--- title: "India Song" year: 1975 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/india-song" fi1m_id: "india-song" imdb_id: "tt0073166" tmdb_id: 85927 wikidata_id: "Q3007766" fi1m_score: 78 critics_reviews: 3 published: "2026-09-26T00:02:24.466564+00:00" updated: "2026-09-26T00:02:29.635975+00:00" region: "HR" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # India Song (1975) Directed by Marguerite Duras · 1h 55m · Drama, Romance ## Identity India Song - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/india-song - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** india-song - **IMDb ID:** tt0073166 - **TMDB ID:** 85927 - **Wikidata ID:** Q3007766 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073166/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/85927, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3007766 **Fi1m score: 78** · Critics: 3 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* Everyone is beautiful, nobody moves their lips, and the piano has the only good lines > Marguerite Duras puts every word off screen and every body on it, and asks for more patience than most evenings have. Give it that and it is strange and quietly upsetting; refuse and it is 115 minutes of beautiful people lying down. ## Synopsis At the French embassy, Anne-Marie Stretter (Delphine Seyrig) drifts through a reception with her lover Michael Richardson (Claude Mann) beside her and a young German attaché (Mathieu Carrière) in attendance. Outside, a beggar woman (voiced by Satasinh Manila) sings, and the sound carries in through the open windows. Also at the party is the Vice-Consul of Lahore (Michael Lonsdale), who has never spoken to Anne-Marie and cannot take his eyes off her. Nobody on screen speaks. The story is told by voices we never see, two women at first (Nicole Hiss and Monique Simonet), who remember the party as something that happened long ago, over a piano tune that keeps coming back. ## Review Marguerite Duras’s film rests on a decision most directors would not survive. Nobody on screen speaks. The actors drift through the salon of a French embassy, lie down on the carpet, dance a step or two, look into a mirror, and every word we hear comes from somewhere else: from unseen voices remembering the party, from a piano in another room, from a beggar woman singing outside. It is slow to the point of provocation. We think it is worth the patience, most of the way, and we would not say so to everyone. The look of it is one salon, one mirror and one lawn. Bruno Nuytten keeps the camera nearly still and lets shots run for minutes, lit by lamps and by a dusk that never quite becomes night. The mirror above the mantelpiece doubles the salon, so people arrive in the reflection before they arrive in the salon itself, and sometimes only in the reflection. Outside there is a tennis court with a red bicycle leaned against the net and a park where the light goes green through the trees. Solange Leprince cuts as seldom as she can, and when she does it is usually back to the same salon from a slightly different place. The soundtrack does the work the picture refuses. Carlos D’Alessio wrote a slow, sweetish piano tune, the India Song of the title, and it comes round again and again, sometimes as a dance and sometimes as a blues from the next room, until you would know it anywhere. Around it are the voices: two women at first (Nicole Hiss and Monique Simonet), speaking in the past tense about the people we are watching, prompting and correcting each other like guests trying to recall a scandal; later two more (Viviane Forrester and Dionys Mascolo). And from outside, at intervals, the beggar woman’s song, in a voice credited to Satasinh Manila, a reminder of everything the party is keeping outside the gates. For the first twenty minutes we were restless and slightly cross, waiting for the film to start. Then the tune came round for the third time, Seyrig lay down on the floor with her cheek against the carpet, and we realised it had started some while ago and we had missed it. Seyrig does almost nothing and we could not look away. Whatever grief the character carries is in the angle of her neck and in the fact that she is the only person at the party who ever looks tired. Michael Lonsdale’s Vice-Consul is the one who breaks the rule. He stands at the edge of the reception and then, off screen, screams her name, over and over, while the guests on screen go on standing perfectly still. We were horrified. It is a raw, ugly sound in a film that has spent an hour being beautiful, Nuytten does not cut away, and the gap between what we heard and what we saw is the most upsetting thing in the film. The middle is long. After the Vice-Consul has gone the voices slow down, the camera has run out of new places to stand, and we caught ourselves working out how much was left. The German attaché (Mathieu Carrière) and the other guests (Vernon Dobtcheff, Didier Flamand) are furniture by design, and design does not stop furniture from being dull. Duras is not interested in whether we are comfortable, which is her right, and it is also why the film will lose a fair portion of any audience by the hour mark. There is no puzzle to solve here. The voices tell you what happened and what will happen. Watch it at night, in the dark, with the sound turned up further than feels polite and the telephone in another room, and do not try to work out where each voice is coming from. It runs 115 minutes, and at some point in the second hour you will either be with it or you will have gone to make tea. We stayed. *Fi1m score 78, published 26 September 2026.