782-785 The Apu Trilogy

[aox]

I am personally so enamored by "The Coward". It's melodramatic but there is an honesty to the film dealing with a singular emotion that I haven't experienced since Malle; specifically, "The Fire Within".

[chatterjees]

Now I must ask: What Ray films would make for an excellent follow-up? (The Apu Trilogy was my first experience with any of his films.) The ones Criterion has put out I'll probably get to sooner rather than later, but his Calcutta Trilogy also seems very interesting.

Calcutta Trilogy is definitely great, but I would suggest Nayak. As RossyG said, get the AE BD set and treat yourself. I just ordered the set last week. Right now, its only 19.99 GBP. I am not excepting Criterion to release anymore Ray soon, this set will be the best bet if you to check out Nayak and Mahapurush (a brilliant comedy).

[feihong]

Days and Nights in the Forest is a great follow-up. I hope someone gets to remastering that one.

The Coward is really wonderful, but the AE blu ray is already pretty great-looking.

[Jonathan S]

Charulata has always been my favourite Ray after the Apu trilogy (it was Ray's favourite too, apparently). However, I'd add a caveat regarding the otherwise recommendable Artifical Eye Blu-ray: the on-screen documents, such as the important letter seen being written near the end of the film, are omitted - at least on my disc - by the English subtitles (they were translated in the old AE DVD and in UK TV broadcasts). The letter's postscript is especially significant.

I don't see any mention of this glaring omission in this review which ironically includes a screenshot of the key letter, though the reviewer notes AE's translation "isn't identical" to Criterion's.

Does anyone know if this is an issue with AE's other Ray Blu-rays?

[feihong]

I have The Coward, The Holy Man and The Hero. I don't recall any of them sporting any glaring spots of missing translation. Criterion's Charulata looks pretty amazing.

There was talk years ago of Criterion getting Days and Nights in the Forest. I wonder if that has changed in recent years?

[L.A.]

Days and Nights in the Forest is a great follow-up. I hope someone gets to remastering that one.

Anyone care to comment about this edition? Does it have English subtitles, any extras etc?

[chatterjees]

Days and Nights in the Forest is a great follow-up. I hope someone gets to remastering that one.

Anyone care to comment about this edition? Does it have English subtitles, any extras etc?

I have this edition. PQ/SQ really sucks. After experiencing these current BDs, you really don't wanna watch this disc. I am sure it comes with subs, but I have to double check. It is true that this film is one of Ray's best films. This is my second favorite after Nayak. The DVD is cheap, so you can definitely get it, but I will ask you to play it in your laptop.
There are some sellers on amazon.com selling this edition around 15 bucks.

[feihong]

I have that edition also. As chatterjees says, the picture quality is really terrible. There are English subs, and they are also extremely bad. But if you stare at it long enough, the meaning of the film is carried in spite of the poor quality, and the effect is still powerful.

[kekid]

Days and Nights in the Forest is a great follow-up. I hope someone gets to remastering that one.

Anyone care to comment about this edition? Does it have English subtitles, any extras etc?

I agree with everything others have said. However, I unequivocally recommend you get this. All other editions I tried prior to this were unwatchable. This is definitely watchable, and has English subtitles. The film is essential Ray, and you don't want to miss it. We all hope that a better edition comes about, but if it does not, and the present edition goes out of print, it will be a loss.

[L.A.]

Thank you for your replies chatterjees, feihong and kekid.

[criterion10]

Beaver

[D50]

TCM is showing the trilogy (and The Music Room) November 30 / 31.

11/30 8pm Eastern / 5pm Pacific - Restoring the Apu Trilogy (2015) [this could be one of the Criterion supplements - start time is the same as Pather Panchali, so it may start earlier]

11/30 8pm Eastern / 5pm Pacific - Pather Panchali (1956)

11/30 10:30pm Eastern / 7:30pm Pacific - Aparajito (1957)

11/31 00:30am Eastern / 11/30 9:30pm Pacific - Apur Sansar (1959)

11/31 5am Eastern / 2am Pacific - The Music Room (1963)

[FrauBlucher]

Wall Street Journal on the restoration.

[Newsnayr]

As part of the Criterion Blogathon, Criterion Blues writes on the films in The Apu Trilogy and the supplements contained in the box set.

[Donald Brown]

Any sign of compression problems with this one?

[FrauBlucher]

I'm really surprised that Dr Svet has not reviewed this well before it's release.

[cdnchris]

Any sign of compression problems with this one?

