Ray at Heart

Everything has many hearts, wears many hats. The pulsing Juilliard is one of NY's hearts, and near it, the Walter Reade Theater (WRT) needs only one hat, that of a movie theater. Beginning Apr 15, WRT does two weeks of Ray's films: Slideshow, Review: "simply his bottomless curiosity about how people negotiate the most urgent demands of nature and culture, is impossible to mistake, no matter what kind of Satyajit Ray movie you’re watching." You dont have to watch an occasional Ray's screening at MOMA, just grab a fistful at the WRT.

As WRT explains, "Born into a Bengali family in 1921, Ray was working in advertising when he met Jean Renoir, in India scouting locations for The River. Upon hearing a description of the story that would become Pather Panchali, Renoir encouraged the young cinephile to try his hand at filmmaking, but it was not until Ray saw Bicycle Thieves in London in 1950 that he resolved to become a director." So, lives trace many trajectories, and we get to relive some of them.

ps: A friend's email this morning made me postpone my plans for the day and do this post.