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Watch: Richard Attenborough on Satyajit Ray
Here’s a video from a less-explored part of the late Richard Attenborough’s career. In 1977, Attenborough went to India to take a supporting part in the great Satyajit Ray’s The Chess Players. In this rare fragment from a TV interview at the time, Attenborough marvels at the all-encompassing nature of Ray’s craft: “He writes the screenplay, he composes the music, he directs it, he operates the camera. He half-lights the set. Certainly he works with the lighting cameraman in such detail that any source of light or change that he wants he gets. He edits his own films, almost as Chaplin did.” This interview snippet is sandwiched between longer talks on Ray from Indian director Shyam Benegal and Martin Scorsese; the video is cued to about 30 seconds before the start of Attenborough’s remarks.
