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17 - The River

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

William Rothman
Affiliation:
University of Miami
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Summary

God dwells in the heart of all beings, Arjuna; thy God dwells in thy heart. And his power of wonder moves all things – puppets in a play of shadows – whirling them onwards in the stream of time.

– Krishna, in The Bhagavad Gita

Hands lovingly paint intricate filigrees on the ground. A sitar plays the serene opening strains of a raga as the narrator, a mature English woman whose voice is wise and comforting, begins to speak: “In India, to honor guests on special occasions, women decorate the floors of their homes with rice flour and water. With this … we welcome you to this motion picture, filmed entirely in India, in Bengal, where the story really happened.”

Thus, The River (1951), the film that inaugurates the second great period of Jean Renoir's career, presents the first of its interpretations of itself, its own views, its creation, and its audience: The film is a beautiful design painted by loving hands to welcome us as honored guests on a special occasion. (It is a magical moment when, at the midpoint of the film, this opening image is reprised on the occasion of a wedding – a wedding that is the centerpiece of the film-within-the-film that represents a story told by the narrator's past self.)

The narrator goes on: “It is a story of my first love, about growing up on the banks of a wide river.

Type
Chapter
Information
The 'I' of the Camera
Essays in Film Criticism, History, and Aesthetics
, pp. 206 - 220
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2003

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  • The River
  • William Rothman, University of Miami
  • Book: The 'I' of the Camera
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511616600.021
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  • The River
  • William Rothman, University of Miami
  • Book: The 'I' of the Camera
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511616600.021
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • The River
  • William Rothman, University of Miami
  • Book: The 'I' of the Camera
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511616600.021
Available formats
×