The River - Criterion Collection

Starring:Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, Arthur Shields, Suprova Mukerjee, Thomas E. Breen, Patricia Walters, Radha (III), Adrienne Corri, June Hillman, Jane Harris, Ram Singh, Cecilia Wood, Nimai Barik, Richard R. Foster, Jennifer Harris (III), Trilak Jetley, Penelope Wilkinson
Director: Jean Renoir
Studio: Criterion
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Mapping the spaces between fortune and degeneracy, Shakespeare and street cant, Europe and the Pacific Northwest, and gay and straight, My Own Private Idaho is the 1991 masterpiece by director Gus Van Sant. River Phoenix gave the most generous and memory-searing performance of his tragically shortened career as Mike Waters, a narcoleptic street hustler in search of his mother. His best friend, Scott, played by Keanu Reeves, is a son of privilege who fosters plans of rejoining the moneyed world of his father after gallivanting with assorted urchins and ne'er-do-wells. The beautifully symmetrical story that emerges between the two is one of friendship, yearning for lost time, and sexual identity conveyed with a poet's eye for landscape. The camera lingers on abandoned houses in golden fields and time-lapse clouds, providing what T.S. Eliot called "the objective correlative"--external representations of interior emotional states. We're treated to striking iconic sequences like a barn falling from the sky and still-life scenes of carnal entanglement. The supporting cast is a rogues' gallery that includes Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Udo Kier, director William Richert, and a variety of "nonactors" pulled literally off the street to provide documentary veracity to a film that gleefully careens into riffs on Henry IV. It's beautiful.

What's also beautiful is the Criterion Collection's treatment of the film's DVD debut. The director-approved transfer successfully conveys the warmth of the film's palette of oranges and browns, and preserves the whimsical atmospherics of the yodeling country music soundtrack. Many members of the original crew contribute their fond memories to the documentary features, which include a conversation between Phoenix's sister Rain and producer Laurie Parker. There are also two lengthy audio-only conversations--one between Van Sant and Velvet Goldmine director Todd Haynes, and another between author J.T. Leroy and filmmaker Jonathan Caouette about their experiences on the street. The deleted scenes mostly suggest alternate endings that Van Sant wisely left on the cutting room floor. A superb example of a beloved film on DVD. --Ryan Boudinot

Stills from My Own Private Idaho (click for larger image)

The Cast
River Phoenix
Keanu Reeves

Keanu and River
Udo Kier
Gus Van Sant

Description

River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves star in director Gus Van Sant's haunting tale of two young street hustlers: Mike Waters, a sensitive narcoleptic who dreams of the mother who abandoned him, and Scott Favor, wayward son of the mayor of Portland and the object of Mike's desire. Navigating a volatile world of junkies, thieves, and johns, Mike takes Scott on a quest from the grungy streets to the open highways of the Pacific Northwest, in search of an elusive place called "home." Groundbreaking and visually dazzling, My Own Private Idaho is a stirring look at unrequited love and life at society's margins.

Customer Reviews:

"I just want to hold you.".......2007-06-15

This is one of the most beautifully poignant movies I have seen. For me, the movie is about longing for love, for connection with family, and a search for self love. It transcends gender and convention. The cinematography is beautiful, the script is smart, and Mike's (River Phoenix) portrayal of a young and narcoleptic street hustler is, well, riveting.

Thank you, Mr. Van Sant. Thank you for favoring people like me with a glimpse of the world through a poet's eyes, and a bard's voice.

A gripping sense of vulnerability.......2007-06-10

Early into this movie, you see a dilapidated house floating downward from the sky, ultimately crashing into pieces on a country road. Initially this image seems out of place, but you soon realize how perfectly fitting it really is.
This journey recklessly pulls you through the life of a young junkie named Mike (River Phoenix). He suffers from narcolepsy, and during these episodes you get a haunting glimpse into his childhood. I wondered if these awful moments are possibly repressed memories. They seem to have cast a dark shadow over his current position, and Phoenix portrays this predicament all too well.
Keanu Reeves plays his best friend Scott, whom Mike begins to feel a prevalent romantic attraction for. I got the impression that Mike wasn't really gay, he just was in dire need for some sort of physical love and affection from somebody. They both make money as prostitutes, often performing for men with strange fettishes. The strangest thing is that Scott is the son of the wealthy mayor, and this is his way of rebelling I guess.
Scott's character is based on Prince Hal, son of the king in Shakespeare's play Henry IV. I thought it was cool how Van Sant intertwined his own story with this classic literature.
I think this was one of River's last films, if not his last one. I wonder if he got too wrapped up with method acting for this role. His presence does seem to cry out with a sad desperation in nearly every scene here. Overall, the remarkable emotional depth generated from this movie will really stick with you long after it's over.

