The River

Cinema Classics on DVD Curated Collection


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The River

"Jean Renoir's The River (1951) begins with a circle being drawn in rice paste on the floor of a courtyard, and the circular patterns continue. In an opening scene, the children of a British family in India peer through porch railings at a newcomer arriving next door. At the end, the same children, less one, peer through the same railing at a departure. The porch overlooks a river, 'which has its own life,' and as the river flows and the seasons wheel in their appointed order, the Hindu festivals punctuate the year and all flows from life to death to rebirth, as it must."

"The film is one of the simplest and most beautiful by Jean Renoir (1894-1979), among the greatest of directors. Based on the novel by Rumer Godden, who was born in India and lived there many years, it remembers her childhood seen through the eyes of a young girl named Harriet (Patricia Walters), who falls in love with the new neighbor. He is Capt. John (Thomas E. Breen), an American who lost a leg in the war and now has come to live with his cousin, Mr. John (Arthur Shields)."

"We meet Harriet's family: Her parents, her three sisters, her brother Bogey. We also meet Mr. John's daughter Melanie (Radha), whose Hindu mother has died, and Valerie (Adrienne Corri), whose father owns the jute factory that Harriett's father manages. There are others: The family's nanny, the young Indian man who courts Melanie, the Sikh gatekeeper, the young Indian boy who is Bogey's playmate."

"Although the film covers one year, the impression is of an endless summer day during which the girls play and write in their journals, observe the flow of life outside their gates,..." ------ Roger Ebert

DVD - The Criterion Collection

Available Subtitles: English
Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono)
Introduction to the film by Jean Renoir
New video interview with director Martin Scorsese
2000 audio interview with Ken McEldowney, producer of The River
Rumer Godden: An Indian Affair, a 1995 documentary produced for the BBC following author Rumer Godden as she journeys back to her childhood home in India
Essays by film scholars Ian Christie and Alexander Sesonske

Curator's Comments:
Read Roger Ebert's essay on this DVD Classic.

Director: Jean Renoir
Color
99 minutes
Released: 1951
Rated: NR

Country: France/India
Language:English
Genre: Drama, Romance

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