Good Old Summertime; The Kid from Brooklyn; Kiss of Death; Lady in the Lake; The Luck of the Irish; Neptune’s Daughter; No Regrets for Our Youth; The Pirate; Pitfall; Rachel and the Stranger; Romance on the High Seas; Rome, Open City; The Set-Up; The Strange Love of Martha Ivers; That Wonderful Urge; They Live by Night; T-Men; The Verdict; Without Reservations; A Woman’s Secret; Ziegfeld Follies

1950-1954: Against All Flags; As Young as You Feel; The Baron of Arizona; The Bigamist; The Big Heat; The Blue Gardenia; The Caine Mutiny; Detective Story; Fourteen Hours; Gunman in the Streets; The Hitch-Hiker; The Hoodlum; The Juggler; King Solomon’s Mines; A Lady Without Passport; Lili; The Marrying Kind; The Naked Spur; Outrage; Robinson Crusoe; Side Street; The Sniper; The Tall Target; Three Came Home; Where the Sidewalk Ends; The Wild One; Young Man with a Horn

1955-1959: The Big Combo; Blackboard Jungle; Blood Alley; The Criminal Life of Archibaldo De La Cruz; The Curse of Frankenstein; Darby’s Rangers; The Decks Ran Red; Elena and Her Men; The 400 Blows; The Fuzzy Pinky Nightgown; The Glass Slipper; God’s Little Acre; Hit the Deck; The Killing; Kiss Her Goodbye; Kiss Me Deadly; The Magician; Middle of the Night; The Music Room; Odds Against Tomorrow; Paths of Glory; Shadows; Smiles of a Summer Night; Street of Shame; The Swan; There’s Always Tomorrow

1960-1964: The Americanization of Emily; The Best Man; Cleo from 5 to 7; Contempt; In the Cool of the Day; Last Year at Marienbad; Move Over, Darling; Paris – When It Sizzles; The Servant; Il Sorpasso; Sunday in New York; That Man from Rio; Through a Glass Darkly; Tom Jones; Victim

1965-1969: Any Wednesday; Belle de Jour; Bullitt; Easy Rider; Gambit; Hang ‘Em High; Khartoum; Midnight Cowboy; Mister Buddwing; The Night They Raided Minsky’s; Oh! What a Lovely War; Once Upon a Time in the West; Persona; Psych-Out; The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre; A Thousand Clowns; The Trip; The Young Girls of Rochefort; Z

1970-1974: The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant; California Split; Daughters of Darkness; The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie; Monte Walsh; Mr. Majestyk; On a Clear Day You Can See Forever; The Panic in Needle Park; The Public Eye; Pulp; Rhinoceros; Shoot Out; The Sugarland Express; The Velvet Vampire

1975-1979: The Big Fix; The Day of the Locust; The Duellists; Five Deadly Venoms; High Anxiety; Jaws; Moment by Moment; Murder by Decree; Rollercoaster; Silent Movie; Three Days of the Condor; The Turning Point

1980-1984: The Cotton Club; Evil Under the Sun; The Flamingo Kid; The Hunger; Max Dugan Returns; Mon Oncle d’Amérique; Poltergeist; To Be or Not to Be; Unfaithfully Yours

1985-1989: Big Top Pee-wee; Distant Voices, Still Lives; Mauvais Sang; Pee-wee’s Big Adventure; The Princess Bride; Road House; Sea of Love; Stand and Deliver

1990-1994: Another 48 Hrs.; Betsy’s Wedding; Bob Roberts; Europa; Faraway, So Close!; Internal Affairs; In the Soup; Leap of Faith; Orlando; The Player; Quick Change; The Road to God Knows Where; Short Cuts; Three Colors: Blue; Three Colors: Red; Three Colors: White; Unforgiven

1995-1999: Beyond Silence; The Brady Bunch Movie; Dead Man; Mission: Impossible; My Fellow Americans; Scream; The Sweet Hereafter; The Very Thought of You

