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A missed opportunity but oh well, I'm still happy it's coming.

Lincoln Center is holding a retrospective of his films, all in new restorations. Besides this title, what are the best ones to see? I'm completely unfamiliar with Ritwik Ghatak's work, and this seems like an amazing opportunity to finally see his films projected in good quality.

hearthesilence wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2019 9:38 pm Lincoln Center is holding a retrospective of his films, all in new restorations. Besides this title, what are the best ones to see? I'm completely unfamiliar with Ritwik Ghatak's work, and this seems like an amazing opportunity to finally see his films projected in good quality.

Subarnarekha (The Golden Thread) is right up there with Cloud-Capped Star for me. I'm also a big fan of Nagarik, Komal Gandhar and Reason, Debate and a Story. But really there are no bad ones.

mteller wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2019 3:32 pm

hearthesilence wrote: Sun Oct 27, 2019 9:38 pm Lincoln Center is holding a retrospective of his films, all in new restorations. Besides this title, what are the best ones to see? I'm completely unfamiliar with Ritwik Ghatak's work, and this seems like an amazing opportunity to finally see his films projected in good quality.

Subarnarekha (The Golden Thread) is right up there with Cloud-Capped Star for me. I'm also a big fan of Nagarik, Komal Gandhar and Reason, Debate and a Story. But really there are no bad ones.

Thanks! I will probably see Subarnarekha and The Cloud-Capped Star, but my big regret will be missing Reason, Debate and a Tale - I wish all of the weekday showings were in the evening rather than the day - but since it's a new restoration, I'm hoping a digital release of some kind will be done soon. I wish I could catch E-Flat to complete the trilogy, but that's another one I can't make due to scheduling conflicts.

mteller wrote: Mon Oct 28, 2019 3:32 pmSubarnarekha (The Golden Thread) is right up there with Cloud-Capped Star for me.

I caught this yesterday, and it was absolutely stunning. There are actually bootleg copies on YouTube from what appear to be foreign commercial DVD's - transfers are okay but often there are no English subtitles. I'm guessing the original materials are in poor condition because even with the restoration there were numerous faint but visible vertical scratches and occasional anomalies like shrinkage. Some shots had a little bit of a video quality to them given how "chunky" the detail looked and how heavy the clean up seemed to be. But it wasn't too much of a distraction, and thankfully the soundtrack sounded all right because Ghatak's work there was just as inventive as his marvelous visuals. Out of necessity, the dialogued was all dubbed, and there was even a moment (taking place outdoors) where it sounded like someone was entering the studio where they were recording the ADR. But at times the studio's room ambience was a boon, especially when Sita and Abhiram are alone in the woods right after Abhiram returns home from his studies - it helps to turn his words to her into an interior monologue and grants a striking intimacy to an already powerful scene. (It's here that I noticed that noise of someone entering the studio, and it's much to the scene's credit that the distraction did nothing to diminish its power or break the mood.)

Pay attention to the way the shots are composed and the way they're cut together - they're not even facing each other in this scene, sitting in perpendicular directions, with the camera filming them from behind. And yet they feel spiritually close to one another as if the physical distance creates a tension that only accentuates their feelings for one another. The kicker is when Abhiram begins to sway gently, and Ghatak cuts to Sita in a virtual match cut - she sways in perfect unison. The effect may be greatly diminished on a small screen because it's a small and subtle bit of movement that feels massive when seen projected.

It's also wonderful how inventive Ghatak is with every shot composed by the river. It's naturally an extraordinary visual setting, but he finds new ways of utilizing it in a composition that seems surprisingly and appropriate to any given moment. And I haven't even mentioned the music, which is absolutely marvelous, one of the best scores I've ever heard in a film for both the music itself and how it's blended into the film.

I haven't yet watched my copy of Cloud Capped Star that I bought in the flash sale, but you've got me excited to see it. And I want to thank you for knocking Godzilla minutiae from the top of the Collection forum. I plan on buying the Godzilla box set, but, jeez, it deserves its own forum at this point.