The World of Apu
1959
Directed by Satyajit Ray
So we are finally done with the Apu trilogy. In hindsight, I probably should have watched all of them in one sitting. Regardless, I am done and while it will be hard to limit my review to this one installment, I will do my best.
Apu is all grown up now and he is attempting to be a successful writer. He gets married as a good deed after the initial groom is proven to have a mental disorder. Good on Apu for continuing to enslave his cousin. Anyway, they have a kid and because the film is part of this trilogy, death and despair are inevitable.
I am going to sound like a broken record here but I have the exact same things to say about this installment as I did the other ones. The scenery is beautiful, the acting is average to quite good, and the cinematography is excellent. However, I still thought the movie dragged sometimes and because it is so relentlessly depressing, it will never be a favorite.
The Book notes that the romance between Apu and Aparna is very sweet. I, on the other hand, felt that their courtship was more creepy than beautiful. I just felt sorry for Aparna that she was involuntarily married off to her poor cousin.
So I am glad to put this trilogy behind me and I will probably never watch it again. Still, it is recommended, along with tissues and ice cream.
RATING: ***--
Interesting Facts:
Sharmila Tagore was only fourteen when she made this film.
In 2005, Time listed this as one of the greatest films of all time.
A fan made trailer:
At least it ends on a positive note. Maybe the only positive note in the entire trilogy. But that father-son moment is really sweet.
ReplyDeleteLol I think it was the only positive moment. Not worth the 342 minutes of misery before that though.
DeleteI liked this best of the three Apu films, mostly because of the charisma of his wife. I should have listened to the rest of you though and foreseen the obvious plot twist at the end of the second act.
ReplyDeleteI thought the guy playing Apu was quite a poor actor though. It mattered less in the other films where he was a child or stoically stony-faced about everything, but here he was supposed to be expressing the full range of human emotions.