India Song (1975)

Director:

Marguerite Duras

Writer:

Marguerite Duras

Release Date:

4 June 1975 (France)

Genre:

Drama | Fantasy | Romance

Plot Keywords:

Love Affair | India | Place Name In Title | Country Name In Title | Title Directed By Female

Awards:

3 nominations

Cast

Delphine Seyrig	...	Anne-Marie Stretter
Michael Lonsdale	...	Le vice-consul de Lahore (as Michel Lonsdale)
Mathieu Carrière	...	L'attaché d'ambassade allemand
Claude Mann	...	Michael Richardson
Vernon Dobtcheff	...	Georges Crawn
Didier Flamand	...	Le jeune invité
Claude Juan	...	Le domestique / Servant
Satasinh Manila	...	Voix de la mendiante (voice)
Nicole Hiss	...	Voix intemporelle (voice)
Monique Simonet	...	Voix intemporelle (voice)
Viviane Forester	...	Voix intemporelle (voice)
Dionys Mascolo	...	Voix intemporelle (voice)
Marguerite Duras	...	Voix intemporelle (voice)
Françoise Lebrun	...	Voix de la réception (voice)
Benoît Jacquot	...	Voix de la réception (voice)
Nicole-Lise Bernheim	...	Voix de la réception (voice) (as Nicole Lise Bernheim)
Kevork Kutudjan	...	Voix de la réception (voice)
Daniel Dobbels	...	Voix de la réception (voice)
Jean-Claude Biette	...	Voix de la réception (voice) (as Jean Claude Biette)
Marie Odile Briot	...	Voix de la réception (voice)
Pascal Kané	...	Voix de la réception (voice)

Directed by
Marguerite Duras

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Marguerite Duras

Produced by
Simon Damiani	....	producer: Les Films Armorial (as S. Damiani)
Stéphane Tchalgadjieff	....	executive producer
André Valio-Cavaglione	....	producer: Les Films Armorial (as A. Valio-Cavaglione)

Original Music by
Carlos D'Alessio		(as Carlos d'Alessio)

Cinematography by
Bruno Nuytten		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
Solange Leprince

Makeup Department
Éliane Marcus	....	makeup artist (as Eliane Marcus)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Nicole-Lise Bernheim	....	trainee assistant director (as Nicole Lise Berheim)
Benoît Jacquot	....	assistant director
Jean Mascolo	....	second assistant director
Rita Zizka	....	trainee assistant director

Sound Department
Antoine Bonfanti	....	sound mixer
Michel Vionnet	....	sound engineer

Camera and Electrical Department
Louis Bihi	....	electrician
Edouard Boubat	....	still photographer
Bernard Brégier	....	grip (as Bernard Bregier)
Pierre Gautard	....	first assistant camera
Jean-Pierre Lacroix	....	electrician (as Jean Pierre Lacroix)
Henri Lhaute	....	grip (as Henry Lhaute)
Jean Mascolo	....	still photographer
Joël Quentin	....	second assistant camera (as Joel Quentin)

Editorial Department
Geneviève Dufour	....	assistant editor
Gerard Savary	....	color grader (as Gérard Savary)

Music Department
Raoul Duflot-Vérez	....	musician: "India Song Blues" (as Raoul Verez)
Gérard Frémy	....	musician
Gaston Sylvestre	....	conductor

Other crew
Geneviève Dufour	....	script supervisor
Roberta Nevers	....	production secretary
Jacques Peyrac	....	assistant manager
Chantal Poupaud	....	press attache
Stella Quef	....	direction administrator
Stella Quef	....	production administrator
Stéphane Tchalgadjieff	....	presenter

Production Companies

• Les Films Armorial
• Sunchild Productions

Distributors

• Roissy Films (1975) (worldwide) (all media)
• Benoît Jacob Vidéo (2003) (France) (VHS)
• Benoît Jacob Vidéo (2005) (France) (DVD)
• Atalanta Filmes (1980) (Portugal) (theatrical)
• Ripley's Home Video (2008) (Italy) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Cerruti 1881  costumes: men
• Edouard et Fédéric  hairstyles: Delphine Seyrig
• Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF)  music recording

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:L | Portugal:M/12

Company:

Les Films Armorial

Trivia:

Although set in India, the entire film was shot outside of Paris.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Polyester (1981)

A 'silent' movie permeated by the ghosts of a colonial past

I was taken aback at first - the complete absence of spoken dialogue from the cast was a bit unnerving - instead, the film consists of two strands, visual and aural. Visually, the film is slow, languorous and visually sensual. It is almost a 'silent' film. Aurally, the film consists of voices over, providing not so much a narrative as recollections. The voices over (not being a fluent French speaker I had to rely on sub-titles) are telling a story of events that happened in the past whilst the cast act out the events as though they are the ghosts of the buildings in which the events were played out. But there is a story - of a woman married to a French diplomat, living for the time being in Calcutta, who takes lovers to relieve the tedious boredom of social niceties (and the heat, dust and flies). This story is punctuated by one scene in which someone who has fallen in love with her makes his feelings known to her and then, betraying the norms of his society, declares his feelings and his despair, by getting emotional about it - very emotional. I was transfixed. Fortunately, I watched it on DVD having recorded it from BBC4 - so I've got it to watch again, as I shall most certainly do.