BFI Top 50 Greatest Films ever: No 42 – Pather Panchali
Pather Panchali is a remarkable film – revealing and gentle, its great strength is its empathy for the lives of its cast of characters. A simple story told simply.
[Update: Apologies for the very short and slightly terse write up. I was very hungover. Things I should probably have shared: it’s Satyajit Ray‘s first film, it was made in 1955, it’s the first film in The Apu Trilogy and depicts the childhood of our hero Apu (Subir Banerjee) and his elder sister Durga (Uma Dasgupta), and the somewhat harsh village life of their impoverished family in west Bengal.
Other films made in 1955: Rebel without a Cause, Guys and Dolls, The Ladykillers. There’s a more extensive list of 1955 movies on Wikipedia. And some useful links for Pather Panchali: Wikipedia, IMDB and Pather Panchali on The Guardian’s best 25 arthouse films of all time.]
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