Dir. Jean Renoir, US, 1951, 99 mins
Cast: Patricia Walters, Radha Shri Ram, Adrienne Corri
Review by Mike Bartlett
Received wisdom has it that Renoir’s great period of filmmaking was in France in the 1930s, with such masterpieces as La Grande Illusion and La Regle Du Jeu, and that his move to California during the years of Occupation saw a decline in his work. But the re-release of his first colour film, The River, proves this to be wrong. It’s based on the novel by Rumer Godden and concerns a middle-class British family living in imperial India. It’s also a tale of young love in which three girls are thrown into emotional turmoil by the sudden appearance of a handsome American stranger.
So far, so Barbara Cartland. And indeed, Renoir makes no attempt to hide the romantic nature of the material, nor does he exploit it for a critique on colonial rule, something for which he has been criticised. But this is to miss the point of the artist Renoir has become. During the War, Renoir spoke of his newfound disillusionment with French politics. The subversive edge of his earlier films, many made in support of the Popular Front, slowly gave way in such films as This Land Is Mine (1943) and The Southerner (1945) to a more patient understanding. These latter films, both massively underrated, replaced a humanism that pushed for new political ideals with one that sought instead to contemplate and understand – put simply, replaced the dynamism of youth with the wisdom of age. Critics have always preferred the former. But Renoir saw no need to issue polemics when all that concerned him were people. As he famously said, “Everyone has his reasons,” be they Indian or English.
It’s this sympathetic gaze that informs the whole of The River. It revels in the beauty of the landscape – Renoir insisted on filming on location and in Technicolor– and in the beauty of its female protagonists. It sees the spirit of India in a dance – when Radha, a priestess in real life, performs at her wedding. It captures without embarrassment the sometimes gauche performances of its inexperienced cast – Renoir’s affection for them matching the generosity of spirit he shows to the characters in the story. It’s a serene gaze, so powerful and yet so forgiving, that it can even turn a slushy romance into a haunting and uplifting work of art.
Discuss this film here
bfi Video have announced the UK Region 2 DVD release of Jean Renoir’s The River for 31st July 2006 priced at £19.99. Following its theatrical re-release at the NFT in February 2006, bfi Video releases on DVD a new, high-definition digital transfer of The River in its original aspect ratio. The DVD is mastered from the film restoration by the Academy Film Archive, which was carried out in association with the British Film Institute and Janus Films.
Extras:
- Specially commissioned filmed introduction to The River by Indian filmmaker Kumar Shahani
- Seven rarely-seen short films set in India (1899-1945), preserved in the bfi National Film and Television Archive. Among them are two silent films showing the changes in jute production and two 1930s films photographed in Technicolor by British cinematographer Jack Cardiff
- Fully illustrated 24-page booklet including film essay and Rumer Godden interview by David Thompson; director biography and notes on the seven short films
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