In Jean Renoir's introduction to this film the great master cites Rumer Godden's book The River as the greatest work of literature about English colonialism in India. I can think of at least two books that are greater, E.M. Forster's A Passage to India, and George Orwell's Burmese Days, two works of literature which seem to indicate that Britain's endeavors in India produced more harm than a few damaged human relations among the English.
Never the less, Jean Renoir brings unbelievable beauty to this film, which was his first attempt at full Technicolor, and it's a glorious attempt, called the most beautiful color film (along with Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes) by Martin Scorsese.
The color has a warm subtlety and grace which can only be described as characteristic as his father's paintings, cheap as that sounds.
Is The River the Rules of the Game of Renoir's color period, as Andre Bazin claims? No, I'm afraid no movie is as good as The Rules of the Game, yet this is a wonderful and important work all the same.
Never the less, Jean Renoir brings unbelievable beauty to this film, which was his first attempt at full Technicolor, and it's a glorious attempt, called the most beautiful color film (along with Powell and Pressburger's The Red Shoes) by Martin Scorsese.
The color has a warm subtlety and grace which can only be described as characteristic as his father's paintings, cheap as that sounds.
Is The River the Rules of the Game of Renoir's color period, as Andre Bazin claims? No, I'm afraid no movie is as good as The Rules of the Game, yet this is a wonderful and important work all the same.