Our Films, Their Films

This book brings together Satyajit Ray's major writings and talks on film making and film makers, and presents them in two sections. 'Our Films' is devoted mainly to his own experiences and contains many interesting anecdotes, but also has observations to offer on trends in Indian films. 'Their Films' deals with some films from abroad that have become landmarks in the history of the cinema from the silent era to the present day.

The publication of these brief, self-effacing essays by India's most celebrated filmmaker (1921-1992) coincides with the restoration and American re-release of Ray's major films. Ray discusses the rise of Indian film and its search for a style that would draw more fully upon Indian culture than upon the conventions of Western cinema; his anecdotes about the making of his own films (such as The Music Room and those of the Apu Trilogy) are disappointingly abbreviated. The book also includes gentle critiques of Visconti, Rossellini and British film (distinguished more by craft than artistry) and tributes to Renoir, Kurosawa and Chaplin. Ray puckishly confesses that, if he were stranded on a desert island, the one film he would want most to have with him would be a Marx Brothers comedy. Such glimpses at the tastes of a major filmmaker are likely to appeal most to dedicated film lovers; the general reader will find less to linger over.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

A collection of essays by one of the world's great filmmakers, dating back to his early days as a film buff. The late Satyajit Ray, who received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1991, was easily the finest director ever produced by the endlessly prolific Indian film industry. Unlike the majority of his colleagues, he worked in Bengali rather than Hindi (the dominant language of his country), and he made quietly intelligent, liberal humanist films rather than raucous four-hour musicals, the popular staple. This collection of his occasional writings on Indian and foreign films, published in India in 1976, reflects his humanist concerns. In the course of such essays as ``What Is Wrong with Indian Films?'' and ``The Odds Against Us,'' he repeatedly argues for a cinema about personal problems and large issues, a cinema that is perhaps a little too content-based for the tastes of many critics. The pieces, which date from 1948 to 1974, include several lovely reminiscences and journal excerpts from his filmmaking days; in fact, the best material describes working and traveling at home and abroad. Unfortunately, the book and film reviews that make up the bulk of the volume are disappointingly ordinary; he has little new to say about Akira Kurosawa, John Ford, or the other directors he admires. On occasion, Ray will rise up in a manifesto-like tone, urging Indian filmmakers to draw on their own social reality rather than following foreign models, however admirable. At those moments, his prose catches fire again. Rather than issuing this collection of often indifferent material, Hyperion would have done a greater service to Ray's memory by publishing more of his working journals or reminiscences. -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

India's most influential director shares his views on a variety of cinematic topics and personalities in these essays, most of which date from the 1950s and 1960s. The American, British, and Italian film industries are discussed, as are film greats such as Chaplin, Renoir, and Kurosawa. Ray also writes about his own films (several of which are now being rereleased), though more depth on them is found in Andrew Robinson's Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye (Univ. of California Pr., 1989) and Ben Nyce's Satyajit Ray: A Study of His Films (Praeger, 1988). Still, these are engaging and thought-provoking essays from one of the major directors of the century. Most libraries with substantial film collections will want this book.
David C. Tucker, DeKalb Cty. P.L., Decatur, Ga.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

The late Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray veered from the oft-traveled route of his compatriots and eschewed the conventions of Indian movies, which are mostly two-and-a-half-hour melodramas featuring the latest star, pop songs, and dances. Ray's was a more serious, socially conscious cinema examining contemporary issues. His first features, the famous Apu trilogy (Pather Panchali, Aparajito, Apu Sansar), introduced Indian film to the West and made Ray a cultural hero in India. These essays written over a period of 25 years reflect Ray's insights into Indian cinema, his own career, and such other great filmmakers as Charles Chaplin, Jean Renoir, the Italian neorealists, Akira Kurasawa, and John Ford. They resemble the work of the 1950s French intellectuals who wrote for Cahiers du Cinema before turning to filmmaking themselves, and in them Ray proves his adeptness as a writer and as an auteur. This collection is published in conjunction with the restoration and rerelease of some of Ray's major films. Benjamin Segedin