Among the directors whom Satyajit Ray cites as his influences is Jean Renoir, who went to Calcutta to film The River in 1949, at which time Ray spent a good deal of time with the French director, and wrote an article on him. In his book, “Our Films, Their Films,” Ray devotes a chapter to Jean Renoir and the making of The River. “To Renoir,” he writes, “there is nothing more important to a film than the emotional integrity of the human relationship it depicts. Technique is useful and necessary in so far as it contributes towards this integrity....”
“The action takes place in Bengal. Three young women are in love with one of their cousins wounded during the war, who decides to leave rather than have to choose one among the three of them. It is more than anything else a film about British colonialism as seen through the eyes of a teenager. This film was inspired by the reading of Rumer Godden's novel. She also wrote the scenario with Renoir. Jacques Rivette describes the film as ‘the only example of a film vigorously reflecting itself (turned upon itself), and in which the narrative structure, the metaphysical themes and the sociological descriptions not only answer one another but are in every way interchangeable....' Some of Renoir's critics dislike intensely the spiritualism which permeates the film, seeing the film as the final transition towards what they consider to be Renoir's final renunciation of his earlier commitment. Technically different from Renoir's other films, the color photography by his nephew Claude Renoir has often been noted and admired by the filmmakers of the French New Wave.” --Bertrand Augst