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Licensor Information
Janus Films
Directed by: Jean Renoir
Director Jean Renoir’s entrancing first color feature—shot entirely on location in India—is a visual tour de force. Based on the novel by Rumer Godden, the film eloquently contrasts the growing pains of three young women with the immutability of the Bengal river around which their daily lives unfold. Enriched by Renoir’s subtle understanding and appreciation for India and its people, The River gracefully explores the fragile connections between transitory emotions and everlasting creation.
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Technical Specifications
Format:
DVD
Disc:
DVD-9 (1 Disc)
Total: 1 Disc
Regions:
1 (DVD)
Aspect Ratio:
1.33:1
Audio Options:
English Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Resolution:
480p/29.97
Subtitles:
English
Supplements
Types of Supplements Included: Introduction, Documentary, Interview, Audio Interview, Video Essay, Theatrical Trailer, Insert
- Introduction to the film from 1962 by director Jean Renoir
- Around the River, a 2008 documentary by Arnaud Mandagaran about the making of the film
- Interview with filmmaker Martin Scorsese from 2004
- Audio interview with producer Ken McEldowney from 2000
- Jean Renoir: A Passage Through India, a new video essay by film writer Paul Ryan
- Trailer
- An essay by film scholar Ian Christie and notes on the film by Jean Renoir
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Film
Picture
Audio
Supplements
Artwork
Release Credits
Producer: Karen Stetler
Artwork: Kathleen Cantwell
Release Notes on Restoration
The River
The restoration of The River was undertaken in the summer of 2004 by the Academy Film Archive, in association with the British Film Institute and Janus Films. Restoration funding was provided by The Film Foundation and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The picture was restored from the original three-strip 35mm nitrate Technicolor camera negatives at Cinetech in Valencia, California, where the color timing was done by Keven Warr. The sound was transferred from a 35mm optical track print at DJ Audio in Studio City, California, and restored at Audio Mechanics in Burbank, California.
The River is presented here in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the image to maintain the proper screen format. This high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit DataCine film scanner, with the participation of editor George Gale, from the new 35mm restoration interpositive. Thousands of instances of dirt, chemical stains, scratches, splices, warps, flicker, and chroma breathing were manually removed using MTI’s DRS and Pixel Farm’s PFClean, while Digital Vision’s Phoenix was used for small dirt.
The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the optical soundtrack positive. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, AudioCube’s integrated workstation, and iZotope RX 4.
The River is presented here in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the image to maintain the proper screen format. This high-definition digital transfer was created on a Spirit DataCine film scanner, with the participation of editor George Gale, from the new 35mm restoration interpositive. Thousands of instances of dirt, chemical stains, scratches, splices, warps, flicker, and chroma breathing were manually removed using MTI’s DRS and Pixel Farm’s PFClean, while Digital Vision’s Phoenix was used for small dirt.
The original monaural soundtrack was remastered at 24-bit from the optical soundtrack positive. Clicks, thumps, hiss, hum, and crackle were manually removed using Pro Tools HD, AudioCube’s integrated workstation, and iZotope RX 4.