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Pather Panchali (1955) by Satyajit Ray
#1
To quote a Netflix reviewer, "This is not a Bollywood movie!  There's no singing or dancing!"  

Or to quote someone more reputable, Francois Truffaut, who, after seeing it circa 1955, said, "I don't want to see a movie of peasants eating with their hands."  Yeah, well, Truffaut can stick his collective fingers up his nose and sneeze until he turns to snot.  Others (Truffaut likely falls into this boat as well) have condemned the movie for glorifying poverty.  Heaven forbid poor people show any emotion other than misery.

The musical score (sitar) is by Ravi Shankar, which brings to three the number of movies I've seen that he's scored.  Another is Alice in Wonderland (1966 BBC TV play shot on film), where Alice is played by this obnoxious girl (a non-actress) with incredible hair, and the cast includes John Gielgud, Peter Cook and Peter Sellers.  This is a quirky take on the tale, and highly recommended.  The third movie is Charly (1968) (the film version of Flowers for Algernon), which I'd also recommend -- though I don't remember a sitar in it at all.  I'll have to revisit it sometime.

I'll go out on a limb and call Pather Panchali a better movie than Delinquent Girl Boss: Worthless to Confess.  Okay, so it's a magical film I feel fortunate to have saved until now to see.  The Criterion DVD release is a restored version, fantastic to watch.  If you haven't seen it, seriously consider doing so, unless peasants eating with their hands bothers you.  But make certain it's the restored version.

The history behind the making of this movie is fascinating.  It's a wonder it ever got started, that it eventually got finished, and that it survives to this day (the negatives were severely damaged in a fire in 1993 in London).

Tonight I'm planning to watch the second in the trilogy -- Aparajito (The Unvanquished, 1956).
I'm nobody's pony.
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#2
I could've sworn that I reviewed the Apu trilogy here but it doesn't come up on a search, only elephant god -http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomForum/showthread.php?tid=3194.

I love these films. Ray is a master filmmaker.

And everyone eats with their hands in India. I had an Indian host explain to me how feeling to food with your fingers was a major joy of eating, an instinctive one. I remember watching some truckers eat soup with their hands in the Himalayas. They were covered with food up to their elbows. And they were so happy. I wish I could be that happy when I ate soup.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse
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