2000-2004: Erin Brockovich; Far from Heaven; Gladiator; Hedwig and the Angry Inch; Pieces of April; A Talking Picture

2005-2009: The Death of Mr. Lazarescu; Kirk Douglas: Before I Forget; Step Up; The Wedding Date; Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg

2010-2014: Admission; American Hustle; Autoluminescent: Rowland S. Howard; The Babadook; Boyhood; Broken City; The Call; Captain America: The First Avenger; Captain America: The Winter Soldier; Carnage; Chef; Enough Said; Ethel; 42; Foxcatcher; Frank; The Giver; The Grand Budapest Hotel; Guardians of the Galaxy; Her; The Incredible Burt Wonderstone; In Secret; Interstellar; Land Ho!; A Late Quartet; The Lego Movie; Maleficent; Miss Meadows; Non-Stop; Oblivion; Obvious Child; Only Lovers Left Alive; The Salt of the Earth; Seven Psychopaths; Snowpiercer; St. Vincent; The Theory of Everything; 20,000 Days on Earth; W.E.; World War Z

Setsuko Hara: Japan’s Garbo

Today is the 94th birthday of one of Japan’s greatest stars, Setsuko Hara. Of all the actresses I am familiar with in Japanese cinema, she is definitely my favorite. Although she retired from both films and public life in general half a century ago, she continues to captivate movie audiences with the extraordinary depths of emotionality in her acting. To celebrate this day, let’s take a look at three of Hara’s most famous films.

No Regrets for Youth (1946) – Hara had one of her most complex roles in this early drama by master filmmaker Akira Kurosawa, his first postwar effort. Drunken Angel (1948) and Stray Dog (1949) probably get all the credit for being Kurosawa’s most important films prior to international breakthrough Rashomon (1950), but Regrets is key in Kurosawa’s career for having a female protagonist. Unlike Setsuko Hara’s later work with Yasujiro Ozu, a series of selfless, pure characters that earned her the nickname “the Eternal Virgin” (though the fact that Hara has never married contributes to the moniker), Kurosawa gives Hara the chance to play a bit of a free spirit – almost a bad girl type – at the beginning of the film. Her transformation from a carefree, piano-playing flirt to a socially conscious farmer reveals as much about Hara’s acting range as it does about the direction and screenwriting.

Late Spring (1949) – In Hara’s first collaboration with writer-director Yasujirô Ozu (which was also the first film of hers that I saw), she gives a fantastic performance as a dutiful daughter struggling with whether to get married or to stay at home with her widower father. It is a tender, poignant story, a showcase for beautiful performances. Because of how bright and sunny Hara’s smile is, when you see her face fall in a portrayal of inner pain, you feel her anguish even more acutely because of the tremendous disparity between those displays of her feelings. It is a testament to her abilities as an actress that she can pull off those reactions so seamlessly.

Tokyo Story (1953) – Inspired by the American film Make Way for Tomorrow (1937), Ozu’s heartbreaking masterpiece was declared the greatest film ever by Sight & Sound in 2012. Hara plays the kind daughter-in-law of her late husband’s elderly parents, a couple largely neglected and/or mistreated by their own children. It is not until near the end of the film that sweet Setsuko Hara’s façade breaks and she tearfully expresses some long-suppressed sentiments. Like Late Spring, Tokyo Story is necessary viewing for any film fan. Japan’s culture may be far removed from your own, but the dynamics and difficulties of family life would probably resonate with nearly every viewer. All three of these films should be seen not only because they are well-made but because their lead actress was and continues to be a vital part of film history. Setsuko Hara retreated from our world fifty years ago, but the images of her on celluloid are still with us.

Milestone: Machiko Kyô Turns 90

Today is the 90th birthday of Machiko Kyô, an actress who worked with many great directors of Japanese classics during the 1940s, 50s and 60s. She is one of the last remaining stars of the period besides Setsuko Hara (b. 1920), neither of whom ever married. One could view them as two sides of the same coin, contemporaries who exhibited two very different manifestations of femininity. If Hara lived up to her moniker as “The Eternal Virgin,” then Kyô represented the side of women that explored sexuality, a new kind of star in the Golden Age of Japanese cinema.

