Continuing my countdown of the last ten of 100 consecutive movie nights.
Pather Panchali (1955), dir. Satyajit Ray, starring Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Uma das Gupta, Subir Bannerjee, Chunibala Devi. Music by Ravi Shankar.
This was independent India’s first big film success. It was also the debut of Satyajit Ray, who had never directed a film before and cinematographer Subrata Mitra, a stills photographer who had never operated a film camera before the first day of the shoot. On a shoestring budget and with a novice crew, production proceeded in fits and starts over a three year period. The end result is astonishingly mature in its pacing and storytelling, and the cinematography is stunning. Both Ray and Mitra went on to lengthy successful careers because of the international acclaim the film received.
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