A Most Beautiful Film

There are writers about film whose views I respect who prefer Black Narcissus to The River. I have followed their analyses, and struggled to find something to love in the former film, but always without success. But I love The River. For me, it is one of the “most beautiful films”, a member of that special category of movie-loves Godard created half a century ago when writing about Bergman’s Sommerlek (Summer Interlude) in Cahiers du cinéma (July 1958) and which only now am I finding the courage to use in criticism.

I admire the creative thinking behind, and in some cases the achievement, of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, A Canterbury Tale, A Matter of Life and Death, Peeping Tom, and passages in other Powell and Pressburger films, but they are not something I love. Thus, forced to choose, I would sacrifice the whole of Powell and Pressburger’s œuvre if that were the only way to ensure the survival of The River.

Rumer Godden, the writer upon whose novels both Black Narcissus and The River were based, seems to have felt much the same: “Michael Powell who directed it, has told me since he saw the book as a fairy tale, while for me it was utterly true …

“There is not an atom of truth in the film of Black Narcissus – famous as it has become.”

Asked what she felt about the film at a luncheon held in her honour the day after the première she replied: “Only that I have taken a vow … never to allow a book of mine to be made into a film again.”

A discussion of Renoir, his collaborators, and the making of The River can be found at:

http://leahylooksatmorefilms.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/the-river-wit h-links.pdf