As anybody who pays attention to film knows, the Criterion Collection is continuously doing undervalued and important work in the fields of preservation, restoration, and promotion of the best of world cinema. Like it or not, their releases have formed a cannon of great cinema and, for the most part, it’s hard to argue with their choices. This week, the ARTINFO Performing Arts Pick comes from Criterion’s sister company, Eclipse, which releases stripped-down box-sets that put a spotlight on a regional film genre or an underappreciated corner of a classic director’s career.
“Late Ray” ($35.96, criterion.com) focuses on the films of the great Indian director Satyajit Ray that were made during the final decade of his life. The set includes three films: “The Home and the World” (1984), adapted from the novel “Ghare Baire” by Rabindranath Tagore (Ray had earlier made a short film about the famous writer); “An Enemy of the People” (1989), adapted from the play by Henrik Ibsen; and “The Stranger” (1991), based on a short story written by Ray in 1981. The three films bare little resemblance to the Apu Trilogy for which Ray is famous — each was made indoors due to the director’s declining health, and represents an emerging theatricality that is noticeable in the pace, camera movement, and attention to dialogue. But this doesn’t make them any less important. If anything, they deserve special attention, especially “The Stranger,” which features one of Ray’s most beguiling scores (all of which, since 1961, he composed himself) and which should be considered one of the great swan songs of cinema. This is a group of films to cherish and discover.
