Satyajit Ray had always acknowledged his debt to Renoir. What is generally not known is that he worked as an assistant to Renoir in making of the film The River. Bansi Chandragupt was the art director, and many others who later became part of Ray's team were also on the team which filmed "The River". This film, through Ray and his team has influenced Indian and Bengali Cinema for 50 years.
This glorious, spellbinding movie, made in 1951, was filmed in India, on the Gangea, it captures the essence of Bengal, the timeless quality of life on the Ganga, without being patronizing. The story is by Rumer Godden, who spent much of her younger days in India.
This is a movie about three teenage girls, two British and one Anglo-Indian, and how their lives are affected by the arrival of a one-legged American war veteran. It's very easy to fall into sentimentality in a movie like this, but Renoir avoids this obvious pitfall. Though I have to say, I do sometimes feel that this is Renoir's eulogy to Bengal rather than a critical appreciation.
It helps that this movie is filmed in Technicolor, and is one of the best uses of Technicolor of that era. Although the original was in French, this version is dubbed in English. The statistics are as follows:
Name of Film:
The River Year: 1951
Language: English
Director: Jean Renoir
Story & Screenplay: Rumer Godden
Music: MA Parthasarathy Size: 699 MB
Duration: 1:39:23
Color: Color
Video Compression: DIVX (6.2.5)
Average Bitrate:8471 kbps
Frame Rate: 23.975 fps
Picture Size: 640x464 (5:3)
Audio: MPEG-I Layer 3, 44100 Hz, 128 Kbits/Sec, mono
IMDB Link:
The River (1951) It is my privilege to present this great film to all Banglatorrent members on Naba Barsha day. Many THANKS to Prernaz who had uploaded this film at another site. 
04-14-2007, 10:32 PM 
The River: Jean Renoir: The Film that inspired Satyajit Ray 
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