* ## Straight answers **Is India Song worth watching?** *India Song* is worth watching for anyone with the patience for a film in which nobody on screen speaks, and we scored it 78. Every word comes from unseen voices and a beggar woman singing outside, over a piano tune that keeps returning, and the middle hour is long. Watch it at night with the sound up, or not at all. **How long is India Song, and what is it rated?** *India Song* runs 1h 55m. It is a drama and romance film. **Where can I watch India Song in Croatia?** *India Song* is not on any streaming or rental service in Croatia at the moment. It is available in 5 other countries; change your country at the top of the page to see where. Availability is checked daily. **How does India Song compare to Hiroshima Mon Amour?** *India Song* is the stranger and slower of the two, and [*Hiroshima Mon Amour*](https://film.one/film/hiroshima-mon-amour) the one to try first. Both are Marguerite Duras stories of a love affair told through remembered voices, but Resnais lets his actors speak and cuts between past and present, where Duras keeps every word off screen and her camera nearly still. The earlier film is the more approachable; the later one asks for more and gives back less to anyone in a hurry. **What should I watch after India Song?** After *India Song*, try [*Hiroshima mon amour*](https://film.one/film/hiroshima-mon-amour) (1959, Fi1m 87): Duras’s script for Resnais; a love affair told mostly in voices and remembered rooms. Then [*In the Mood for Love*](https://film.one/film/in-the-mood-for-love) (2000, Fi1m 91): A tune that keeps returning, a corridor, two people who never quite say it. ### Reviews we read (3) - **Slant Magazine**, Budd Wilkins (4/5): Wilkins finds the two films gorgeously lensed and hauntingly elusive, and considers the Criterion set strong overall. He especially praises India Song’s uncanny atmosphere and the films’ seductive use of suggestion. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/two-films-by-marguerite-duras-blu-ray-review/) - **Time Out**, TR (73/100, inferred): The available page identifies this as a film review but gives no critical verdict. Its only visible note is that the film ranked #80 on Time Out’s list of the 100 greatest French films. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/india-song-1975) - **The New York Times** (64/100, inferred): The headline frames the film as a sentimental story. The article text is inaccessible, so its specific verdict and points of praise or complaint cannot be confirmed. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1975/10/08/archives/marguerite-durass-india-song-a-fourhankie-story.html) ## Details - **Director:** Marguerite Duras - **Director:** Marguerite Duras - **Writer:** Marguerite Duras - **Cinematography:** Bruno Nuytten - **Editor:** Solange Leprince - **Music:** Carlos D'Alessio - **Producer:** André Valio-Cavaglione, Simon Damiani - **Cast:** Delphine Seyrig as Anne-Marie Stretter; Michael Lonsdale as Le Vice-Consul de Lahore; Mathieu Carrière as L'Attaché d'Ambassade Allemand; Claude Mann as Michael Richardson; Vernon Dobtcheff as Georges Crawn; Didier Flamand as Le Jeune Invité; Claude Juan as Le Domestique / Servant; Satasinh Manila as Voix de la Mendiante (voice) - **Runtime:** 1h 55m - **First release (France):** 19 May 1975 - **Genres:** Drama, Romance ## Where to watch in Croatia Not streaming, renting or buying in Croatia at the last check. Also available in: DK, FI, IT, NO, SE. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - César Award for Best Actress 1976: César Award for Best Actress (nominated) - César Award for Best Music Written for a Film 1976: César Award for Best Music Written for a Film (nominated) - International Submission to the Academy Awards 1976: International Submission to the Academy Awards (nominated) ## If you liked this - *Last Year at Marienbad* (1961): Seyrig again, in a hotel where nobody can agree on what happened last summer. - *Hiroshima mon amour* (1959), Fi1m 87: Duras’s script for Resnais; a love affair told mostly in voices and remembered rooms. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/hiroshima-mon-amour.md) - *Jeanne Dielman, 23 quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles* (1975): Seyrig peels potatoes in real time; the same year, the same patience, a colder house. - *In the Mood for Love* (2000), Fi1m 91: A tune that keeps returning, a corridor, two people who never quite say it. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/in-the-mood-for-love.md) - *Goodbye, Dragon Inn* (2003): A near-silent film about a building and the ghosts drifting through it. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/india-song