Wes Anderson says a scene in ‘Asteroid City’ was inspired by Satyajit Ray’s ‘Aranyer Din Ratri’

Wes Anderson has never shied away from sharing his admiration for Satyajit Ray. While speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, where he introduced a restored version of Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri, Anderson acknowledged something many fans of both directors had long suspected. He recreated a key scene from Ray’s film in his own 2023 release, Asteroid City.

Anderson didn’t mince words when asked about the resemblance. “Yes, well, I stole it,” he said, referring to the memory game scene in Asteroid City. In Ray’s film, a group of friends sit in a circle and play a memory game, revealing layers of their personalities in the process. Anderson said he was fascinated not only by the concept of the scene but by how much it told us about each character, despite the simplicity of the game.

Satyajit Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri returns to the spotlight with a full restorationScroll.in

“It’s such a strange idea, a game, but it ends up telling you so much. And the way Ray shot it, moving from one face to another, there’s unexpected emotion in that moment,” Anderson said, adding that after watching Aranyer Din Ratri, he and his family began playing the game at home.

Ray’s film, released in 1970, featured a stellar cast, including Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Rabi Ghosh, and Aparna Sen. The scene in question, now considered iconic, uses tight close-ups and seamless transitions to capture emotional shifts during a light-hearted game, a technique Anderson mirrored in his film.

Beyond his homage, Anderson also played a major role in restoring Aranyer Din Ratri, which had fallen into poor condition over the years. As a member of Martin Scorsese’s The Film Foundation, Anderson helped launch the restoration in 2019. The project, carried out by the Film Heritage Foundation, Janus Films, and The Criterion Collection, was funded by the Golden Globe Foundation and is now part of the Cannes Classics line-up.

For Anderson, the tribute wasn’t just visual or technical. It was personal. “The cast, the style, the photography, it stayed with me. You don’t forget a film like that.”

Now, thanks to the restoration, a new generation will get to experience Ray’s work on the big screen, just as Anderson did many years ago.