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List Price: $29.95Amazon.com's Price: $26.99 You Save: $2.96 (10%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9780780029620
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Special Edition, Subtitled, NTSC
ISBN: 0780029623
Label: Criterion
Manufacturer: Criterion
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Criterion
Region Code: 1
Release Date: March 01, 2005
Running Time: 99 minutes
Sales Rank: 25044
Studio: Criterion
Theatrical Release Date: 1951
Editorial Review:
Description:
Director Jean Renoir’s entrancing first color feature—shot entirely on location in India—is a visual tour de force.
Amazon.com essential video:
When speaking of Jean Renoir's timeless masterpiece The River, one can easily exhaust their supply of superlatives. Frequently listed among the greatest films ever made, it was Renoir's first English-language film and his first in color…and what rich, astonishing Technicolor it is! Shot by Renoir's nephew Claude, the film is a love letter to India, seen through the eyes (and narrated as memories) of an adolescent British girl living with her family near the banks of the Ganges, a location which allowed Renoir to indulge his burgeoning affection for the region, it's people, and the exotic allure of the Orient. Under challenging conditions, Renoir and author Rumer Godden adapted Godden's autobiographical novel into an elegant, loosely plotted reflection on the romance of India, and on coming of age in a culture that, until then, few Western filmgoers had ever seen on screen. (To enhance this journey to a new world, Renoir used Indian music recorded live in Calcutta instead of a traditional score; the effect is hypnotically inviting.) Blessed with eternal lessons of life, death, and love, The River offers a transcendent film experience, guaranteed to touch the heart of anyone who sees it. The film was meticulously restored to its original glory in 2004; Criterion's DVD release preserves that restoration with a pristine digital transfer. --Jeff Shannon
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Beautifully Evocative
I'm tempted to give this five stars but the storytelling is surprisingly tone deaf. Renoir clearly has little interest in the trials and travails of an English family living in India in the very first years after English Colonialism. The acting is untalented and the story is pedestrian. Puppy love and tragedy. In the end, The River seems like a an excellent documentary with a half-hearted story awkwardly interwoven in to give the documentary an unnecessary framework.
As the subject ... Read More
Rating:  - WOOF
Except perhaps for Ingmar Bergman, every director has his clunkers. Truffaut, Hitchcock, Wyler all had their dogs. Renoir was no exception.
The lighting here is harsh, the camera work monotonous and static, evoking more a slide show than cinematography. The closeups stop any drama dead on its tracks. The charming novella by Rumer Godden has been essentially transcribed to a screenplay with little sense of cinematic drama, and it just doesn't work.
Rating:  - Expatriate coming of age in India
What attracted me to this movie is its director - Jean Renoir. I have never seen any of his films and this one seemed to be a perfect choice. I was hoping to experience traditional Indian music and dance thru this movie and my wishes did come true. This is a wonderful story from the perspective of a young girl growing up in India. Her family is British and they are many children in that family, most of them girls. What struck me was that story is semi-autobiographical by the writer Rumer Gunnar. ... Read More
Rating: - The River
Renoir's lyrical, impressionistic ode to India's mystery and wonder belies the spell the country cast on the director from the moment he touched Indian soil. The first Technicolor film shot there, it is impossibly beautiful visually, and also immensely touching, as the turbulence of growing up is set against the eternal flow of the Bengal River. Like nothing you've seen, and among Renoir's most impressive works.
Rating: - A poetic paean to Anglo-India
I can only echo the praise heaped upon this film by the other reviewers. Having lived in India myself for awhile this captures so many nuances of life there, even though the film is over 50 years old. One interesting note is the character Melanie is played by the actress identified as Radha (her face appears on the cover of the DVD). Radha is the daughter of N. Sri Ram, a past international President of the Theosophical Society and Radha, now Radha Burnier is the current international President of the ... Read More
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