As noted by this photo and quote, taken from resources at Berkeley’s PFA Library & Film Study Center, Kyô was unique in her appeal to moviegoers on a more bold aesthetic level. She could play traditional, subservient female roles, but she could also be a sex symbol for the new, modern era. I don’t know how much control she had over her own image, but I hope she considered it liberating to break out of the stereotypical, repressive ideals for and of Japanese women.

Kyô’s most famous film, Rashomon (1950), was an international breakthrough for director Akira Kurosawa. Kyô plays one of only two female characters, the center of a deadly triangle completed by the legendary Toshirô Mifune and Masayuki Mori. Kurosawa’s innovative method of storytelling allows several versions of the same narrative to unfold, showing the possibilities and moral implications of Kyô’s character as the innocent victim of rape or as a willing, sexually available woman who has no problem committing murder.

Kyô shows her range as an actress, displaying each iteration of the character with total believability. Her work stands out in a film that won an Honorary Academy Award as the “most outstanding foreign language film released in the United States during 1951” (the competitive category was later established for the 1957 ceremony) and which was also nominated for art direction/set decoration (in a black-and-white film).

In 1953 Kyô starred in three well-regarded films: Kenji Mizoguchi’s Ugetsu, Mikio Naruse’s Older Brother, Younger Sister and Teinosuke Kinugasa’s Gate of Hell. Ugetsu received an Oscar nomination for costume design (in a black-and-white film), while Gate of Hell won both an Oscar for the costume design (in a color film) and an Honorary Award for best foreign film. All three filmmakers ranked among the highest-praised of Japan’s auteurs. Ugetsu (pictured) is a chillingly unforgettable ghost story, in which the spectral Kyô seduces a married man (Masayuki Mori of Rashomon fame), undoing his entire life.

Kyô had another important collaboration with Kenji Mizoguchi in 1956 when they made the provocative drama Street of Shame. (In between the two films, Kyô also starred in Mizoguchi’s colorful historical drama Princess Yang Kwei-fei in 1955.) Street of Shame was the noted director’s swan song, released only five months before his death from leukemia. The main characters are all prostitutes who struggle to maintain their complicated personal lives while also dealing with the social and legal ramifications of their chosen careers. It is surprising when we meet “Mickey,” a nearly unrecognizable Machiko Kyô as a Westernized girl with a ponytail, American-style makeup, jewelry, a low-cut top and formfitting plaid pants. She dances along to Western-style music and she speaks frankly of her body as “well-proportioned.” The character is cold to her colleagues, shrugging at others’ misfortunes with little more than a blank stare and a snap of her chewing gum. Further demonstrating Mickey’s sense of sexual liberation, she is seen in a short, lacy black slip and, quite daringly, even displays her naked backside (though I suppose that could have been a body double). Mickey is no shrinking violet.

Later in the film we finally see the mask come off when Mickey’s father visits. Mizoguchi waited until this scene to show close-ups of Kyô, who finally resembles the actress we’re used to seeing. Up to this point in the film, the narrative is watchable but not always gripping; here, Kyô demands the audience’s full attention. As we learn the reasons for Mickey’s descent into juvenile delinquency and prostitution, we see an emotionality to the character that we had no idea was hiding beneath the surface.

By the end of the film, Mickey has once again donned her usual attire. Because of the revealing earlier scene with her father, however, we understand her motivations and we feel compassion for her. She is trying her best to survive in a difficult world.

Later that year, Kyô appeared in her only American production, the comedy The Teahouse of the August Moon. For her performance as a geisha named – what else? – Lotus Blossom, she received a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress in a Comedy/Musical, a prestigious achievement for a Japanese actress. As per usual in Hollywood, though, a Caucasian actor (Marlon Brando) was cast in the role of an Asian man.

