Golden River
1965
Directed by Ritwik Ghatak
I had one of those "did I see this? Wait, that doesn't look familiar. Maybe I did?" moments when I started this film. I really hate it when that happens because I would like to think that I am very good at remembering movies. However, I soon realized that I had seen this movie probably ten times since I started The Book journey-just with different titles and actors.
This is the story of an Indian family trying to keep it all together, but after tragedy upon tragedy is heaped upon them...they don't end up doing so hot. The number of terrible things that happen to these people made me think, somewhat inappropriately, of the Debbie Downer sketch on SNL. I still don't know how so many tragedies could happen in one movie and have it still be boring.
I will confess, though, that my version of this film was so bad that it fueled my hate fire. The subtitles were cut right in the middle like a bad Xerox and at some point the actors all turned into silhouettes. So far, this seems to be the only version available.
Hated this film, which is a shame because the opening scenes were actually quite promising.
RATING: *----
Interesting Facts:
No facts on this one. Hmmm...did you know Hitler was named man of the year of Times Magazine in 1938? Pretty messed up.
Some of these Indian ones can be a bit hard at times can't they?
ReplyDeleteI'm still really disappointed in myself for being bored all through all 3 'Apu' films. Some magnificent striking images and photography (The fields of grass and the train in the middle distance in one of them still sticks and impresses), but as stories.. More surprising when i know that one of the success stories of doing the book has been appreciating the often VERY slow and contemplative Japanese films of - say- Ozu.
That said, there have been some of Ray's films that hit the spot ('The Chess players' and 'Music room' some how worked for me. But this one?.. I'm afraid I'm struggling to recall much of it...
These are definitely hard to get through and they all seem to be the same to me! Which probably says more about me than the movies...
DeleteIt works better with proper subtitles, but I think you have to be into Indian movies to fully appreciate this one, which frankly I am not.
ReplyDeleteBased on this List, they all seem super depressing.
DeleteThe Indian movies I've seen so far on the list are all artistically very impressive but the hardest set for me to relate to culturally. At least for the east Asian films I've lived here over a dozen years so I understand them better.
ReplyDeleteStill, this was probably the best and easiest to get into so far. Trademark depression, yes. But it's a bit let-them-eat-cake to demand that these people lighten up and make happy movies when this was the world that surrounded them at the time. And there was plenty of humour in here too, even in the middle of some of the darkest scenes.