Gently down the stream… The River (1951), BFI Blu-ray out now!

 

The river runs. The round world spins. Dawn and lamplight, Midnight, noon. ... Night, stars, and moon. The day ends; The end begins.

 

The magic of cinema is never more evoked than in this uncanny masterpiece from Jean Renoir and many helping hands not least author and co-scriptwriter, Rumer Godden, classical dancer and force of nature Radha Burnier along with a host of local talent, financiers, cast and crew including an advertising executive by day, assistant director at weekends name of Satyajit Ray.

 

The story of how the film was made is almost as fascinating as the final product and this superb double-disc from the BFI includes Arnaud Mandagaran’s “making-of” documentary Around the River (2008) which includes interviews with Burnier in her mid-eighties, the film’s remarkable producer Kenneth McEldowney, Ray and others who were there.

 

There is also an introduction by Kumar Shahani from 2006 in which the Indian director and screenwriter talks of the evolution of his thoughts on the film, initial embarrassment – perhaps cultural cringe – turning into admiration. In the booklet there is also an essay from Dina Iordanova, an historian interested in transcultural film, who points out the inevitable political omissions of Renoir’s post-colonial representation of a country that, according to Godden, overwhelmed him.

 

It’s worth noting that Rumer Godden hated Powell and Pressburger’s film of her earlier novel Black Narcissus calling it “terrible” (oh, Rumer!!) and had resolved to resist any further attempts at adaptation but when she heard that Renoir had stayed at her childhood nursery, she began to change her mind. Needless to say, the two bonded and a fascinating interview with the author and Thompson is reproduced in the booklet. She spent two years working on the script with Renoir and they remained life-long friends but, whilst she liked the film, she thought there was just too much in India for him to assimilate and he was “a little bit lost”.

 

As Shahani says though, the process of making the film changed the director who would continue to learn about India with the intellectual Burnier as he stayed with her after the film at the inter-faith Theosophical Society Adyar where her father was president, a role she later picked up. Renoir did not make the film he first thought he would and who knows what his second Indian film would have been like… As Shahani says authenticity is not so much about the creator’s immersion in the culture but his respect for it.

 

So, I went to India and was convinced, no, that word is too weak, I was conquered. It’s an extraordinary country with extraordinary people, the least mysterious in the World…

Patricia Walters and Adrienne Corri

For Renoir The River was “… exactly the shock I was needing after eight years in Hollywood…” a dispiriting experience that left him struggling for creative control and commercial fulfilment. As David Thompson says in his booklet essay, Renoir’s “… preferred working methods – giving time and space to actors to develop their performances, shooting in natural locations – clashed with the ‘professional’ prerogatives of a tightly controlled studio system.”

 

Out in India circumstances conspired to slow down to production and to enforce the perfect working regime for the director that and the sheer impact of the country on the man as a three-month shoot turned into a six-month one. What we see now evolved with the documentary style almost enforced by having to shoot the Technicolor film silently to avoid noises off and meaning that he had to get closer to his subject. This was the first film shot in India with live sound but constant crowds made filming difficult with a shot featuring two characters in a stream shown as being overlooked by hundreds of onlookers in a production photograph.

 

Radha Burnier

Another change was the introduction of a diary for the central character of Harriet (a remarkable performance from un-trained local girl Patricia Walters) which allowed a narration, voiced by June Hillman, that bound the story together better. The rushes had to be developed back in New York and this meant that editorial control was more difficult whilst test screenings revealed weaknesses in cast and narrative. World War Two veteran Thomas E. Breen was cast as Captain John, a replacement for star Mel Ferrer and whilst he was actually as disabled as his character, his range of expression was not quite there. The narration helped to establish his motivations more clearly and to establish context over lingering takes of the locale and the Ganges – the biggest character.

 

Harriet is the voice of Rumer and the tale is of her first love, Walters was just 14-15 when the film was made and does a grand job imagining her forlorn crush probably helped by the RADA trained Adrienne Corri (19) as her friend and love “rival” Valerie, not to mention the thoroughly well-trained Radha Burnier. Burnier plays Melanie the daughter of an Indian mother and an Irish father (an excellent Arthur Shields) a character created just for the film by Godden and Renoir who, is effectively a bridge between the cultures literally born from both.

 

Suprova Mukerjee

Melanie and her father, question her heritage in scenes Iordanova describe as her most important in the film but I’d disagree and nominate her incredible dance during one of the festivals. Now, some sitar players of my vague acquaintance have rightly questioned the notion of “world music” and culture but reproducing Indian classical dance in this way is a bold move from Renoir and he also uses classical music for the soundtrack throughout. As a certain James Ivory says in the documentary, this was the first time he’d heard the sitar and it wouldn’t be the last. The music, as the dance, is thrilling.

 

Harriet’s parents are played by the stalwart Nora Swinburne and Esmond Knight and there is a superb turn from Suprova Mukerjee as Nan to their five children, four girls and one boy who has an unhealthy fascination with snake charming. A friend of mine grew up in India and was always told not to pick up “sticks” from the end of their garden as… they might not always be made of wood. Sound advice.

 

The story meanders around the girls’ affections for Captain John as her visits and explores the country, at a lose end, disabled and displaced by the war. Who he choses becomes less and less important as the summer lingers long and the river flows… the round world spins.

Amazing lighting for this day-for-night shot!

The result is a triumph of Technicolored documentary drama showing life around the river, spiritual and commercial – jute being one of the areas main products. The balance is near perfect and was both a critical and commercial success that re-established Renoir in Europe where he would continue to work only with his own crew.

 

What Jean did with that film was to show the rest of the world a side of India they had never seen before… Radha Burnier, 2008

 

This is another prestige project from the BFI with, in addition to the documentary and introduction, a second disc of magnificent extras:

 

India Matri Bhumi (1959, 90 mins): Roberto Rossellini’s part-documentary, part-fiction portrait of India

Around India with a Movie Camera (Sandhya Suri, 2018, 73 mins): drawn exclusively from the BFI National Archive and featuring some of the earliest surviving film of India

Villenour (French India: Territory of Pondicherry) (1914, 4 mins): a travelogue by Pathé Frères with gorgeous stencil-coloured images of French India

Manufacturing Ropes and Marine Cables at Howrah, Near Calcutta (1908, 8 mins): an instructional film by Pathé Frères depicting the jute industry

 

Radha Burnier enjoys the dance

 

After the film Renoir said: ‘After living in India, I have become more peaceful. I would no longer worry if all of a sudden I had to turn into a bum.’ There were no worries on that score but we should all just sit down, switch off all devices and just focus on this beautiful magical, real world, timeless emotions in an eternal landscape.

 

The River is out now and you can order direct from the BFI online. Better be quick though as the two-disc edition is limited to 3,000 copies and every cineaste’s home should have one!