The Apu Trilogy: 50th Anniversary Edition [Hardcover]

SATYAJIT RAY (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1905422059 | ISBN-13: 978-1905422050 | Publication Date: November 1, 2005 | Edition: 50th Anniversary Edition

With the Apu Trilogy - Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur Sansar - in the fifties, Satyajit Ray caught the attention of film enthusiasts all over the world. The trilogy is the story of growing up in India. It traces Apu´s growth from childhood - cruelly poor but brightened by a passion for creativity and learning - to battered maturity. This 50th Anniversary volume, containing a foreword and working sketches by Ray presents the first authorized publication of these scripts in their entirety along with extensive interviews with Ray himself. Fresh material special to this edition includes an expansive interview with Ray by Shyam Benegal, himself a leading filmmaker with several award winning films to his credit. In the interaction between the two directors, Ray talks about early influences, the experience of making the Apu Trilogy, the importance of music and the portrayal of women in his film as well as other aspects of his craft. This edition also includes a complete filmography.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, Bengali (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Book Description

This 50th Anniversary volume, containing a foreword and working sketches by Ray presents the first authorized publication of  the Apu Trilogy scripts in their entirety along with extensive interviews with Ray himself. Fresh material special to this edition is an expansive interview with Ray by Shyam Benegal, himself a leading filmmaker with several award winning films to his credit. In the interaction between the two directors, Ray talks about early influences, the experience of making the Apu Trilogy, the importance of music and the portrayal of women in his film as well as other aspects of his craft. This edition also includes a complete filmography.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 270 pages
• Publisher: Seagull Books; 50th Anniversary Edition edition (November 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1905422059
• ISBN-13: 978-1905422050
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,312,039 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant Scripts, April 8, 2002

By 

Debabrata Ghatak (India) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Apu Trilogy (Paperback)

This book contains the scripts of Satyajit Ray's epoch-making movies "Pather Panchali(The song of the Road)" and the "Aparajito(The Unvanquished)".

Ray wrote the first draft of Pather Panchali on a ship bound to London in 1950.The questions like whether one needs a dialogue at all where the camera and the moves of the actors can say it all have always bugged Ray.One can see the reflections of his approach of script writing in this book keeping these questions in mind.

The dialogues in Ray's films have always been very appropriate and brief but very meaningful.More so,in these first two films of his when he loved to speak with his camera rather than with words.

Take a look at Ray's way of portraying complicated subjects with the exchange of superficially simple dialogues.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An excellent resource for fans and scholars, September 17, 2006

By 

David Alston (Chapel Hill, NC, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Apu Trilogy (Paperback)

I would prefer to see - in the US - properly mastered DVD releases of the "Apu" trilogy. But this first publication of Satyajit Ray's screenplays for the classic trio of films is an extraordinary and valuable resource both for film scholars and fans.

Well-illustrated with stills, work prints and hand-drawn illustrations - Ray was once a commercial illustrator, and extensively detailed his own films in pre-production - this printed APU trilogy is meticulous in its' presentation; Ray would have approved.

An added bonus is the full text - again with illustrations - of filmmaker Shyam Benegal's (an admirer of Ray, and a one-time student of Ray's filmmaking colleague Ritwik Ghatak) lengthy interview with Ray. A great many detailed insights into the trilogy and later Ray films can be gleaned from this, with everything from cultural references and historical detail to autobiographical elements all thoroughly examined.

An excellent volume.

-David Alston