Indian director Satyajit Ray's debut novel "Song of the Earth" (Pather Panchali, 1955, for some reason translated into Chinese, literally translated into English as "Song of the Path"), based on the 1929 novel of the same name Adapted, the first part of "Apu's trilogy" (the other two are "Song of the River" [1956] and "Song of the Tree" [1959]). Rey served as French director Jean Renoir's assistant in India for "The River" (1951), who encouraged him to make the film. Originally a graphic designer, he traveled to London for half a year in 1950 and watched hundreds of films. After watching Italian director Vittorio de Sica's "The Bicycle Thief" (1948), he came out of the theater, determined to be a film director, and knew he could use non-professional actors, live-action. Traces of Italian Neorealism's influence in Rey's films are often discussed.
Rey went around raising money for "Song of the Earth," selling his vinyl collection, and pawning his wife's jewelry. The filming took three years due to intermittent funding. Rey said there were three miracles: the boy didn't change his voice, the girl didn't grow up, and the old man didn't die. Rey has no script, but has an exhaustive storyboard and notes. The members of the film crew, such as photographers and artists, were basically in their infancy, and later all became mature film workers. The film tells the story of the poverty of a West Bengal family from the perspective of a pair of siblings, the birth, old age, illness and death of rural life rituals as nodes, and children's passion for selling sugar, singing opera, and diorama. People, cats, dogs, cattle and sheep coexist in harmony. The brothers and sisters walked through the reeds and saw the train, a wonderful scene. The black and white poetry and sadness of the wind blowing the lotus leaves and the rain falling on the pond are full of vitality. Reminds me of Taiwan director Hou Hsiao-hsien's films "My Childhood" and "Love in the Wind and Dust".
Hard life hardens and numbs the heart, such as neighbor quarrels, such as mother's treatment of old and frail distant relatives... At the end, the boy threw a string of beads secretly hidden by his sister into the pool. A scar-shaped gap in his childhood. The realistic details of daily life, the aimless, fragmented and redundant details may make the audience who are used to the dramatic linear narrative of Hollywood movies feel slow and dull, and the passage of the death of my sister in the stormy night is somewhat familiar melodramatic, But this almost clumsy handling, while reflecting the difficult process of filming, also has a simple, unrestrained vigor and vitality, making it a heavy, yet graceful, black-and-white prose poem that hints at rich colors and sounds.
The film was shot live in a small village in West Bengal, and the night scenes were shot in a studio. Although the actors are mostly non-professional actors, most have experience in various types of theatrical stage performances. Rey asked Shankar, a sitar master who was not yet internationally known at the time, to compose the composition, using traditional Indian raga tunes. It's a pity that the first half of the film has a little more music, which is a bit overwhelming. The overall soundscape is impressive. Music and sound (such as ringtones) blend together, and it is difficult to distinguish each other. Sometimes the music obscures the dialogue, or replaces the emotion of the dialogue, some like in silent film or folk theatre traditions. The family heard the faint sound of the train whistle many times, but the children did not see the train after a long time. The suspense in front of the hearing and the revealing of the delay of the sound source also reminded people of the French director Bresson's "Death Convict Escape" (1956). Similar treatment (the difference is that the train never appears in this film, only represented by a plume of smoke). Despite being criticized for "romanticizing poverty", "Earth Song" marked a turning point in Indian cinema with a greater focus on social realism. It was also India's first film to gain international attention after independence.
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