This is what Akira Kurosawa said about Satyajit Ray: “Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon.”
Since it has been trimmed of a quarter-hour for its U.S. incarnation, perhaps Ray’s The Chess Players (Shatranj Ke Khilari) isn’t due any legitimate criticism from me. In effect, I am not seeing the full moon.
The film is certainly fine, okay—and visually splendiferous. But if I hadn’t known that Ray wrote and directed it, I never would have guessed that The Chess Players is a Ray film. Its genial satire is very far from Ray’s usual rigor. The only other Ray films I have seen that are as relaxed as this one are ones Ray specifically made for family viewing.
I am disappointed. Perhaps making a film in Hindi took Ray, a Bengali, out of his comfort zone.
THE CHESS PLAYERS (Satyajit Ray, 1977)
This is what Akira Kurosawa said about Satyajit Ray: “Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon.”
Since it has been trimmed of a quarter-hour for its U.S. incarnation, perhaps Ray’s The Chess Players (Shatranj Ke Khilari) isn’t due any legitimate criticism from me. In effect, I am not seeing the full moon.
The film is certainly fine, okay—and visually splendiferous. But if I hadn’t known that Ray wrote and directed it, I never would have guessed that The Chess Players is a Ray film. Its genial satire is very far from Ray’s usual rigor. The only other Ray films I have seen that are as relaxed as this one are ones Ray specifically made for family viewing.
I am disappointed. Perhaps making a film in Hindi took Ray, a Bengali, out of his comfort zone.
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