River

Great visuals abound in Jennifer Peedom’s follow-up to her breathtaking 2017 documentary Mountain.

With River, Jennifer Peedom elaborates the vision that she first explored in her award-winning 2017 documentary Mountain. These films set out to arouse a sense of awe and wonder in the viewer through their stunning visuals shot in widescreen and colour and designed to impress especially when seen on a huge cinema screen. Achieving that aim is the major distinction of both films but Peedom’s vision goes beyond that. The publicity for the earlier film stressed the extent to which the purpose was to create a hybrid form in which the images were matched with two other elements. The first of these was music: the venture gave special emphasis to the sounds of the Australian Chamber Orchestra under their conductor Richard Tognetti making this an essential component rather than a subsidiary one. The second was a poetic narrative using the words of the well-known writer Robert Macfarlane, these being spoken off-screen by Willem Dafoe.

In Mountain the visuals were breathtaking but the music with its use of works by classical composers did not always blend well and the tone of the commentary often felt uneasy. Dafoe speaks ably to be sure but the words given him are no less high-flown this time around and will not be to everybody's taste. It's also once again the case that some of the music seems less than a natural fit for the visuals (in River, Ravel sounds perfect but Vivaldi is an odd choice to accompany turbulent waters). However, overall River feels more confident than its predecessor while retaining all its virtues.

The shaping of River is well judged. Over a length of 75 minutes (virtually the same as that of Mountain and a sensible recognition of the need for this kind of piece not to outstay its welcome) the film is shaped in more ways than one. First, there is a sense of it following rivers from the peaks that give birth to them down to the place at which they reach the sea. In addition, the film moves chronologically through time from mankind’s early history and reverence for rivers to humans using them as resources, diverting them and creating dams. As River comes to concentrate on today's world, it focuses on despoliation by plastic waste and takes on environmental concerns generally. As a warning, it lacks the exceptional artistry that Viktor Kossakovskiy brought to Aquarela (2018) but may well be more effective in reaching a wide audience.

Peedom, this time directing with Joseph Nizeti and certainly working closely with her editor Simon Njoo, has found a way of fully integrating the music so that again and again it brings a sense of flow and unity to diversified images that are in need of that. Although we can readily identify the setting of certain scenes (those in India and America, for example) River is not concerned with being informative about its locations but seeks instead to look at nature as a whole with full awareness that humankind is and always has been dependent on rivers. The words used will be too fanciful for some, but the film firmly holds together as a powerful celebration of the natural world and our need to protect it.

MANSEL STIMPSON

Featuring  Willem Dafoe as narrator.

Dir Jennifer Peedom and Joseph Nizeti, Pro Jo-Anne McGowan, Jennifer Peedom and John Smithson, Screenplay Robert Macfarlane, Jennifer Peedom and Joseph Nizeti, Ph Yann Arthus-Bertrand, Ben Knight, Sherpas Cinema, Renan Ozturk and Peter McBride, Ed Simon Njoo, Music Richard Tognetti, William Barton, and Piers Burbrook de Vere.  

Stranger Than Fiction Films/Arrow Media/Screen Australia-Dogwoof Pictures.
75 mins. Australia. 2021. UK Rel: 18 March 2022. Cert. U.

River, in UK and Irish cinemas from 18th March. Book now: www.river.film