Influence of Italian Neorealism on Satyajit Ray
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Influence of Italian Neorealism on Satyajit Ray WITH RESPECT TO PATHER PANCHALI (1955) In partial fulfilment of the academic requirements for ‘Cinematic Art’ HSS F332 Under Neerja Vyas Department of HSS By Sharmishtha Balwan 2011A8PS372P BIRLA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE, PILANI ABOUT ‘ITALIAN NEOREALISM’ As described by Wikipedia, Italian Neorealism (Italian: Neorealismo), also known as The Golden Age of Italian Cinema, is a national film movement characterized by stories set amongst the poor and the working class, filmed on location, frequently using non-professional actors. Theatrical realism was a general movement in 19th-century theatre from the time period of 1870-1960 that developed a set of dramatic and theatrical conventions with the aim of bringing a greater fidelity of real life to texts and performances. Part of a broader artistic movement, it shared many stylistic choices with naturalism, including a focus on every day (middle-class) drama, ordinary speech, and dull settings. Realism and naturalism diverge chiefly on the degree of choice that characters have: while naturalism believes in the overall strength of external forces over internal decisions, realism asserts the power of the individual to choose. ABOUT ‘PATHER PANCHALI’ Pather Panchali tells the story of a poor family living in a Bengal village. A priest - Harihar, his wife - Sarbajaya, his two children - Apu and Durga, and his aged cousin - Indir Thakrun, struggle to make a living. Harihar is frequently away from home on work. The wife is raising her mischievous daughter Durga and caring for elderly cousin Indir. Apu is born. Soon, Durga and Apu build a bond as they explore the world around the village. The sequences of Durga and Apu are the most dramatic moments in the film. On a stormy day, after dancing in the monsoon rain, Durga dies. On Harihar's return, the family leaves their village in search of a new life in Benaras. The film closes with an image of Harihar, wife and son - Apu, moving way in an ox cart. The film, almost a documentary, was simple enough to be understood at all levels. Incidentally, the novel Pather Panchali by Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay, from which the movie was adapted, was a long saga whose slow speed caught the perfect rhythm of the rural Bengal. The peaceful co-existence within the two cultures, Bengali and English, once learnt as a technique of survival has now become a character trait of Bengalis and Indians in general. If the case of Satyajit Ray, he was certainly open to Western and European ideas and thoughts throughout his life and related to Western filmmaking very strongly. This is reflected in all his films. COMPARISONS The two films do share their spirit of humanism in an atmosphere of tragedy and depict the tortures that poor people have to undergo in order to survive (the aspects of social commentary). People view De Sica's work as matter of fact whereas Ray's as poetic. The scene where the trembling lotus leaves symbolize the arrival of monsoon as well the scene where Apu and Durga discover the train are one of the most iconic ones from the film. Both the films have struggling parents and innocent but perceptive children. Both the films end on the road, without a resolution, open ended. 1. Cinema Techniques and Cinematography Almost every description or review of the film seems to start by assigning the neorealist tag to the film, and more after Ray’s enthusiastic opinions about The Bicycle Thief (1947). Ray was influenced by Godard in terms of cinematography and thus largely played with dissolve and fade, and he was influenced by Truffaut to use the freeze. Characteristics like irony, understatement, humor, open endings, the use of leit-motifs and a fluid camera were distinctly shown by the movie which again traces its roots to techniques used during neorealist film movement. These European traits and perspectives are abundantly visible in Pather Panchali and also in his other films. Ray claims that, "I only try to tell a story in the best possible way balancing the needs of Art with the need to reach an audience. By no means a unique pre-occupation for a filmmaker, but perhaps involving more risks than usual in the context of India. The Western elements often perturbs the Indian viewer in 1 the same way as the indigenous elements perturb the Western viewers." (Sight & Sound, sp. 1982 vol. 51; #2) Then later Ray adds: "What is attempted in this film is of course a synthesis. But it can be seen by someone who has his feet in both cultures. Someone who will bring to bear on the films involvement and detachment in equal measure" (Sight & Sound, Sp.1982; vol. 51, #2). Just like in The Bicycle Thief, here some of the shots are taken from the curious and wandering eyes of Apu and sometimes the sneaky and sweet eyes of Durga. These shots describe the regular activities going on in the region, the life around them, the everyday characters portrayed in reality just like in The Bicycle Thief. Other important parallels between Pather Panchali and Italian Neorealism are lack of make-up and high-key lighting, the tendency of having the backdrop speak for itself and a complete non-existence of the exaggerated gestures and practices of popular cinema. Ray uses a lot of close ups and extreme close ups and the camera often lingers on faces to depict the moods. The music is brilliant and rooted in the culture of Bengal. 