Another of Kyô’s acclaimed films is Odd Obsession (1959), directed by Kon Ichikawa. The drama won a Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film. Again Kyô shows her ability to manipulate her physical appearance.

Taking a major stylistic turn from the previously mentioned directors, Kyô made her first and only film with Yasujirô Ozu, Floating Weeds (1959). Although I have not yet had the pleasure of watching it, it looks like another beautiful example of how Ozu viewed interpersonal relationships in Japanese society.

Even in the mid-sixties, Kyô continued to take risks in film. Hiroshi Teshigahara, known as one of Japan’s more avant-garde filmmakers, directed her in The Face of Another (1966). Kyô has a substantial supporting role as the wife of Tatsuya Nakadai’s facially disfigured protagonist. Unlike in Street of Shame, when Nakadai pulls the covers off of Kyô in one scene, there is no doubt that that is her unclothed body. I presume that her toplessness would have been shocking at the time, although Teshigahara certainly was not shy about female nudity, which was prevalent in his earlier film Woman in the Dunes (1964).

Machiko Kyô retired from the movie world thirty years ago, but her place in film history is secure. I have read that she continues to take part in theatrical productions, which I hope is a rewarding continuation of her experience with acting.

Great Cinematographers, Part 5: Kazuo Miyagawa

Kazuo Miyagawa (1908-1999) worked on many classics of Japanese cinema, collaborating with such renowned directors as Akira Kurosawa, Kenji Mizoguchi, Yasujirô Ozu, Kon Ichikawa, Kihachi Okamoto and Masahiro Shinoda. Miyagawa’s accomplishments, especially with the film Rashomon, made him a pioneering cameraman and an inspiration to DPs everywhere.

Rashomon (1950, dir. Akira Kurosawa) – The famous Woodcutter segment shows Takashi Shimura walking through a forest. On paper that might not sound like much, but the combination of the visuals and the Ravel-inspired music by Fumio Hayasaka (who also composed scores for the other two films cited in this post) makes this scene unforgettable. That famous low-angle shot of Shimura walking across the log bridge has been replicated in other films (ex. Dirty Harry) and the revolutionary shots where the camera focuses directly at the sun broke new cinematic ground.

Ugetsu (1953, dir. Kenji Mizoguchi) – The male protagonist of the film, played by Masayuki Mori (the husband in Rashomon), falls under the spell of an enchantingly beautiful woman played by Machiko Kyô (coincidentally the wife from Rashomon). The elements of the seduction at the lake and on the plains are all the more alluring because of the haunting atmosphere created by Miyagawa.

Sansho the Bailiff (1954, dir. Kenji Mizoguchi) – My favorite Mizoguchi film, Sansho is beautiful in a painful way, dealing with man’s inhumanity toward his fellow man. A family is literally torn apart and Miyagawa is there to capture the characters in all their torment.

Tatsuya Nakadai in Astoria: Kurosawa’s Ran at the Museum of the Moving Image

Earlier today I had the wonderful experience of seeing my favorite Kurosawa film, Ran (1985), at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, NY with the legendary Tatsuya Nakadai in attendance. Before the film he stood up and waved to the crowd. He then sat down and watched the entire film with us.

Afterward he generously took part in a Q&A with the museum’s moderator and a translator. I don’t know if this has ever been mentioned in other interviews or film essays, but Nakadai said his favorite of all the films he has made is Kobayashi’s Harakiri (1962), while his favorite film made with Kurosawa is High and Low (1963). He didn’t tell too many anecdotes about Ran but he claimed that when his character, Lord Ichimonji, fell from a cliff, he fell from a height as great as the top of the movie screen’s curtain – quite a distance and without a stuntman.

Apparently Nakadai comes to New York City every year to see plays (he didn’t specify what kind), though earlier he had mentioned that he’s a big fan of Shakespeare so perhaps he has seen Shakespeare in the Park. All in all it was a terrific experience; just being able to see Ran on the big screen would have been enough, but having Tatsuya Nakadai there made it really special.