Concept

The River (1951 film)

Summary
The River (French: Le Fleuve) is a 1951 American Technicolor drama romance film directed by Jean Renoir shot in Calcutta, India where the Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, then a student of cinema met him for guidance. It was fully filmed in India. A fairly faithful dramatization of the 1946 novel of the same name by Rumer Godden, the film narrative follows a teenager's coming of age and first love, with the namesake river as a central theme and backdrop. The film was produced by Kenneth McEldowney, and original music was by M. A. Partha Sarathy. The cast includes Esmond Knight, Nora Swinburne and Arthur Shields. Harriet (Patricia Walters) is a teenaged girl who belongs to an upper middle-class English family residing on the banks of the Ganges River in British India. Her father (Esmond Knight) runs a jute mill, and she has four sisters and one brother, all several years younger than her. They are raised in a genteel, English setting, and even have the benefit of live-in Indian employees, such as a nanny. The normal order of Harriet's life is shaken when the family's neighbor invites his cousin, Captain John (Thomas E. Breen), to live with him on his plantation. When Captain John arrives, the children discover he has lost one leg in the war. Harriet, her sisters, and Harriet's best friend Valerie (Adrienne Corri) are all smitten with him and therefore invite him to a Diwali celebration. Harriet also gains the courage to show him her "secret book" - her diary. He politely acquiesces in a non-romantic way. Later, eager to impress upon him her familiarity with Hindu religion, or perhaps to divert his attention from Valerie, Harriet tells him a marriage story where mundane identities of ordinary peasants are subject to divine change and transformation. In this tale, Lord Krishna intervenes in a wedding ceremony to assume the identity of the groom, and a bride is temporarily transformed into Krishna's consort. There follows an extended dance sequence with Radha Burnier performing as Krishna's consort.
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