I got the set rather late (on Monday I think) and have only made it through half of the first film but nothing's popped up so far while viewing it. The last few titles have been inconsistent. I didn't notice anything with In Cold Blood at all, but then it was noticeable in a couple of places in Dont Look Back, particularly a low-lit close-up of Baez, where blocky patterns were visible.

But so far with Pather Panchali nothing is sticking out. Granted, I usually don't get overzealous in screengrab analyzing and haven't gotten that far yet, and maybe it will be noticeable there. But watching it I haven't noticed anything yet. Even darker scenes aren't showing anything (which is where they usually become noticeable to me). All I've noticed are very minor source issues, but that's pretty much expected I would think (and considering the history of it I would have expected a lot worse).

[Donald Brown]

Thanks, Chris. Nothing like macro-blocking immediately jumping out is a good sign

[aox]

Any thoughts as to when this trilogy might find its way to Hulu+? I just have too much going on right now to grab the BDs. Is there a consistent system or precedent?

[djproject]

Any sign of compression problems with this one?

I got the set rather late (on Monday I think) and have only made it through half of the first film but nothing's popped up so far while viewing it. The last few titles have been inconsistent. I didn't notice anything with In Cold Blood at all, but then it was noticeable in a couple of places in Dont Look Back, particularly a low-lit close-up of Baez, where blocky patterns were visible.

But so far with Pather Panchali nothing is sticking out. Granted, I usually don't get overzealous in screengrab analyzing and haven't gotten that far yet, and maybe it will be noticeable there. But watching it I haven't noticed anything yet. Even darker scenes aren't showing anything (which is where they usually become noticeable to me). All I've noticed are very minor source issues, but that's pretty much expected I would think (and considering the history of it I would have expected a lot worse).

There are a couple more night scenes in both Aparajito and Apur Sansar (the latter has a noticeable one with Apu and Pulu are walking along the railroad tracks at night) where it may appear.

[AK]

This one arrived on Wednesday already, thanks to Amazon (very pleased with the Global Priority Shipping option they're offering), but I'm only getting to the films tomorrow. I can't believe the waiting's over and I have to get a new fixation. At least I'll have one friend who's really into watching them back-to-back next week, and I also kind of made my wife promise she'd watch them as well, so I have quite a few opportunities to enjoy these in the coming weeks.

As for the release itself, I'm more than pleased with the amount of extras, and the booklet is very nice. I especially love the storyboards. The design is beautiful, but I've never been a fan of the digipacks Criterion use and the rather flimsy boxes. I guess the first printing Rohmer box still haunts me. Nah, one just needs to be very careful with these, but as I just got Arrow's Yoshida set in the mail today and both of these are sitting side by side on the desk, it's definitely the Arrow/MoC way of doing things that I prefer. Not that Criterion seem to be changing their ways, and not that this is the end of the world as I know it, but as someone who always gets one's Criterions from overseas, a more durable ( = safer?) option would be nice.

[danieltiger]

This one arrived on Wednesday already, thanks to Amazon (very pleased with the Global Priority Shipping option they're offering), but I'm only getting to the films tomorrow. I can't believe the waiting's over and I have to get a new fixation. At least I'll have one friend who's really into watching them back-to-back next week, and I also kind of made my wife promise she'd watch them as well, so I have quite a few opportunities to enjoy these in the coming weeks.

As for the release itself, I'm more than pleased with the amount of extras, and the booklet is very nice. I especially love the storyboards. The design is beautiful, but I've never been a fan of the digipacks Criterion use and the rather flimsy boxes. I guess the first printing Rohmer box still haunts me. Nah, one just needs to be very careful with these, but as I just got Arrow's Yoshida set in the mail today and both of these are sitting side by side on the desk, it's definitely the Arrow/MoC way of doing things that I prefer. Not that Criterion seem to be changing their ways, and not that this is the end of the world as I know it, but as someone who always gets one's Criterions from overseas, a more durable ( = safer?) option would be nice.

I took my girlfriend to the theatrical re-release of Pather Panchali, and she loved it so much that she demanded I include her for Aparajito and Apur Sansar. Hopefully you'll have the same experience!

[djproject]

So far - right now, two-thirds through Aparajito - I've not seen any questionable image compression. I think the distinction between the various sources is more apparent here as I remember it being very seamless seeing it in the theatre (4k and all). But it looks very much like film.

The longer version of the restoration demonstration is quite good.

Personally I'm very pleased with this. This is not only my 225th Criterion but also my 250th Blu-ray.

[Michael Kerpan]

After having seen Pather Panchali restored, all I can say is "Thanks to all involved".

[djproject]

blu-ray.com (Pather Panchali only)