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'The Stranger' (’Agantuk’)

by Davey Morrison Dillard 

Basic info: “The Stranger” (“Agantuk”). 1991. Written and directed by Satyajit Ray. IMDb link.

Satyajit Ray is one of the world’s great filmmakers, an Indian Bengali writer-director (and composer!) who exploded onto the international film scene in 1955 with his first film, “Pather Panchali,” and who made a career over the next four decades following it up with similarly quiet, quirky, gently observed, tender, tragic, comic, big-hearted observations of family life in India. So, when the dice brought me to a film with Ray’s name on the cover, I was very excited. “The Stranger (Agantuk)” is Ray’s final film. Released in 1991, just one year before his death, “The Stranger” is a deceptively small film of unusual power. The first scene launches us into the narrative with a kind of unassuming immediacy. A letter arrives at the home of Anila Bose. She opens it. She reads. The letter comes from her uncle, Manomohan Mitra, who disappeared nearly thirty years prior and has not been seen or heard from by the family since. He has been traveling all across the west and now he is coming home to spend some time reconnecting with his niece and her family–if they will permit him. Anila can’t wait to see with her AWOL uncle. Her young son, Satyaki, is enchanted by the idea of meeting a new relative. But her husband, Sudhindra, is skeptical. How do they know this is really Anila’s uncle Manomohan? How do they know he’s not a stranger, a freeloader, a con artist who heard a story and has come to take advantage of their vacant room and steal off in the night with their valuables? The family quickly decides to allow Manomohan–or the stranger masquerading as Manomohan–into the home. But they remain plagued by questions and skepticism about if this man is who he claims to be. This simple, even seemingly slight premise, taken from one of Ray’s own short stories, animates the entire film, which transitions, in turn, from family drama to comedy of manners to existential riddle. What makes someone a stranger, and what makes them family? And how can we tell the difference? Is family about shared genetics, or does it have more to do with shared experiences, memories, conversations, and convictions? 

And, as Manomohan, who claims to have been an anthropologist, argues with Sundhindra’s friends about God, religion, and society, the riddle goes deeper still. What is belief? What is God? Why do we play the games and wear the masks we do? Is the “truth” ultimately secondary to our behavior?

These are some of the central questions of existentialism (though there are otherwise no obvious similarities, perhaps it’s not a coincidence that “Agantuk” translates into the same English title as Camus’ landmark 1942 novel). It is to Ray’s enormous credit that he tackles these dense, weighty ideas in the quietest way imaginable–a low-key family comedy-drama. Almost the entirety of the film plays out within the (beautifully, simply, colorfully designed) Bose household, with some dialogue scenes extending to five, ten, fifteen minutes. Ray never draws unnecessary attention to his camera, and he keeps most of his blocking quite simple, and yet his mastery of staging, camera movement, and cutting is staggering, absolutely virtuosic in its carefully crafted invisibility, demonstrating a more thorough and complex understanding of cinematic point-of-view and the director’s craft than any car chase ever could. (On top of all that, Ray scored most of his own films, too–including this one.)

Like his protagonist (masterfully played, with charismatic, enigmatic intelligence and wit by Utpall Dut), Ray recognizes the silly, superficial social trappings of upper middle-class Bengali life as the shadow puppets they are. Perhaps too many friends, when you come right down to it, are really strangers to each other. Perhaps too many families are. And, although he can barely stay in the same place for two full weeks at a time, Manomohan, the roving anthropologist and stranger (?) of the film’s title, ultimately suggests in his reconciliation with his niece (?) that perhaps the entire world can be found anywhere there’s an open pair of eyes and an inquisitive, curious, generous mind willing to cut through the theatrics. The same could be said for Satyajit Ray. Never was this more apparent than in his minor masterpiece of a swan song, “The Stranger.”

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‘Pie in the Sky’

by Derrick Clements

Basic info: Episode: “The Best of Both Worlds” (pilot). Original air date: March 13, 1994. Written by Andrew Payne. IMDb link.

Richard Griffiths, whose face appears not once but twice on the front DVD cover of “Pie in the Sky,” was known to me as Mr. Dursley from the “Harry Potter” movies before this. Maybe for that reason, I was unprepared for how gentle and delightful the man can be.

The series features Griffiths as Detective Inspector Henry Crabbe, who, after 25 on the force, wants only to give up his badge and replace it with an apron (I could have gone with “wants only to give up his gun and replace it with a butcher’s knife,” as well). Unfortunately, retiring in peace is not -- on the menu -- for this detective inspector.

It’s British, both in geography and in content. But the thing I was not expecting from this silly-looking ’90s TV show was that in the opening scene (and onward), the production value is amazingly cinematic.

And my favorite part of “Pie in the Sky” is the characterization. First of all, Griffiths is completely sympathetic, and I felt his every excitement and disappointment so much more deeply than I was prepared for. 

And the relationship between his character and his wife, played by Maggie Steed, is lovely and unique. She doesn’t really “get” his passion for cooking -- or even for good food. But their relationship is full of mutual respect and love, even without sharing every passion or hobby. That’s a kind of romance that is hardly ever expressed onscreen, it seems.

The other characters are also terrific. Some side characters are introduced in the pilot that have colorful potential.

I returned “Pie in the Sky” to the library before I could get around to watch the second episode, but if I ever get the chance, this is exactly the kind of show I’d love to watch in its entirety. I could watch it with my parents and have a grand time, I think.

And it lasted five seasons (or “series”), so that could be quite the feast.

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‘Pacific Heights’

by Derrick Clements

Basic info: Released September 28, 1990. Directed by John Schlesinger. Written by Daniel Pyne. Starring Melanie Griffith, Matthew Modine, Michael Keaton. Rated R. IMDb link.

The director of “Midnight Cowboy” gives an interesting twist on the horror genre in “Pacific Heights” (a genre he apparently returned to in the non-musical TV adaptation of “The Tale of Sweeney Todd” seven years later starring Ben Kingsley -- one can only hope the dice will find that one someday).

The twist is that the movie’s horrors stem from the mundane frustrations of adult life, which are the weapon of choice for a madman played by Michael Keaton, not a chainsaw or butcher knife. Keaton is perfect casting for the character, who is convincing both as someone who would be trusted and one who never should be. 

When he moves in to an apartment owned by lovers Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine, he refuses to pay rent and manipulates housing laws in order to lure his landlord victims into becoming the monsters they themselves always were. Modine’s inner demons turn out to be much more horrifying than Griffith’s, but both get trapped in their own initial bad decision to buy a home they can’t afford and pretend it’s an investment rather than an unwise financial splurge.

The movie has other moments of mundane horror too, and it even blossoms into more traditional chasing and visceral threats by the end, all of which seem of a piece with the whole film. It unsettles in ways that most horror movies ignore, but which resonate richly with real life.

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‘Archie’s Weird Mysteries’

by Derrick Clements

Basic info: Episode: “Attack of the Killer Spuds.” Original air date: October 2, 1999. Written by Brian Swenlin. IMDb link.

I had never heard of this cartoon series before. The animation style was rather crude, but it was nice to remember when hand animation was the norm.

The plot was pretty bizarre, which normally would be a benefit. The story definitely sounds more interesting than it is: Jughead wins a potato through a TV station contest, which winds up taking over his body and controlling him like a puppet. One by one, the potato takes over more and more characters. It ends up being a pretty obvious metaphor for watching too much TV (the phrase “couch potato” is all over this thing), but that message is undermined when a satellite saves the day by blowing up the potato.

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