Le Fleuve (The River)

1951, France/ India/ USA,Jean Renoir, 99 min, English
With Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, and Arthur Shields
Introduced by Pulitzer-Prize winning poet Vijay Seshadri
Director Jean Renoir’s entrancing first color feature—shot entirely on location in India—is a visual tour de force. Based on the novel by Rumer Godden, the film eloquently contrasts the growing pains of three young women with the immutability of the holy Bengal River, around which their daily lives unfold. Enriched by Renoir’s subtle understanding and appreciation for India and its people, The River gracefully explores the fragile connections between transitory emotions and everlasting creation.
Clemente on Le Fleuve: “My biography includes India in a very vital way. I would not be who I am without India, and there are very few films shot in India that have the level of abstraction that I demand from any expression…and I find it unforgiveable to look at India in a sentimental way. You have to be much more impassive and much more compassionate than that. And this film is just great form.”