#1172a: DURAS, Marguerite: India Song (1975)

DURAS, Marguerite (France)
India Song [1975]
Spine #1172a
Blu-ray


Marguerite Duras’s most celebrated work is a mesmerizing, almost incantatory experience with few stylistic precedents in the history of cinema. Within the insular walls of a lavish, decaying embassy in 1930s India, the French ambassador’s wife (Delphine Seyrig) staves off ennui through affairs with multiple men—with the overpowering torpor broken only by a startling eruption of madness. Setting her evocatively decadent visuals to a desynchronized chorus of disembodied voices that comment on and counterpoint the action, with India Song Duras creates a haunted-house movie unlike any other.

119 Minutes
Color
Monaural
in French
1:66:1
Criterion Release 2023

Director/Writers

Marguerite Duras was 61 when she wrote and directed India Song.

Other Duras films in the Collection:

#1172b: Baxter, Vera Baxter (1977)

The Film

a

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twenty-four page booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Ivone Margulies.

Commentary

None.

Alternate

English-language audio track.

Marguerite as She Was

A 2003 portrait of Duras.

Program

From 2020 on the making of India Song, featuring interviews with the cast and crew.

Interview

From 1977 with Duras.

Excerpt

From a 1977 documentary on actor Seyrig.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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