Phantom India

I don't often review films but in this case I felt I had to balance the positives I see here. Yes, this is a fascinating portrait of the India of over 40 years ago. It has changed a lot since then, so it's valuable to have this social document. And it is true that Malle's identification of the dangers of globalization and Western values was prescient.

BUT the film is also an unintended document of French leftist cultural arrogance, self- indulgence, and prejudices. This is not exactly a criticism - I was amused as often as irritated - but it was not what I expected from the reviews I read.

The footage is often haunting and beautiful.

But all the while Malle's deeply felt narration piously deplores: Indian poverty and backwardness, the depredations of economic growth, the oppression of the priests and other Brahmins, the "enslavement" of animals as labor (esp. elephants) the viciousness of British colonialism (as opposed to just any version; one assumes the French version was better as in all things) the infighting among otherwise brave and forward-thinking communists, and finally, the unwillingness of the peasantry to rise up in glorious armed revolution!

I am not kidding, in episode 4 he literally laments the people's lack of violence.

Again, documenting those views is no bad thing. He does make useful political observations that are at least as relevant today. And his narration of his personal journey and evolution, while it rings pretty self-indulgent, seems sincere. He does slowly shed some of his arrogant assumptions of superiority.

But you need to be in the mood. I got tired of it by the end of the 1st disk, in spite of the many wonderful visuals.

One of my favorite movies of all time, like being in India without the smells. Some of the political talk at the end is really boring, but also realistic. Malle and his crew travel through India, and film and film and film - 6 hours worth. Two of the sections are fantastically beautiful: one in a dance school, where you can feel the camera getting hooked on the dance, and just staying and staying, and one in this impossible religious procession, where every minute is a miracle. The rhythm of the film is the rhythm of India. At first the camera is edgy and tense, and eventually it just succumbs and watches. This film once played in cult movie houses a lot. I don't know why it hasn't become a video classic.

as another viewer noted, after 30 years one still remembers the magic of this film. If anyone knows where a copy exists or how it can be seen again, I would greatly appreciated being informed. It would be tragic that this great film documentary is not archived and released. I saw the film when i lived in California and it was shown as a series at UCLA in Los Angeles. I had a friend who had traveled by freighter to India and had shown me his incredible pictures of his travels in India. This film added motion and sound to the still images that had initially captivated me. I have repeatedly looked for this film and cannot find it. Someone suggested checking with the New York Public Library or the Library of Congress, but I have not had success as yet. The film is so effective that one feels one is in India.

I learned in many ways as much about Western prejudice and as I did about India, and Malle is quite aware of that in the film. He will often question his own views, even admit when he was wrong on a cation. He does not try to hide that he is a communist and it does not drag the film down (as it does in so many Godard films). Malle's narration was never pseudo intellectual and often startling honest.

Phantom India is in seven parts and they are very different.

The first is philosophical about the limits of the camera and the documentary. It sets the rules for the future. They are not going to work with a script, they are just going to film what happens, each day and they are not going to talk to the intellectuals of India, but focus rather on the general population (they break that rule again and again).

The second one is the most poetic one. They visit a school of traditional religious dancers and they are so fascinated by it that they are stuck there almost the whole episode. And I understand them perfectly. It was hard to take ones eye of the dancers.

The third episode is mostly about the Hindu religion. Malle has problems with a lot of what he sees here. This is probably the weakest episode in the series, dragged down by his own intolerance toward religion (even though he does have many valid points).

The first part of the fourth episode is probably the most beautiful of the series. Malle and his crew (of two) kind of loose them self in India. They forget to film and stop seeing the point in doing it, only occasionally taking up the camera when they remember that they are there to work. Malle's narration is like a poem.

The second part of the episode is more political and lays the ground for the fifth episode, which is about the caste system. Malle does not try to hide his distaste for the caste system and attracts it fiercely, but still he does not loose sight of the fact that he is making a documentary, not propaganda, and he give us very interesting information about the diversity within the caste system.

The sixth episode is the most structured one. Here one feels like Malle had a script, or at least wrote a script, based on the material he had filmed. I personally thought this was the most interesting episode. It is about small communities which are on the fringes of Indian society, starting with the Bonda people (wild, ancient tribal people) and then visiting a dying Jewish community, catholic Indians, a rich ashram community and the Toda tribe (which counted only 800 people when the film was made). Malle thinks the Toda tribe is the most ideal of these communities. I can see how it would appeal to a leftist hippie, with their free love and no name for sex but I have my doubts.

The seventh episode mainly focuses on Bombay and you really get the feeling how different Bombay is from the rest of India. It is like stepping into another world. Malle hints that Bombay is the sign of what will come to India (even though he hopes for a communist revolution) and if so then India and the world will loose a lot.

I have never been to India so I can not verify if this is an honest depiction of the country and I even don't know if it is possible to make a honest documentary. It did anger many Indians, who thought Malle focused to much on the poverty of the country, but such things are always going to be sensitive. What I do know is that Phantom India touched me deeply, both as a lover of films and of different cultures. This is a landmark documentary which should not be missed.

"Phantom India: Reflections on a Journey" is an epic 7 part cine-essaylogue (travelogue + cine-essay) in which we are shown the people, places, practices, customs, Gods, celebrations, festivals, rituals, cultures, mythology, traditions, castes, religions, gurus, minorities, food, art, economics, politics, and various ways of life found throughout India, as seen through the camera lens of Louis Malle. Malle does not remove himself from the documentary in an objective way, rather, we are poetically led through the documentary as if experiencing India from the mind of Malle himself- much like Chris Marker, but with more vanity. It is absolutely fascinating being immersed in late 60's India, and seeing it through the reflections of Malle makes it interesting, entertaining and at times even humorous! Malle does not hide the fact that he is essentially ignorant to many of the practices and customs to which the Indians (especially the Upper Castes) cling to and hold so dear. Some of them he finds intriguing while others he finds to be exploitative. Just released by Criterion on DVD restored from the French Film Archives: the series is 7 x 51 (or so) minute episodes. 7.5 out of 10.