Mahangar (The Big City)

Satyajit Ray - 1964
What a great film this is. Ray's mis-en-scene won't set the world on fire, but it fits perfectly. Lots of medium shots of interiors, often with action stuffed on top of each other, though efforts are made not to overstrain. Depth blocking is throughout, as is a depth of focus, though some racks are used to make up for deficiencies, deliberate or not. The camera is moved about for the postion of the characters, in a smooth and inconspicuous manner. The editing is a wonderfully relaxed rythm, but does not feel the need to have everyone together at once; it often cuts from isolated person to isolated person, looked at one way, or it connects them with eyeline matches and so on, to put it another. There are some lovely individual shots, with shadows and curtains coming across.
This film is about the big city, and Ray takes us to the big city; yet we hardly ever have wider shots of the city. How is this done? There are windows as backdrops used skillfully, but it is really in the quite terrific use of sound. Constant noise of cars, of singing, almost like a radio soundtrack. Whole incidents, studies, take place simply by the sound we hear around a character (a car nearly crossing their path), and by that character's reaction.
Why is this such a fine film? Because we come to trust Ray. His intelligence is clear, setting up a multi-faceted portrait. Indeed 'multi-faceted' seems a good word here; there is no subordination of any of the competing elements, nothing is skirted over. We have the husband's control, his love of his wife, his relations to the family. The woman's naivete, indeed her complusiveness, and her desperate wish to not be misunderstood. She is certaintly the strongest (as in; the most moral) character here, it is her suffering that is centered as the greatest injustice. The old father, we try to understand, we empathize, we fundamentally disagree with him. The boss is allowed to be real, but he is after all a boss....
One interesting question to ask is; is the humanism a bit easy? There isn't a sense of despair here, 'Maltest Falcon' style; if we aren't ensured things will work out for the best, humans will also survive, something will manage somehow. That is the end. But Ray never descends to melodramatic paths; things keep running at this wonderful, lapping pace. Dialogue need not be too fast, because this is the pace of life. A thoughtful, fine, fine, piece of work.