Wonderful character development!

The Worst Film Ever

Admirable film.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

As the day evolves into night; night into day; life into death; death into life all in a circle so does the waters of the river flow around the Earth in a circle- transient, but everlasting.The film is visually beautiful, magical, and literally poetic in parts by the stories and poetry recited in it. On the surface it appears as a coming of age story of 3 teenage girls in love with a disabled visiting American war veteran, but underneath it is something more: a story about the transience of youth and an ode, a love song to India; an idealized India that is of the 1920's as seen through the eyes of its colonizers, the British, who have fallen in love with it. As such we see no images of poverty and exploitation. In fact, we rarely get to know the Natives as individuals, especially as the story line is centered around British and American characters. Yet, still the film is worthwhile to see, as it provides a fascinating glimpse into India; of its people, superstitions, religion, and way of life. The film has one major flaw hindering a 10 star review and that is lack of character development. Under Bergman, this film could have been a masterpiece. Sadly, the characters never seem to emerge into truly 3-D individuals; preventing us from understanding what they feel and feeling what they feel. Character development needs time and I have little doubt that Renoir was restricted by time constraints imposed by Hollywood. Nevertheless a film worth seeing.

In Jean Renoir's introduction to this film the great master cites Rumer Godden's book The River as the greatest work of literature about English colonialism in India. I can think of at least two books that are greater, E.M. Forster's A Passage to India, and George Orwell's Burmese Days, two works of literature which seem to indicate that Britain's endeavors in India produced more harm than a few damaged human relations among the English.Never the less, Jean Renoir brings unbelievable beauty to this film, which was his first attempt at full Technicolor, and it's a glorious attempt, called the most beautiful color film (along with Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes) by Martin Scorsese.The color has a warm subtlety and grace which can only be described as characteristic as his father's paintings, cheap as that sounds.Is The River the Rules of the Game of Renoir's color period, as Andre Bazin claims? No, I'm afraid no movie is as good as The Rules of the Game, yet this is a wonderful and important work all the same.

Fantastic movie! The story and actors are so American, shot in a typical and beautiful rural area in India, all this with the class of great French master director Jean Renoir.I was lucky enough to watch it the first time in a theater back in 1993. The movie has left an unforgettable print in my mind.I read that Satyajit Ray (who was probably the best Indian film writer and director) had assisted Jean Renoir in the making of the movie. This partnership has greatly influenced the further works of Satyajit Ray. You will see similar greatness and beauty in his movies, as in Jean Renoir's.I fully recommend anyone who does not yet know Renoir to watch this, as well as his other better movies, such as "The Great Illusion", "The rules of the Game" (my favorite) "Boudu saved from the waters", "The Human Beast", etc.

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!!