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I'll just echo Reno Dakota's comments: There's absolutely no reason not to pick up the AE set, especially at the prices Amazon charges. (It's currently over 50%-off, and I've seen it lower.) Will someone eventually surpass this edition? Of course, but when?. If I had decided to sit and wait for a better edition, I wouldn't have had it in my collection -- and enjoyed the films many times -- for four years now.

Plus, the extras might be modest, but they're nice.

In case anyone is interested, I have posted some screencaps from the AE "World of Apu" disc here.

Just visiting the world of 2008 in these past posts.
So in this here future year of 2012, is there any better version of the Apu Trilogy than the old AE's? I just watched them and was irked by the subtitle issues, which seemed to get worse as the trilogy progressed. Became a real distraction in the World of Apu where parts of conversations went untranslated, while misspellings and typos (dropped letters) were intelligible but annoying.

Also, was wondering what is the best release for most Ray films.
I gather that the Eureka Abhijan is good, as is the Criterion Music Room, which really looked and sounded great.
I'm especially interested in which edition of Charulata is best.
And any info on when the other recently restored Rays will be coming out?
Thanks ...

It's been confirmed that Criterion is working on The Apu Trilogy, but it seems unlikely it will get a release this year. Hopefully it will be worth the wait in 2013! All I have is some Korean bootleg of the AE release (I think-it's the same artwork and I also noticed the same subtitle issues)

If there is any good edition of Charulata, I'd love to hear about it (never heard of one, alas).

The Rabindranath Tagore box has a superlative transfer of Three Daughters (i.e. the full version of the film released internationally as Two Daughters), a good transfer of The Home and the World, and an adequate transfer of Ray's Tagore documentary.

Mr Bongo's Company Limited is head and shoulders above their other Ray titles, which range from adequate (Devi, Two Daughters) to borderline unwatchable (The Adversary).

The AE edition of Charaluta is decent.

Peacock wrote:The AE edition of Charaluta is decent.

Never knew there was one (until now).

It's included in the first of three fairly recent Ray volumes by AE (not including the Apu Trilogy), although due to the Sony Warehouse Fire most of the copies were destroyed and it's now out of print, you may be able to find it somewhere though.

Here's Beaver's review of the set.

re: the AE Ray collection, vol 1

It looks like the few copies available are VERY expensive.

I e-mailed AE about Vol. 1. They replied saying they expect it back in production around summer.

I also have a Bollywood Films Home Entertainment edition of Charulata.
I'll compare it to the AE and let folks know if it's any good, though I probably picked it up 6 or 7 years ago, so I'm not expecting much.

Stefan, when did you email them? If that's still happening that's wonderful news, I thought the set had gone for good. Now I might try and make some easy money out of some poor uninformed soul.

The subsequent Artificial Eye sets after "Apu" were good on their subtitles, and my "Volume 1" is a cherished set, with "Mahaganar"/"Charulata"/"Nayak", all 3 of them are master works. The video quality is watchable and not bad.

Although Volume 3 has burned in subtitles presumably from a print, and don't look as good.

Volume 3 also includes The Public Enemy, which is easily the worst film I've ever seen by a incontestably great filmmaker. And The Home and the World is available elsewhere, incredibly cheaply, on the Tagore set. So that's easily the least essential of Artificial Eye's four box sets.

Peacock: I e-mailed AE back in January. They replied promptly; though now I remember (don´t have their e-mail handy right now) that they used the word "hopefully" (or something like it) about having it back in print around summertime. So maybe it´s their wish to have it back in print, but maybe not a firm plan. Just guessing.

zedz wrote:Volume 3 also includes The Public Enemy, which is easily the worst film I've ever seen by a incontestably great filmmaker. And The Home and the World is available elsewhere, incredibly cheaply, on the Tagore set. So that's easily the least essential of Artificial Eye's four box sets.

On the other hand, while I entirely agree with you about The Public Enemy, the box also has Deliverance, which is one of Ray's best films from his final decade.