Days and Nights in the Forest

Satyajit Ray's 1970 film takes four friends from Calcutta to a small village in Bihar. They rent a bungalow, plan nothing, and find themselves behaving as somebody other than who they are in the city. Nothing large happens; the film opens the four of them slowly through how each reacts to the people they meet there. Who is arrogant, who is a coward and who is lying to himself emerges across a handful of ordinary situations. The memory game played in the forest is among the most cited sequences in all of Ray's work, and the names spoken in it are what each character gives away about himself. It is adapted from a novel by Sunil Gangopadhyay. Class and urban condescension are its quiet subject. Who it's for: viewers who love Satyajit Ray and films built on observing character. Who it's not for: anyone looking for plot; the film is a few days of a holiday.