The River is a 1951 Technicolor drama romance film directed by Jean Renoir and produced by Kenneth McEldowney. The cast includes Esmond Knight, Nora Swinburne and Arthur Shields. A fairly faithful dramatization of the 1946 novel of the same name by Rumer Godden, the film's narrative follows a teenage girl's coming of age and first love, with the namesake river serving as both the backdrop and a central metaphor. The film was shot in Calcutta, India, where Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, who was then only a student of cinema, was able to meet Renoir for guidance.

Jean Renoir was a French film director, screenwriter, actor, producer and author. As a film director and actor, he made more than forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. His films La Grande Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game (1939) are often cited by critics as among the greatest films ever made. He was ranked by the BFI's Sight & Sound poll of critics in 2002 as the fourth greatest director of all time. Among numerous honours accrued during his lifetime, he received a Lifetime Achievement Academy Award in 1975 for his contribution to the motion picture industry. Renoir was the son of the painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir and the uncle of the cinematographer Claude Renoir. He was one of the first filmmakers to be known as an auteur.