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The River

  • 1951
  • Approved
  • 1h 39m
IMDb RATING
7.4/10
6.6K
YOUR RATING
Radha in The River (1951)
Trailer for Jean Renoir's classic film
Play trailer2:35
1 Video
99+ Photos
DramaRomance

The growing pains of three young women contrast with the immutability of the holy Bengal River, around which their daily lives unfold.The growing pains of three young women contrast with the immutability of the holy Bengal River, around which their daily lives unfold.The growing pains of three young women contrast with the immutability of the holy Bengal River, around which their daily lives unfold.

  • Director
    • Jean Renoir
  • Writers
    • Rumer Godden
    • Jean Renoir
  • Stars
    • Patricia Walters
    • Nora Swinburne
    • Esmond Knight
  • See production, box office & company info
  • IMDb RATING
    7.4/10
    6.6K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Jean Renoir
    • Writers
      • Rumer Godden
      • Jean Renoir
    • Stars
      • Patricia Walters
      • Nora Swinburne
      • Esmond Knight
    • 46User reviews
    • 41Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 2 BAFTA Awards
      • 3 wins & 4 nominations total

    Videos1

    The River (1951)
    Trailer 2:35
    Watch The River (1951)

    Photos103

    Thomas E. Breen, Adrienne Corri, Patricia Walters, and Radha in The River (1951)
    Adrienne Corri in The River (1951)
    Radha in The River (1951)
    Trilak Jetley in The River (1951)
    The River (1951)
    Radha in The River (1951)
    The River (1951)
    The River (1951)
    Thomas E. Breen and Arthur Shields in The River (1951)
    Radha in The River (1951)
    Arthur Shields in The River (1951)
    Thomas E. Breen in The River (1951)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Patricia Walters
    Patricia Walters
    • Harriet
    Nora Swinburne
    Nora Swinburne
    • The Mother
    Esmond Knight
    Esmond Knight
    • The Father
    Arthur Shields
    Arthur Shields
    • Mr. John
    Suprova Mukerjee
    • Nan
    Thomas E. Breen
    • Capt. John
    Radha
    Radha
    • Melanie
    Adrienne Corri
    Adrienne Corri
    • Valerie
    June Tripp
    June Tripp
    • Narrator
    • (voice)
    • (as June Hillman)
    Nimai Barik
    • Kanu
    • (uncredited)
    Richard R. Foster
    • Bogey
    • (uncredited)
    Jane Harris
    • Muffie
    • (uncredited)
    Jennifer Harris
    • Mouse
    • (uncredited)
    Trilak Jetley
    Trilak Jetley
    • Anil
    • (uncredited)
    Bhogwan Singh
    Bhogwan Singh
    • Sajjan
    • (uncredited)
    Penelope Wilkinson
    • Elizabeth
    • (uncredited)
    Cecilia Wood
    • Victoria
    • (uncredited)
    • Director
      • Jean Renoir
    • Writers
      • Rumer Godden
      • Jean Renoir
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

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    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      This film was instrumental in launching the careers of Satyajit Ray - an assistant on the film - and Subrata Mitra, who went on to become Ray's cinematographer.
    • Goofs
      (at around 36 mins) A cigarette appears from nowhere.
    • Quotes

      Valerie: This... being together... in the garden. All of us happy, and you with us here, I didn't want it to change... and it's changed. I didn't want it to end... and it's gone. It was like something in a dream. Now you've made it real. I didn't want to be real.

    • Connections
      Featured in Loin (2001)

    User reviews46

    Review
    Review
    Featured review
    7/10
    a smugly colonial tip of the Indian iceberg
    Jean Renoir embraces Technicolor for the first time in his adaptation of Rumer Godden's coming- of-age novel THE RIVER, with the latter collaborating on the screenplay. The story takes place in Bengal, India, a teenage girl named Harriet (Walters) is the eldest child of a middle-class British family living near the riverbank of Ganges, her father (an one-eyed Knight) runs a jute mill, and her mother (Swinburne) is expecting a child no. 7.

    It is a carefree scenario, growing up in the natural inculcation of an exotically profound Hindu culture while carrying on an genteel upbringing, sometimes, it conspires to be a false or at least parochial impression of the land and its people, which doesn't take up too much space in the story-line, the only native Indian who has a speaking part is Nan (Mukerjee), the family's convivial but gossipy nanny, and the rest sustains as an ethnic curiosity to meet the Westerners' eyes, although beguilingly and entrancingly so, after all, what we are allowed to watch is the smugly colonial tip of the Indian iceberg.

    The plot revolves around Harriet's budding affection towards the guest of their neighbor Mr. John (Shields), an one-legged American Captain John (Breen), who takes his time in lolling on a foreign land, to find some peace with his battlefield past and physical disability, look for a new resolution for life. As John is the only eligible white young man on the market, to her chagrin, a besotted, but fairly plain-looking Harriet has a losing game against her rival, the maturer and more zaftig Valerie (Corri), by the way, a British girl too is also her best friend. And throughout this picturesque film, it is Harriet's voice-over that guides viewers traversing her prepubescent triviality (poems, indeed), to listen to her inner voice, to sympathize her unrequited love, to find empathy in this garden-variety tale.

    Wielded as an emotional clincher, a tragic incident materializes as one downside of having a brood of many caused by adult negligence, but here also emanates a disquieting undertow to pinpoint the virulence of a foreign society with a local boy standing by as an unwary abetter. And a cheesy solution to get it over is taking the pro-procreation flag, babies are being borne all the time.

    The cast is mixed with adult professionals and amateur players, but comes off barely adequate, a major gripe is the narrative ellipsis in the story of Melanie (Radha), the mixed-race daughter of Mr. John, who stands out (there is not much competition though) with a massively pleasurable Ganesha-courting dancing sequence, but whose dislike of herself, waffling identity never been considerably mapped out as a pre-eminent counterpoint of Harriet's more orthodox background.

    So, all above sounds like a pejorative critique against a film who has earned a hallowed reputation since its genesis, yet, it is as plain as the nose on one's face, the picture's eye-catching glamour and aural accompaniments are undeniably supreme, technologically speaking. And it is smart enough for Mr. Renoir to treat it as a philosophical prose other than a heady narration of banal proceedings, only a 60-odd-year later, its allure fades away slightly due to the original novel's awkward stance on a colonized land and Renoir's condoning deference.
    helpful•5
    1
    • lasttimeisaw
    • Nov 13, 2016

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • September 10, 1951 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • France
      • United Kingdom
      • India
      • United States
    • Official site
      • The Criterion Collection (United States)
    • Languages
      • English
      • Bengali
    • Also known as
      • Der Strom
    • Filming locations
      • Ganges River, India
    • Production company
      • Oriental International Films
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

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    • Gross worldwide
      • $53,357
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

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    • Runtime
      1 hour 39 minutes
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.37 : 1

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