Van Sant's best film, a true masterpiece..........2007-03-05

This is my favorite Gus Van Sant film. It's an amazingly beautiful work. It annoys me that many critics and some reviewers identify this as a "gay" film, simply because the 2 main protagonists are male hustlers, and Van Sant is gay. This film is beautiful enough for all to get something out of it. The poetry and beautiful simplicity of this film makes it one of the greatest films of the 1990's. Some of the scenes are incredibly lyrical and quite touching. Most films in the 1990's had that smug, "ironic" thing going, but this is a grand exception. Generally, I don't like Van Sant's work. I think a lot of it is overrated, and some of it downright awful (Gerry being his worst film). But I deeply admire this film. It's a sad, painful, haunting, and beautiful film. Its subject matter can be off putting for some, but you need to forget about that. It will prevent you from enjoying a masterpiece....

Please Allow Me To Ramble For A Moment, Would You?.......2007-02-13

I know this review gets a little self-indulgent, but if you'll allow me to get autobiographical for just a second, you'll see why I do.

When River Phoenix breathed his last in front of Johnny Depp's Viper Room on Halloween morning in 1993, I think I was just the right age to feel a certain frisson in his passing that wouldn't have been there a year or two either way. My friend and I came home from a snowy night among trick or treaters to graphic news accounts of Phoenix's passing, and for reasons that made perfect sense to us then, we went out and got this movie on video. Ultimately we ended up buying it and watching it shall we say A LOT till about the end of the year, when new misfortunes came along, eventually in the next spring taking the form of Kurt Cobain's suicide, which trumped all previous newsworthy events in our young lives.

Well, recently I got My Own Private Idaho on DVD, motivated more about nostalgia for ninth-grade and a weirdly River Phoenix obsessed fall than out of remaining affection for the movie itself, but you know, after watching it from my perspective of today, this is a lot better film than for all my sentimentality I'd remembered it being. From its re-telling of Shakespeare with a modern boldness unseen by anything else until Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio's Romeo+Juliet a few years later, to its in-your-face trip into the living hell of junky male prostitutes living homeless in circa 1990 Portland and Seattle, Gus Van Sant's quirky film seems even more an achievement now than it ever did back in the day. In viewing My Own Private Idaho, you get to hear tales of life on the streets as told by real-life hustlers, and you get to see a pre-A-list Keanu Reeves act in his own unique and inimitable style. But above all, to be honest, the ghost of River Phoenix still haunts this movie, and always will. To view it from an all-knowing hindsight and understand that according to so many THIS was the project that introduced the one-time clean living son of hippies to the quick thrill of hard drugs...that hasn't ceased to deliver a punch, even in a more jaded decade such as this one.

If you haven't seen My Own Private Idaho, see it; it's destined to be a classic one day. If it's been a while, see it again. It holds up well and it should tell you something about how much you've changed with time.

Thanks for reading!

Gus Van Sant's finest film.......2007-01-23

Wow I was blown away when I first saw this movie I thought River and Keanu were amazing and I loved the visuals Gus Van Sant did a great job and I highly recommend this film.

Average customer rating:

The River
A poetic paean to Anglo-India
The touch of genius!
french indian film classic
Preferred the Rummer Godden documentary in this DVD!

The River - Criterion Collection
Starring: Nora Swinburne , Esmond Knight , Arthur Shields , Suprova Mukerjee , and Thomas E. Breen
Director: Jean Renoir
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B0007989WU
Release Date: 2005-03-01

Amazon.com essential video

When speaking of Jean Renoir's timeless masterpiece The River, one can easily exhaust their supply of superlatives. Frequently listed among the greatest films ever made, it was Renoir's first English-language film and his first in color…and what rich, astonishing Technicolor it is! Shot by Renoir's nephew Claude, the film is a love letter to India, seen through the eyes (and narrated as memories) of an adolescent British girl living with her family near the banks of the Ganges, a location which allowed Renoir to indulge his burgeoning affection for the region, it's people, and the exotic allure of the Orient. Under challenging conditions, Renoir and author Rumer Godden adapted Godden's autobiographical novel into an elegant, loosely plotted reflection on the romance of India, and on coming of age in a culture that, until then, few Western filmgoers had ever seen on screen. (To enhance this journey to a new world, Renoir used Indian music recorded live in Calcutta instead of a traditional score; the effect is hypnotically inviting.) Blessed with eternal lessons of life, death, and love, The River offers a transcendent film experience, guaranteed to touch the heart of anyone who sees it. The film was meticulously restored to its original glory in 2004; Criterion's DVD release preserves that restoration with a pristine digital transfer. --Jeff Shannon

