The River (1951 film)
| The River | |
|---|---|
Film poster
|
|
| Directed by | Jean Renoir |
| Produced by |
Kenneth McEldowney Jean Renoir |
| Written by |
Rumer Godden (novel) Rumer Godden Jean Renoir |
| Starring |
Nora Swinburne Esmond Knight Arthur Shields Suprova Mukerjee Radha Burnier |
| Narrated by | June Hillman |
| Music by | M. A. Partha Sarathy |
| Cinematography | Claude Renoir |
| Edited by | George Gale |
| Distributed by | United Artists |
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Release date
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10 September 1951 |
|
Running time
|
99 minutes |
| Country | France / India / USA |
| Language | English / Bengali |
| Box office | $1 million (US rentals) |
The River (French: Le Fleuve) is a 1951 film directed by Jean Renoir. It was filmed in India.
A fairly faithful dramatization of an earlier literary work of the same name (The River, authored by Rumer Godden), the movie attests to a teenager's first love, and how her heart is broken when the man she falls in love with is smitten with her best friend instead.
The film was produced by Kenneth McEldowney, and original music was by M. A. Partha Sarathy. The cast includes Esmond Knight, Nora Swinburne and Arthur Shields.
Harriet (Patricia Walters) belongs to an upper middle-class English family residing on the banks of the Ganges River in India. Her father (Esmond Knight) runs a jute mill, and she has four sisters. Her only brother (Richard R. Foster), somewhat ten years her junior, wants to learn how to tame cobras with a flute. Although they are raised in a genteel, English setting, and even have the benefit of a live-in nanny, their upbringings bear the mark of a curious confluence of Western and Eastern philosophies. If there ever could be a compromise between Christianity and Hinduism, they are immersed in it. (The youngest girl, for instance, has a rabbit she treats as her newborn baby, and says that some babies can be born again and again.)
The tranquility of an upperclass English family lifestyle, however, takes a tumble and turns thoroughly topsy turvy when the family's neighbor invites his cousin, Captain John (Thomas E. Breen), to live with him on his plantation. When Captain John arrives, the girls discover he has lost one leg in the war. Notwithstanding his handicap, he has such an atmosphere of charm and sophistication about him that the daughters are all understandably smitten with him and therefore invite him to a Diwali celebration, complete with a formal invitation in writing, hand-delivered by the oldest daughter herself.
Harriet's otherwise uneventful life contains moments worth recording and, to invite Captain John further into her life, she eventually gains the courage to show him her secret book - her diary. He politely acquiesces in a kind and fatherly way.
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Wikipedia