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15 out of 15 people found the following review useful: The best of Malle, the best of India., 12 January 2000 Author: sarajevo-2 from Sarajevo, Bosnia Herzegovina
One of my favorite movies of all time, like being in India without the smells. Some of the political talk at the end is really boring, but also realistic. Malle and his crew travel through India, and film and film and film - 6 hours worth. Two of the sections are fantastically beautiful: one in a dance school, where you can feel the camera getting hooked on the dance, and just staying and staying, and one in this impossible religious procession, where every minute is a miracle. The rhythm of the film is the rhythm of India. At first the camera is edgy and tense, and eventually it just succumbs and watches. This film once played in cult movie houses a lot. I don't know why it hasn't become a video classic.
9 out of 11 people found the following review useful: A joy to watch, 30 December 2001 Author: Tushar (oza@oakland.edu) from Detroit, Michigan, USA
In today's fast-paced world, not often one can sit for six hours to watch a film documentary. However, you will not be disappointed viewing this masterpiece.I agree with the previous person's comments & highly recommend this classic. It is hardly ever shown. I managed to see it at the art institute over 10 years ago and am hoping to see it again. I hope there is still a good print in existence. Release it on DVD, please!At last Criterion is releasing a DVD on 4/24/07. I just got a newsletter from Criterion and it is part of their "Eclipse" series.
7 out of 8 people found the following review useful: after 30 years still looking for a copy, 25 January 2006 Author: jnelson-14 from United States
as another viewer noted, after 30 years one still remembers the magic of this film. If anyone knows where a copy exists or how it can be seen again, I would greatly appreciated being informed. It would be tragic that this great film documentary is not archived and released. I saw the film when i lived in California and it was shown as a series at UCLA in Los Angeles. I had a friend who had traveled by freighter to India and had shown me his incredible pictures of his travels in India. This film added motion and sound to the still images that had initially captivated me. I have repeatedly looked for this film and cannot find it. Someone suggested checking with the New York Public Library or the Library of Congress, but I have not had success as yet. The film is so effective that one feels one is in India.
5 out of 7 people found the following review useful: great adventure and wild scenes, 10 April 2005 Author: brien_k from california
I saw this in a theater on first release. Thirty years later I still remember how overwhelming this film can be for those of us not lucky enough to have been to India.It would be great to see again, though, it's not readily available as a rental. A good investment nonetheless and I look forward to seeing this again...all 7 hours or so.Students of yoga and, specifically B.K.S. Iyengar, can see Mr. Iyengar in the film. I wasn't studying yoga when I first saw this so I can't actually recall anything about him. I've seen some comments through the years about how patrician Mr. Iyengar comes off in the film and, I would welcome the chance to see this again.The complexity of religion, huge population and great physical expanse of India will take you away, often, in 'Phantom'.And, yes, some people do live in trees.Wild stuff.
1 out of 1 people found the following review useful: This great documentary is both poetic and political but also interesting and informative, 31 August 2009 Author: Thorkell A Ottarsson from Norway
I learned in many ways as much about Western prejudice and as I did about India, and Malle is quite aware of that in the film. He will often question his own views, even admit when he was wrong on a cation. He does not try to hide that he is a communist and it does not drag the film down (as it does in so many Godard films). Malle's narration was never pseudo intellectual and often startling honest. Phantom India is in seven parts and they are very different. The first is philosophical about the limits of the camera and the documentary. It sets the rules for the future. They are not going to work with a script, they are just going to film what happens, each day and they are not going to talk to the intellectuals of India, but focus rather on the general population (they break that rule again and again). The second one is the most poetic one. They visit a school of traditional religious dancers and they are so fascinated by it that they are stuck there almost the whole episode. And I understand them perfectly. It was hard to take ones eye of the dancers. The third episode is mostly about the Hindu religion. Malle has problems with a lot of what he sees here. This is probably the weakest episode in the series, dragged down by his own intolerance toward religion (even though he does have many valid points). The first part of the fourth episode is probably the most beautiful of the series. Malle and his crew (of two) kind of loose them self in India. They forget to film and stop seeing the point in doing it, only occasionally taking up the camera when they remember that they are there to work. Malle's narration is like a poem. The second part of the episode is more political and lays the ground for the fifth episode, which is about the caste system. Malle does not try to hide his distaste for the caste system and attracts it fiercely, but still he does not loose sight of the fact that he is making a documentary, not propaganda, and he give us very interesting information about the diversity within the caste system. The sixth episode is the most structured one. Here one feels like Malle had a script, or at least wrote a script, based on the material he had filmed. I personally thought this was the most interesting episode. It is about small communities which are on the fringes of Indian society, starting with the Bonda people (wild, ancient tribal people) and then visiting a dying Jewish community, catholic Indians, a rich ashram community and the Toda tribe (which counted only 800 people when the film was made). Malle thinks the Toda tribe is the most ideal of these communities. I can see how it would appeal to a leftist hippie, with their free love and no name for sex but I have my doubts.The seventh episode mainly focuses on Bombay and you really get the feeling how different Bombay is from the rest of India. It is like stepping into another world. Malle hints that Bombay is the sign of what will come to India (even though he hopes for a communist revolution) and if so then India and the world will loose a lot. I have never been to India so I can not verify if this is an honest depiction of the country and I even don't know if it is possible to make a honest documentary. It did anger many Indians, who thought Malle focused to much on the poverty of the country, but such things are always going to be sensitive. What I do know is that Phantom India touched me deeply, both as a lover of films and of different cultures. This is a landmark documentary which should not be missed.
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