Description

Director Jean Renoir's entrancing first color feature—shot entirely on location in India—is a visual tour de force.

Customer Reviews:

The River.......2007-06-27

Renoir's lyrical, impressionistic ode to India's mystery and wonder belies the spell the country cast on the director from the moment he touched Indian soil. The first Technicolor film shot there, it is impossibly beautiful visually, and also immensely touching, as the turbulence of growing up is set against the eternal flow of the Bengal River. Like nothing you've seen, and among Renoir's most impressive works.

A poetic paean to Anglo-India.......2007-05-14

I can only echo the praise heaped upon this film by the other reviewers. Having lived in India myself for awhile this captures so many nuances of life there, even though the film is over 50 years old. One interesting note is the character Melanie is played by the actress identified as Radha (her face appears on the cover of the DVD). Radha is the daughter of N. Sri Ram, a past international President of the Theosophical Society and Radha, now Radha Burnier is the current international President of the Theosophical Society. A remarkable woman of many talents.

The touch of genius!.......2007-03-09

Stylistical and conceptually, Renoir's style possesses that coveted touch of class that so many directors desperately seek but so few can get in its absolute wholeness.

Only under the spelling direction of Jean Renoir this lyrical drama about children growing up in Bengali could achieve such artistic status. The splendid photography is a true visual feast. An instantaneous classic that nourished the raising Indian filmmaker: Satyajit Ray.

As once, Renoir stated: "One always is inspired by something, even to create the most original issue"

french indian film classic.......2007-01-10

Jean Renoir's first film in color -a moving and gentle meditation on the pain of growing up and the difficulties of the English in India half a century ago in understanding the strange world and culture they lived in. Beautiful filming and very effective playing by many young cast members. A real joy.

Preferred the Rummer Godden documentary in this DVD!.......2006-12-16

I watched everything on this DVD, and I am giving it a 5-star rating not for the film but rather for the British TV documentary that was included at the end. Usually I don't watch the special segments on the making of a film, the cast, the location, etc., but in this case I found all this information much more interesting than the film itself. I think I watched it all because after I watched the film, I was somewhat disappointed and wanted to know what exactly all the fuss was about. The movie is very visually artistic and enjoyable to watch with that expectation only. India was gorgeous and unsurprisingly director Renoir kind of made the story and setting into a non-stop stream of watercolors. I don't think I have ever seen anyone else do it better than he did in this film. However, as for the storyline I found its presentation too "French" for me. What I mean by this is that I have often found the female characters in French films made by male French directors to be too adoring, too emotional or too wicked, if not all three at nearly the same time. There often is this element of melodrama and sudden emotional swings as if all the females were PMS'ing at the same time. FYI, I'm female by the way. Even some of the male characters acted too melodramatically for me. I have not read the novel by Rummer Godden or any of her books for that matter so I do not know if this was how the book was written or was due to free license taken by the director. However, there was an hour-long British TV program about Godden's life and her return to India decades later included on this DVD. It was excellent! This DVD is worth watching just for that alone. I was mesmerized listening to her tell her life story and watching her reactions as she revisited scenes of her childhood and young womanhood. She has had an extraordinary life and she is so honest about herself, good and bad. To me, she was the "great work" on this DVD and watching the film was the background special bonus material. I wondered how she liked the film and listened for her to give some indication. Maybe I missed it but I don't think so.

Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist (The Emperor Jones / Body and Soul / Borderline / Sanders of the River / Jericho / The Proud Valley / Native Land / Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist) - Criterion Collection

Average customer rating:

An excellent release

Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist (The Emperor Jones / Body and Soul / Borderline / Sanders of the River / Jericho / The Proud Valley / Native Land / Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist) - Criterion Collection
Starring: Paul Robeson , Henry Wilcoxon , Wallace Ford , Kouka , and John Laurie
Director: Thornton Freeland , Kenneth MacPherson , and Zoltan Korda
Manufacturer: Criterion
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000KRNGOA
Release Date: 2007-02-13

Amazon.com

Paul Robeson is today known for little more than singing "Ol' Man River" in Showboat, but this hefty and potent collection from Criterion (seven movies and a rich trove of documentary features and commentaries) should return Robeson to much-deserved cultural awareness. An imposing, charismatic black actor who demanded respect when most black actors were trapped in mammy and minstrel roles, and a singer whose deep, rolling voice won him acclaim on the concert stages of Europe, Robeson was among the most significant performers of the 20th Century--until the 1950s, when the U.S. government suspended his passport out of fear that Robeson's commitment to social progress and civil rights would project a negative view of America. But even before then, Robeson's career took place outside of the establishment channels of Hollywood. Paul Robeson: Portraits of the Artist includes two silent films (Body and Soul, a melodrama railing against the hypocrisies of the church, made by the pioneering black filmmaker Oscar Micheaux; and Borderline, a startlingly inventive story of an interracial love rectangle, made by film theorist Kenneth Macpherson), both given additional vitality by contemporary jazz scores; three movies from Robeson's rich period in England (Sanders of the Valley, Jericho, and The Proud Valley, which chart both Robeson's rising social conscience and his increasing clout in the industry); Robeson's most significant Hollywood film, The Emperor Jones, adapted from the Eugene O'Neill play that shot Robeson to stardom in the first place; and the movie that probably reflected Robeson's social beliefs more than any, the remarkable and riveting semi-documentary Native Land, which Robeson narrated.

Robeson is one of those rare actors, like Bette Davis or Humphrey Bogart, whose performances drive his movies as much as the director or the screenplay. Much is made of Robeson's powerful voice and intimidating physique, but just as impressive are his piercing eyes; in every role, a questing intelligence bursts through, looking at the world and cutting through charades and illusions. Criterion packages always have phenomenal extras, but Portraits of the Artist is unusually complex because Robeson's life is as important to his stature as his movies. These excellent features capture the world around Robeson, a world that both raised him up and tore him down. Far from a musty historical document, this is a film package that matters, which will reward and surprise viewers used to conventional notions of Hollywood and America. --Bret Fetzer

Description

All-American athlete, scholar, renowned baritone, stage actor, and social activist, Paul Robeson (1898-1976) was a towering figure and a trailblazer many times over. He made perhaps his biggest impact, however, in the medium of film. The son of an escaped slave, Robeson managed to become a top-billed movie star around the world during the time of Jim Crow America, always striving to use film to educate viewers about equality, democracy, and the rights of workers. Though he eventually left movies behind, using his international celebrity to speak on behalf of those denied their civil liberties and ultimately becoming a victim of ideological persecution himself, Robeson left a film legacy that continues to speak eloquently of the long and difficult journey of a courageous and outspoken African American.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent release.......2007-02-25

This Release of Paul Robeson films is a great release from Criterion. Released for Black History Month, this set includes 7 feature films and two documentaries.

Each disc contains two fims and select special features

"The Emperor Jones" is about a black man who escapes from a chain gang and flees to the West Indies.
"Paul Robeson: Tribute to an Artist" is a biographial documentary about Robeson narrated by Sidney Poiteir.
"Body and Soul" is about a corrupt preacher.
"Borderline" is about a group of interracial lovers
"Sanders of the River" is about an African tibesman
"Jericho" is about a black World War I soldier who deserts and heads to Africa,
"The Proud Valley" is about a coal miner in Wales
"Native Land" is socialist documentary film about labor unions.

Disc one contains commentary for "The Emperor Jones" by historian Jeffrey C. Stewart, "Our Paul: Remembering Paul Robeson" a retrospective containing interviews various black filmmakers and performers including James Earl Jones, and an interview with Robeson's son, Paul Robeson Jr.

Disc two contains commentary for "Body and Soul" by Micheaux historian Pearl Bowser. Also included are new scores for both films on the disc

Disc three contains "True Pioneer: The British Films of Paul Robeson" a progarm featuring interviews with Robeson Jr. and other persons

Disc four contains "The Story of Native Land," an interview with cinematographer Tom Hurwitz, and a1958 radio interview with Paul Robeson.

Also included is a booklet with various other materials

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The Cast	River Phoenix	Keanu Reeves
Keanu and River	Udo Kier	Gus Van Sant