FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER ANNOUNCES LONG SHADOWS: THE LATE WORK OF SATYAJIT RAY (APRIL 19-26)
[New York – April 2, 2011] The Film Society of Lincoln Center will celebrate India’s greatest filmmaker and one of cinema’s greatest auteurs, Satyajit Ray, with Long Shadows: The Late Work of Satyajit Ray unspooling at the Walter Reade Theater in New York City from April 19 through April 26. The promised (and much-requested) follow-up to the 2009 Satyajit Ray tribute, Long Shadows includes all the films made by Ray in the autumnal years of his career.
Already an acknowledged giant of world cinema, Ray in these later works reveals a more meditative side: his brilliant powers of observation lead him to pare down his style, allowing his characters and the world to reveal themselves to us. Of special interest is The Home and the World, his final, wonderful adaptation of a work by his mentor, Rabindranath Tagore (whose 150th anniversary we celebrate this year), as well as his final, luminous work, The Stranger, an extraordinary summing up of so much of Ray's worldview graced with a sensational lead performance by Utpal Dutt. Long Shadows: The Late Work of Satyajit Ray is presented in collaboration with Columbia University.
Screenings will be held at the Film Society of Lincoln Center's Walter Reade Theater located at 165 West 65th Street, between Amsterdam Avenue and Broadway. Tickets range from $5 to $12 and are now on sale both at the box office and online. Discounts are available for Film Society members, seniors, and students. A special three-film pass is also available for $27, or $21 for seniors and students.
Tickets and complete information on Long Shadows: The Late Work of Satyajit Ray are available at: http://www.filmlinc.com/films/series/long-shadows-the-late-work-of-satyajit-ray
Satyajit Ray (1921-1992), was born into a family of distinguished printers, writers and artists in Calcutta. At the age of 18, upon his mother’s prodding, he started studies at Rabindranath Tagore’s Vishva-Bharati University in order to become a commercial artist. Ray left the university before graduating and joined an advertising agency, where he would work for 13 years. An avid film fan since school years, he co-founded Calcutta’s first film society in 1947. Around the same time, Ray started writing film criticism, which appeared in both English and Bengali publications. In 1949, Ray met Jean Renoir, while the French director was scouting locations in India for The River. Renoir encouraged Ray’s passion for cinema; however, an appointment to the London office of the ad agency prevented him from working on Renoir’s film. While in London, Ray saw De Sica’s The Bicycle Thief, which solidified his ideas about making a realistic Indian film, shot in existing locations with a non-professional cast.
A prolific director, Ray made a feature every year from 1956 to 1981. In addition, Ray developed a notable literary career, writing short stories, articles and novels as well as reviving a children’s magazine, Sandesh, started by his grandfather. On March 30, 1992, Satyajit Ray was awarded the Honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement. Due to ill health, he could not attend the ceremony and his acceptance speech was pre-recorded in Calcutta. He died on April 23 that year.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Presented in collaboration with Columbia University.
Special thanks to the Satyajit Ray Preservation Project at the Academy Film Archive, the Film Foundation, the Academy Film Archive as well as to the Satyajit Ray Film and Study Collection at the Academy Film Archive.
The film prints screened at Long Shadows are from the Collection of Satyajit Ray Film and Study Center, University of California, Santa Cruz. We thank Professor Dilip Basu, the Center's Director for facilitating Long Shadows.
