CLOSURE: Central Library will be closed Tuesday, July 21, through Saturday, July 25, while emergency repairs are made to the building’s cooling system. We expect to reopen Monday, July 27. Click for more details on holds, program schedules, and returns during the closure. 

Notice of Public Meeting: Kalamazoo Public Library Board of Trustees | July 27 | 5:30 pm | Central Library/Van Deusen Room. The packet of information for the meeting can be found on the library’s website. 

Blu-ray

Apur sansar = The world of Apu

Call Number

  • BLU-RAY FOREIGN (CEN)

Edition

Blu-ray special edition.

Languages

In Bengali, with English subtitles.

Performers

Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Alok Chakraborty, Swapan Mukherjee.

Publication Information

[New York, NY] : Criterion Collection, [2015]

Physical Description

1 videodisc (106 minutes) : sound, black & white ; 4 3/4 in.

Audience

Not rated.

Summary

A breathtaking milestone that brought India into the golden age of international art-house film, Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy follows one indelible character, a free-spirited child in rural Bengal who matures into an adolescent urban student and, finally, a sensitive man of the world. Ray's delicate masterworks--Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road), Aparajito (The Unvanquished), and Apur Sansar (The World of Apu)--based on two books by Bibhutibhusan Banerjee, were shot over the course of five years, and each stands on its own as a tender, visually radiant journey. These films--which have risen from the ashes in meticulously reconstructed restorations, after the original negatives were burned in a fire--are among the most achingly beautiful, richly humane movies ever made.

By the time Apur Sansar was released, Satyajit Ray had directed not only the first two Apu films but also the masterpiece The Music Room, and was well on his way to becoming a legend. This extraordinary final chapter brings our protagonist's journey full circle. Apu is now in his early twenties, out of college, and hoping to live as a writer. Alongside his professional ambitions, the film charts his romantic awakening, which occurs as the result of a most unlikely turn of events, and his eventual, fraught fatherhood. Featuring soon-to-be Ray regulars Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore in star-making performances, and demonstrating Ray's ever more impressive skills as a crafter of pure cinematic imagery, Apur Sansar is a moving conclusion to this monumental trilogy.

Notes

Based on the novel Aparajito by Bibhutibhusan Banerjee.

Originally released as a motion picture in 1959.

Issued as part of the box set The Apu trilogy by the Criterion Collection.

Special features: New 4K digital restoration, undertaken in collaboration with the Academy Film Archive at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and L'lmmagine Ritrovat, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack ; new interview program with actors Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore ; "The Apu trilogy": a closer look, a new program featuring filmmaker, producer, and teacher Mamoun Hassan ; footage of director Satyajit Ray receiving an honorary Oscar in 1992 ; new programs on the resortation of The Apu Trilogy by filmmaker :: kogonada ; new English subtitle translation.

Subjects