Saw Apur Sansar, the third in the Apu trilogy. I know I've seen the first and haven't seen the second, so I can't comment on the overarching themes of the trilogy, but this last was (I'm pretty sure) about the good and evil effects of romanticization. The protagonist, Apu, starts off fresh out of college. He lives in bohemian luxury as a penniless tutor (a situation whose romance he is well aware of. this allows him to enjoy, but prevents him from bettering his situation.) He's writing a novel recontexualizing and romanticizing his own troubled childhood (a friend he shows it to cries that it is beautiful.) Suddenly, he's pressed into a marriage when the groom turns out to have been insane (another note in the fantasy-reality theme.) Once married, his bride is taken back to his hovel and there's this awesome scene where she's aghast at the squalid conditions he lives in. Crying, she looks out the window and sees a woman playing with a laughing baby, unperturbed by their poverty. She realizes that her romantic affectations are just elaborate self indulgences and we can almost see her being freed of her pretensions.
The wife does not become bitter however. Rather, her fantasy changes from being a useless, self-pitying one into a playful, beneficial one. The film carries on this vein, showing that Apu lives in and deals with fantasies which are alternately destructive and nurturing. Appropriately enough, the film itself has a feel of being a bit removed from reality. Nothing truly terrible is shown on screen and I kept tensing for the impending crash of harsh reality (the Cometh-ing of the Iceman, if you will.) The film ends with Apu having the same revelation his wife had had. He no longer lives a fantasy, but he has also given up his art. It is a little bitter but mostly sweet.
Just a short addendum about my hated foe, the subtitles: parts of the film are in heavily accented English which was not translated by my subs and several times I got the feeling my subs were condensing in a rather unfaithful way. Very frustrating.
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