Not a bad collection of important arthouse films.
Through Forster the team found their most winning on screen adaptations asViewandEndare the duos biggest hits.
Such leads Mr. Emerson (Elliot) and his son George (Sands) to offer to switch rooms.
Charlotte thinks this is a leading gesture and refuses, but is eventually talked into it.
For a long time in the eighties and nineties, Merchant/Ivory were seen as an Oscar machine.
Films for awards season and for old women, for middlebrow sensibilities.
Image via Curzon Film Distributors
Is the film not much more than a romantic comedy?
Perhaps not, but its a detailed one that is involving, and well worth a watch.
Criterions release presents the film in widescreen (1.66:1) and in 2.0 surround as befitting its initial release.
Extras are as to be expected tasteful.
They kick off with Tought and Passion (21 min.)
which gets actors Helena Bonham Carter, Julian Sands andSimon Callowto talk about the making of the movie.
Image via Sony Pictures Classics
Its a great piece.
Its followed by NBC Nightly News (4 min.)
which offers a profile of Merchant and Ivory, which mostly focuses on the films unexpected success.
Image via Sony Pictures Classics
Also included is the films theatrical trailer.
They arent rich and the father has to go away for long stretches to find work.
Its a carefree life, for the most part, though trouble comes when Durga gets sick.
He excels at school, but that means spending more time away from his mom.
Shot on a shoe-string budget, what may be most fascinating for Westerners is a peak into Indian life.
It is a hopeful saga, although one that features a lot of death and despair.
It is about growing up and accepting the possibilities.
The series is a journey with a strong vision of a boy becoming a man and a father.
Criterions release of the trilogy comes after long work repairing the original negative.
Considering the original elements were thought lost for good, this is a masterpiece of reconstruction.
The films are presented in their original aspect ratio (1.33:1) and in 1.0 monaural sound.
Its followed by an interview with Soumitra Chatterjee (7 min.)
Shampa Srivastava, who plays Durga is also interviewed (16 min.
), as is camera operatorSoumendu Roy(13 min.
Aparajitooffers The Small Details.
which has film writerUjjal Chakrabortytalking about the film (11 min.
), and he goes in depth on some of the cultural signifiers and Rays methods.
A Conversation with Satyajit Ray, 1958 (15 min.)
that goes in depth on how the film came together and how it was made.
Then theres The Creative Person (29 min.)
a 1967 documentary on Ray and his working process.
), investigates the filmmaking of the series.
Theres also a clip of Ray receiving his honorary Oscar (3 min.
), which highlights how miraculous this restoration was.
