The Eclipse Viewer – Episode 36 – Late Ray

Criterion Cast: The Eclipse Viewer

This podcast focuses on Criterion’s Eclipse Series of DVDs. Hosts David Blakeslee and Trevor Berrett give an overview of each box and offer their perspectives on the unique treasures they find inside. In this episode, David and Trevor discuss Eclipse Series 40: Late Ray.

About the films:

The films directed by the great Satyajit Ray in the last ten years of his life have a unique dignity and drama. Three of them are collected here: the fervent Rabindranath Tagore adaptation The Home and the World; the vital An Enemy of the People, based on the Henrik Ibsen play; and the filmmaker’s final work, the poignant and philosophical family story The Stranger. They are complex, political, and humane depictions of worlds both corrupt and indescribably beautiful, constructed with Ray’s characteristic elegance and imbued with autumnal profundity. These late-career features are the meditative works of a master.

Subscribe to the podcast via RSS or in iTunes.

Buy The Box Set On Amazon:

Episode Links

Satyajit Ray

• SatyajitRay.org
• Explore on the Criterion Collection
• Satyajit Ray: A Moral Attitude on Sight & Sound magazine by Andrew Robinson
• Director’s Page on Senses of Cinema by Helen Goritsas
• Satyajit Ray Film and Study Center at University of California, Santa Cruz
  – link to Poster Collection
• Interview with Satyajit Ray (1968) in Film Comment by James Blue
• “An Inheritance of Endless Possibilities” – Career retrospective article in The Wire by Sharmila Tagore (actress who debuted in Apur Sansar and worked with Ray in four other films.)

Box Set Reviews

• DVD Talk review by Jamie S. Rich
• Slant review by Jordan Cronk
• Crave Online review by Witney Siebold
• DVDBlu review by Christopher S. Long
• Between Civility and Civilization: PopMatters review by Andrew Grossman
• The Film Stage review by Danny King

The Home and the World

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• Interview with Swatilekha Sengupta (female star of The Home and the World)
• New York Times review (1985) by Vincent Canby
• Review by The Film Sufi
• Ellipsis: The Accents of Cinema review by @bressonian
• Review (1984) by Roger Ebert
• Schoolwork Helper summary and review

An Enemy of the People

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times review (1989) by Barbara Crossette
• The Guardian review (from a political science perspective) by Alice Bell
• Review by The Film Sufi
• Let’s Talk About Bollywood! review by yves
• Next Projection review by Doug Heller

The Stranger

• David’s Journey Through the Eclipse Series review
• New York Times review (1992) by Vincent Canby
• Los Angeles Times review (1995) by Peter Rainer
• Words from Solitude review by shubho
• Let’s Talk About Bollywood! review by yves
• Next Projection review by Adam Kuntavanish
• Projected Perspectives review by Sachin Shrijith

Satyajit Ray’s 1992 acceptance speech for an honorary career-achievement Oscar, presented by Audrey Hepburn:

Next time on the podcast: Eclipse Series 18: Dušan Makavejev—Free Radical

Contact us

• Twitter
• Email: theeclipseviewer (at) gmail.com
• David Blakeslee ( Twitter / Website )
• Trevor Berrett ( Twitter / Website )