2. Narrative Style The slow pace of the narrative in Pather Panchali was developed out of necessity. Ray though about the necessity of portraying the subtle and complex relations among the human characters. The relationship between Apu and his mother is so nicely handled that we realize, later, how much depth there is the relation. The details of speech, behavior, habits, customs and rituals showed the simple structure and the narrative line of the film. The progression of the story also shows how things unfold in a very non-surprising and quant way, trying to stick to the ground. This again is a characteristic of neo-realist cinema. The story of The Bicycle Thief develops like a chase and the audience is kept in suspense throughout. Will Antonio find his stolen bicycle? Will he get his job back? In Pather Panchali, the story develops like life itself, Harihar's family and its relationship with the neighborhood being revealed slowly. 3. Location Both the films, ‘The Bicycle Thieves’ and ‘Pather Panchali’ are based out at very ordinary and middle-class locales. The story line surrounds around the life of such places trying to depict the actuality of life through the cinema. The film was shot in Boral, a village near Calcutta, which selected in early 1953 as the main location for principal photography, and night scenes were shot in-studio. The dull settings in the film try to highlight the ordinary. This is what I presume, the spirit of realism. The post-independence India was a period of constant reform and changes in every phase of the life of the Indian. The lack of constant job for Harihar, depicted in the movie, shows this phenomenon prominently and has quite a lot of impacts on how the story turns out, the family’s condition and also the interaction methods and means of interaction and communication. The setup is Indian rural, very much middle-class oriented and stands out because of the lack of the use of special sets and fancy decoration keeps the simplicity in a lime-light. 4. Cast As per Wikipedia, Kanu Banerjee (who plays Harihar) was an established Bengali film actor. Karuna Banerjee (Sarbajaya) was an amateur actress from the Indian People's Theatre Association, and the wife of Ray's friend. Uma Dasgupta, who successfully auditioned for the part of Durga, also had prior theatre experience. For the role of Apu, Ray advertised in newspapers for boys of age five to seven. None of the candidates who auditioned fulfilled Ray's expectations, but his wife spotted a boy in their neighborhood, and this boy, Subir Banerjee, was cast as Apu. (The surname of three of the main actors happened to be Banerjee, but they were not related to each other). The hardest role to fill was the wizened old Indir. Ray eventually found Chunibala Devi, a retired stage actress living in one of Calcutta's red-light districts, as the ideal candidate. 2 So, Satyajit Ray, bringing together amateur, new and ordinary faces to the film, has tried to depict a real life story, in the form of a fiction. This was again highly influenced by the Italian neo-realist film techniques. 5. Ending The open-ended story of Pather Panchali is a classic example of neo-realist cinema techniques and thus, leaves the audience making their own conclusions and assumptions after the story ends. This generates a sort of inquisitiveness in some and irritation due to lack of closure in some others. 6. Vision According to the study of Satyajit Ray’s narrative styles on a blog, the neo-realists strongly emphasized that the neorealist filmmaker be just a passive observer of reality without imposing his interpretations on it. That whatever the situation of their characters, - glory or misery - the filmmaker must maintain objectivity, always subordinating reason to action. Although many of the staunch neo-realists themselves couldn’t achieve this complete objectivity, they did attempt to do so in theory. However, in my understanding, Pather Panchali, Ray never claims to be a mere observer. It is true that he doesn’t comment on the characters’ actions and situation or show hints to the audience to tell them what to feel and where to follow that feeling.