Criterion To Restore 18 Films From Satyajit Ray

Always thought to be a possible Criterion Collection entrant, particularly with the company’s recent addition of The Music Room to the Collection proper and various other films to their Hulu Plus page, the company has far more in store for us than just the director’s iconic Apu Trilogy.

The Times Of India reports that Criterion will be restoring 18 of director Satyajit Ray’s features, including the trilogy, Charulata, Mahanagar and Nayak.

It remains to be seen if this list includes the films currently available as Hulu only exclusives (The Stranger, An Enemy Of The People, Rabindranath Tagore and The Home And The World), but this writer is assuming that these 18 films are newly acquired pictures that Criterion has yet to touch. Most interesting has to be the Apu films, as they’ve been arguably the most asked for box set by fans of The Criterion Collection. Personally, I want as many of these as humanly possible, as Ray is a filmmaker not many people are familiar with. Hell, I’ve only seen a handful of his films. Now, his pictures are relatively hard to come by (I’ve only ever seen physical copies at various libraries), but this should hopefully change that.

But when will we see these? With Criterion tapping director Abbey Lustgarten to shoot interviews with various collaborators with Ray, the sets should take a minute or two to get made, but Apu will (likely) be the first set out of the gate. It’s likely too much to ask for a box set this fall/holiday, but maybe holiday next year? Or maybe it could take that middle of the year slot occupied by things like the Pierre Etaix set, Shoah or the recent David Lean box set? One can only hope.

We’ll have a full list of films included here soon.

Source Times Of India Via: Ryan