Specifically, the Ganges

Normal life can occur in extraordinary circumstances. Jean Renoir's 1951 film The River is an extraordinarily beautiful film about three different girls coming of age. The title works as the metaphor you probably suspect it does but its simplicity comes off as a lack of pretension in this lovely, simple-hearted film.

Based on a book by Rumer Godden (author of Black Narcissus) it seems to be a loosely autobiographical tale of her time growing up in British colonial India. Her stand-in character is Harriet (Patricia Walters), who dreams of being a writer. Her friends are a spoiled, pretty English girl named Valerie (Adrienne Corri), and a half Indian girl named Melanie (Radha Burnier).

Harriet is not pretty, an important part of the plot, which made me feel a little bad for actress Patricia Walters. She's not ugly, she kind of looks like Juliette Lewis. But we really do need stories that deal with issues like this which, of course, are fundamental to the lives of young people. Some people are prettier than others.

This becomes important when all three girls fall in love with a visiting American soldier called Captain John (Thomas E. Breen). John's dealing with his own sense of inadequacy because he lost a leg in the war. He has a false leg and really does not move like someone missing a leg, I must say.

Falling in love with John means something different to each of the three girls. Valerie is older than Harriet and more of a woman while for Melanie the experience is tied up in her confused cultural identity. In narration, Harriet explains that for an Indian, falling in love is a more serious thing, that it's for life, and yet, ultimately, it seems as much an intense phase of youth for Melanie as it is for the other two.

The movie's colour cinematography is about as beautiful as Powell and Pressburger's adaptation of Black Narcissus. The film adopts a drowsy tone and incorporates the lives of other members of the family, coming to resemble other films about families from the perspectives of young female characters at the time, such as Meet Me in Saint Louis or even Shadow of a Doubt. There's something very cosy about it.

It was shot entirely in India and Renoir's assistant director was Satyajit Ray. So there's a sense of authenticity pretty rare for Western movies about India of the time.

The River is available on The Criterion Channel.