Strong and Moving!

Horrible, fascist and poorly acted

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

The movie is made so realistic it has a lot of that WoW feeling at the right moments and never tooo over the top. the suspense is done so well and the emotion is felt. Very well put together with the music and all.

The River is Renoir's India film, and among the many other directors he influenced, you can see here his abiding impact on the great Satyajit Ray. Renoir follows a British family living in India, and brings his usual appreciation of human flaws and desires to bear on the situation. If the movie doesn't really rank as one of his best works (I would put it far below Grand Illusion or Rules of the Game, for instance), this might be because, leaving Europe, Ray seems to lose some of his sureness of touch, particularly in the scenes with the Indian characters. I always think of a Satyajit Ray film like the glorious Devi as brilliantly capturing what Renoir missed -- as simultaneously paying tribute to Renoir and showing the rich complexity of Indian life that Renoir, as an outsider, didn't quite manage to capture. This isn't a put-down of Renoir -- more an appreciation of how far-reaching his influence has been, and how he has opened up a remarkably wide range of possibilities for other directors, who remain fond of him even when they surpass him. Along these lines, it's especially worth noting that Ray worked on The River and scouted locations for the film. He also told Renoir about his plans for his first film, to be based on Pather Panchali, and Renoir encouraged him to go forward and become a director. Really, Renoir is one of those rare directors who, the more you learn about him as a person, the more you like him.

The River is, understandably, very high on top of film-buffs' lists of favorite Jean Renoir films. It's also a picture that needs a little patience on some more modern viewers' parts- it's more meditative than it looks at first, and despite the narration from adult Harriet (taken, I would guess, verbatim from Rumer Godden's original semi-autobiographic novel) coming off every now and again as slightly padded to certain moments that should be without a word spoke, it takes the nature of the environment, the locations, the people, the culture, the spirituality, all at a simple subjective viewpoint. Which, in a way, makes it more powerful than it would be had it been put through some kind of filter of a native. Renoir knows that he's a foreigner, and that Godden was as well, so that it's at times almost anthropological in the side glances at the Indian life along the river. Through this perspective, and in the framework of a 'coming-of-age' story, is a warm, mostly innocent film of love and life.It would be one thing to try and deconstruct the performances- it would take too long than is allotted on this site. Suffice to say Renoir does much with a cast that have either acted mostly in character-acting parts, or (in the case of real life one-legged Captain John played by Thomas Breen) not much at all. Even from an actress like Patricia Walters, who under a less careful attention to detail would seem as spoiled, or petty and intolerable, as a Veruca Salt, in Harriet there's a tenderness there when she has her heart broken over and over again as she watched John fall into the arms of Valerie. I especially liked how she stayed true to that sense of bewilderment, disillusionment that has to come at that age when concerning the passing of life (the tragic death of her younger brother, the truest innocent in the film), and what it means to really love and love back. She might still seem all frustrated and confused in that final scene in the boat with John, but it works nonetheless at the emotional side. Other actors like Suprova Mukerjee (her only significant performance in a film) and Radha, with her sad eyes, also contribute heavily. Only Nora Swinburne feels like a 'conventional' English matriarchal presence, though not as a 'bad' thing to the story.What should likely be discussed more than anything are the visuals, the look, the style, the carefully ritualistic world that the people along the river contribute and take away from and how they're depicted. Renoir, as has been written, didn't want to put any of the usual Hollywood stereotypes of tigers and elephants and such in the picture- his reverence also contributes to the meditative quality, how there's at times documentary qualities to how the narration goes over the movements of the river scenes. And maybe the most daring scene being the unbroken take of the dance in Harriet's story, where the woman has to be in-line with the camera-work (as Scorsese, major fan of the film, noted on the DVD, there's no dolly for Renoir), and never misses a step to the exquisite beat of the music. Any other director might go in for the close-up, or go back to a long-shot for a master, but here it's like a scene in Singin in the Rain: we're privy to every step, as the length of the shot becomes part of the dance, of (not to sound pretentious) the communication of it. I don't even listen to much Indian music or watch the dances, but it's spellbinding in the case of the River.And, along with The Wizard of Oz, some of Powell and Pressburger's late 40s work, and Johnny Guitar, it's one of the most superb Technicolor films of the period. As many a modern viewer will not take into account (I wouldn't of had I not gone to an art museum lately), Renoir is the son of one of the great painters (forget impressionist, just in general), and it's to this that one can see pitch, brightness, the depth and scope of a palette used to its fullest. It could be argued that The River isn't a masterpiece in terms of the story or characters, but I'd hate to be with the one who'd argue about how the color doesn't work or doesn't sit well. Aside from the painterly compositions, it's just a very pleasant film to look at, and it would be for this reason I would seek it out if it plays on a revival screen in New York City or other. 9.5/10

India has, through the years, fascinated many a major film-maker, including Robert Flaherty, Fritz Lang, Louis Malle, Michael Powell, Roberto Rossellini and Jean Renoir. Renoir's film, based on a novel by English novelist Rumer Godden of BLACK NARCISSUS (1947) fame, is as gorgeously shot (in ravishing Technicolor) as can be expected from a master film-maker and the son of a famous French impressionist painter; however, the narrative itself is rather disappointingly thin to support its 99-minute running time. Having said that, the coming-of-age story of two English girls living in India and loving the same young officer wounded in WWII, is appealingly performed by Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, Arthur Shields and Adrienne Corri. The central character, played winningly by newcomer Patricia Walters (whose only film this turned out to be) is a stand-in for Godden herself, whose considerable writing talent was not encouraged by her stern family. The film offers Renoir another chance to show his humanist side dwelling as it does on the strange (to Western eyes) social and religious customs of the Indian people; even so, when all is said and done, there is just too much local color in the film. However, as Renoir is not only one of my favorite film directors but arguably the greatest of all French film-makers, I am confident that a second viewing of THE RIVER will elevate significantly my estimation of it, as it is probably too rich an experience to savor all at one go.Among the copious supplements on the Criterion DVD, there is a typically enthusiastic interview with Martin Scorsese (who also helped in funding the film's restoration) who waxes lyrically on the effect the film had on him as a 9 year-old film-goer; surprisingly for me, he also confesses that the appeal of Renoir's masterpiece, LA REGLE DU JEU (1939), an automatic candidate for the title of the greatest film of all time, escapes him!!

I saw this film a long time ago and I really loved it. I'm very interested in buying a DVD version of the film suitable for being watched in Europe, but the only versions I can find on the Internet are for Region 1 (United States). I would be very recognized if someone could help me and tell me if there's any version available for Region 2 (Europe). I'm sure there are a large number of people in Europe who would be interested in buying a DVD version of it. Thank you very much for your help. As for the film itself I really appreciate the slow rhythm of the film, similar to that of the water of the river passing by. It creates a very intense, touching, atmosphere.