Jean Renoir called Satyajit Ray (1921-92) ‘the Father of Indian Cinema’. Akira Kurosawa said: ‘Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or the moon.’ Martin Scorsese remarked: ‘Ray’s magic, the simple poetry of his images, will always stay with me,’ shortly before Ray received an Oscar for his lifetime achievement in 1991. His 30 or so films put India on the map of world cinema.

Beginning in 1955, Ray’s films ‘Pather Panchali’, the first of the Apu Trilogy, followed by classics such as ‘The Music Room’, ‘Charulata’ and ‘The Chess Players’, changed the world’s perception of India. Hence his honorary degree from Oxford in 1978: a ceremony watched by Andrew Robinson as an undergraduate.

In this talk, Robinson—who observed Ray shooting and interviewed him at length in Bengal—will explore a unique artist at home and at work. His biography, Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye, was described by Nobel laureate V. S. Naipaul as ‘an extraordinarily good, detailed and selfless book’.

This event takes place in-person at the Museum and online via Zoom

With Andrew Robinson, author

£8