L'Inde Fantôme (aka Phantom India) (1969)

L'Inde Fantôme (aka Phantom India) (Malle, 1969)-aNaRCHo

ENGLISH SUBS INCLUDED FOR ALL EPISODES AS SUB + IDX

"Phantom India: Reflections on a Journey" is an epic 7 part cine-essaylogue (travelogue + cine-essay) in which we are shown the people, places, practices, customs, Gods, celebrations, festivals, rituals, cultures, mythology, traditions, castes, religions, gurus, minorities, food, art, economics, politics, and various ways of life found throughout India, as seen through the camera lens of Louis Malle. Malle does not remove himself from the documentary in an objective way, rather, we are poetically led through the documentary as if experiencing India from the mind of Malle himself- much like Chris Marker, but with more vanity. It is absolutely fascinating being immersed in late 60's India, and seeing it through the reflections of Malle makes it interesting, entertaining and at times even humourous! Malle does not hide the fact that his is essentially ignorant to many of the practices and customs of which Indians (especially the Upper Castes) cling to and hold so dear. Some of them he finds intriguing while others he finds to be exploitative. Just released by Criterion on DVD this is a restoration from the French Film Archives: the series is 7 x 51 (or so) minute episodes.

EP1: The Impossible Camera
EP2: Things Seen In Madras
EP3: The Indians And The Sacred
EP4: Dream And Reality
EP5: A Look At Castes
EP6: On The Fringes Of Indian Society
EP7: Bombay

Episode 5 is ripped at a different aspect ratio with black bars on the sides....i apologize for this....this was the best i could tweak it without making the AR all wonky....the episode had black bars on all sides on the DVD (the only episode like this) , looked like they forgot to resize it or something.

Thanks to franzgorner for the DVD's!!!

PLEASE SEED AND ENJOY!!!