Resurrecting The Apu Trilogy

This month marked the long-awaited release of The Apu Trilogy on DVD and Blu-ray. Now that Satyajit Ray’s dazzling epic is back out in its original glory, take a look back at the painstaking process of rescuing and restoring the films, whose negatives were severely damaged in a massive fire set off by a nitrate explosion at a film lab in 1993. Below, watch a video by :: kogonada that shows how Ray’s breathtaking work was reconstructed from the ashes. And for more information about the restoration, check out this recent article in the Wall Street Journal, featuring Criterion technical director Lee Kline.