The Cinema of Satyajit Ray: Between Tradition and Modernity / Edition 1

by Darius Cooper

Overview

The most comprehensive treatment of Satyajit Ray's work, The Cinema of Satyajit Ray makes accessible the oeuvre of one of the most prolific and creative filmmakers of the twentieth century. Providing analyses of selected films, including those that comprise The Apu Trilogy, Chess Players, and Jalsaghar, among others, Darius Cooper outlines Western influences on Ray's work, such as the plight of women functioning within a patriarchal society, Ray's political vision of the "doubly colonized," and his attack and critique of the Bengali/Indian middle class of today.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521629805
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	01/13/2000
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Film
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	276
Product dimensions:	6.02(w) x 8.98(h) x 0.75(d)

Table of Contents

List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. Between wonder, intuition and suggestion: Rasa in Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy and Jalsaghar; 2. From gazes to threat: the Odyssian Yatra (journey) of the Ray woman; 3. The responses, trauma and subjectivity of the Ray Purush (man); 4. Satyajit Ray's political version of the doubly colonized; 5. From newly discovered Margins: Ray's responses to the center; Notes; Selected bibliography; Filmography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Well-informed descriptions of Indian society and history contextualize the author's careful presentation of each film's plot and hist well-grounded comments about the fim maker's stylistic decisions. Cooper writes lucidly enough that even upper-division undergraduates can make use of the book...an excellent jumping-off point for future studies of Ray's cinema." Choice

"...is clearly an important contribution to our knowledge of Satyajit Ray's films... The great strength of the book is that it provides an innovative and detailed analysis of many of Ray's films, and anyone with an interest in Ray should read this book. In addition, it adds an important dimension to cinema studies and will, therefore, be useful to anyone who is interested in world cinema." Herman Van Olphen, Journal of Asian Studies

From the Publisher

The powerhouse Indian film industry passes unnoticed outside of the subcontinent, and, for the most part, so does the work of its master filmmakers. It has been over a decade since the publication of Andrew Robinson's Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye (1989) and Ben Nyce's Satyajit Ray: A Study of His Films (1988). This new monograph aims to approach the cinema of Ray from an Indian aesthetic as well as an Indian social and historical perspective. Cooper (literature and film, San Diego Mesa Coll.) adds much to our understanding, analyzing Ray's early films in terms of the concept of "rasa" (i.e., aesthetic perception) in terms of the status of Indian women, and vis- -vis British and Hindu hegemony--among other things. Throughout, close analysis dovetails with Indian cultural contexts in effective ways. The result is a superb work of scholarship recommended for all libraries supporting international cinema.--Neal Baker, Earlham Coll., Richmond, IN Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

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