Watch unlimited films online for $6.99.
Try MUBI for FREE.
 

The River

India, United States, France

1951

99 Min
Color
1.33:1
Bengali, English
  • Currently 4.0/5 Stars.
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

   |   

DIR Jean Renoir

PROD Kenneth McEldowney

SCR Rumer Godden, Jean Renoir

DP Claude Renoir

CAST Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, Arthur Shields, Suprova Mukerjee, Thomas E. Breen, Patricia Walters, Radha, Adrienne Corri, Richard Foster, Penelope Wilkinson, Jane Harris, Jennifer Harris, Cecelia Wood, Singh Sajjan Singh, Nimai Barik

ED George Gale

PROD DES Eugène Lourié

Berlinale (Retrospective), Venice (Competition): International Award, London

Synopsis

Director Jean Renoir’s entrancing first color feature—shot entirely on location in India—is a visual tour de force. Based on the novel by Rumer Godden, the film eloquently contrasts the growing pains of three young women with the immutability of the holy Bengal River, around which their daily lives unfold. Enriched by Renoir’s subtle understanding and appreciation for India and its people, The River gracefully explores the fragile connections between transitory emotions and everlasting creation. —The Criterion Collection

Director

Original

Jean Renoir

The son of the painter Auguste Renoir, Jean Renoir became one of France’s most important and respected filmmakers during the middle of the 20th century. A Philosophy and Math student, Renoir became a cavalryman, but was invalided out of the army before World War I. Later, he married a model and aspiring actress, and, following the death of his father and the acquisition of an inheritance, set up his own production company to produce movies for his wife. Renoir learned from these early experiences of financing movies and watching other films, and became a director in 1924. With the advent of sound, Renoir’s career was quickly made with a series of profitable films, including La Chienne (1931), a savage and dark drama about a man’s self-destruction, which was later remade by Fritz Lang as Scarlet Street. Renoir’s subsequent films, including The Lower Depths (1936) and Grand Illusion (1937), were among the finest made in France before the war, and were well acknowledged at the time of… read more

Wall

Displaying 4 of 19 wall posts.
Picture of David Grillo

David Grillo

11Jan12

Truly wonderful. The moments in this film are so rich and naive to anything jaded that it takes me back to a felling of childhood.

Aaron Garrett

9Dec11

Awful voice over, uneven acting, but a truly great film due to all the rest.

Picture of Nathan Deming

Nathan Deming

23Jun11

I wasn't much impressed while watching this but I think it's growing on me. I feel like an idiot for not seeing the "beautiful colors" Scorcese talks about - it all looked really bland to me. Am I an idiot?

Picture of eric

eric

13Jun11

The River is a remarkable film about of a family's collective coming-of-age story and a Janusian nostalgic look at the twilight end of an era. Beautifully shot near the Bengal River, the happiest days always seem to be filtered with copper sunlight in the afternoon as work recedes for play. Fraternal bonds and young love shared, this ensemble portrait also wonderfully captures a glimpse at India's faded past.

David Grillo likes this

Related Films

Fans

Displaying 5 of 273 fans.

Articles

Our roundup of essays and articles on this film.
W184

Re: Renoir

By Ignatiy Vishnevetsky on April 18, 2010

"As soon as you make a theory, facts destroy it."”– Jean Renoir Jean Renoir is not "elegant." Jean Renoir was never a "master." Though he

read article

Lists

Displaying 5 of 96 lists.

Reviews

Displaying 1 of 1

Untitled

By Todd Kushige​machi on July 12, 2009

It is very easy for a movie directed by a European about India to be pathetically condescending in its nature, coming in with the intention of unveiling some sort of truth about a foreign land to Western…  read review

Forum

Displaying 0 discussion topics.

DVD

Buy the DVD from The Criterion Collection.