The Kingdom of Diamonds (Satyajit Ray; India, 1980)

Description

Recommended for Ages 8 & Up

Ray’s two music-loving underdogs are back in this giddily inventive sequel to The Adventures of Goopy and Bagha, which finds the great director again turning his talents to one of his most beloved genres, the children’s film, albeit one filled with enough political allegory for adults, too. Our heroes now find themselves in a diamond-rich realm with one flaw: its evil ruler forces everyone to speak in rhymes, and has even shut down the land’s only school due to its free-thinking teacher. Soon Goopy and Bagha, like true people-power revolutionaries, are organizing workers, peasants, and children in order to open the school, and fight the tyrant’s rule! Filled with catchy songs and music (including a raga-tinged Mozart performance), and memorably bizarre set designs, The Kingdom of Diamonds bursts with enough colorful fun and general insanity to catch even Willy Wonka’s eye. You’ll never see Satyajit Ray—or a children’s film—the same way again. ““Written in rhymed couplets, it has a Gilbertian atmosphere....Visually superb, with instantly remembered music…it is Ray in an ebullient mood” (London Film Festival).

• Written by Ray. Photographed by Soumendu Roy. With Tapan Chatterjee, Robi Ghosh, Utpal Dutta, Soumitra Chatterjee. (118 mins, In Bengali with English subtitles, Color, 35mm, From Satyajit Ray Film and Study Center, courtesy Academy Film Archive)

More Info

Link

http://bampfa.berkeley.edu/film/FN20725

Call

(510) 642-1412

Email

Contact Form (account required)