Phantom India (1969) | StreamScapeX

Episodes

Season 1, 7 episodes

Episode 1: Reflections in a Lens
- Now playing
- 55m
- Jul 25, 1969
How can you capture in the lens of a film camera the essence of a country so diverse, so variegated, and so paradoxical as India?
Episode 2: A Barbarian in Madras
- 55m
- Aug 1, 1969
Southern India pretends to know nothing about the North. Its language is different, its very nature too. In Madras Louis Malle discovers a striking example of that world of opposites to be found in traditional India: thousands cramming the streets at a strange ceremony centuries old, and a family planning clinic; a film studio making folk-lore musicals, and the famous Kalachetra dance school where dancing is itself a language, a prayer, an invocation to God.
Episode 3: Holy India
- 55m
- Aug 8, 1969
Louis Malle finds a devotion to a spiritual life that transcends the poverty of the material one and discovers that in a country as crowded as India, religion is the one way for the individual to be alone.
Episode 4: Shadow Without Substance
- 55m
- Aug 15, 1969
Drifting at random through the numberless villages of the South, Louis Malle finds himself in a timeless, fantastic, and to a western eye, almost surrealist world. Kerala is like a dream, with its exotic lagoons, game reserves and palm-fringed beaches - a species of tropical Paradise Lost. At the same time it's a battleground for the conflicting forces of Capitalism and Maoism, a land where even the Communists are split into three separate parties, and democracy and collectivism wrestle with the traditions of a country that by nature rejects them both.
Episode 5: Invisible Frontiers
- 55m
- Aug 22, 1969
Although officially abolished, the caste system has not ceased to exert a strong influence on Indian social life. It is not a problem of colour, race nor even of class. It is far subtler and harder to pin down, as Louis Malle discovers as soon as he starts to ask those awkward questions about caste that Indians are reluctant to answer. For the Hindu, division into castes is like a law of nature, a logical expression of his vision of the Universe. Castes are religious boundaries that run through heads and through hearts but not along the ground; they are those invisible frontiers of the mind that to India are so natural and to the West so incomprehensible.
Episode 6: Cults, Creeds and Clans
- 55m
- Aug 29, 1969
Turning aside from the traditional India of the Hindus, Louis Malle pans his camera on to the India of forgotten tribes and tiny sects. He discovers two versions of Utopia: one, the Ashram at Pondicherry whose disciples claim through yoga to have discovered the secret of the ultimate meaning of life; the other, the natural gentle life of the Todas, a people who live in total sexual freedom, without laws, leaders or class system, at peace with themselves and with their neighbours, and whose only problem is that they are doomed by the advance of civilisation.
Episode 7: Where East Goes West
- 55m
- Sep 5, 1969
Bombay. It's the last lap of Louis Malle 's journey through India and already it smacks of the West. Bombay is a city on the move, in the middle of an economic boom. Parsee industrialists, Muslim craftsmen, and immigrant labourers from the South all meet here in this cosmopolitan city, whose slums are as poverty-stricken as those of Calcutta, but whose modern factories, oil refineries, and traffic problems all show the shadow of the West. It's where Hinduism meets Industrialisation, where East goes West, where the India of yesterday and today meets the India of tomorrow. But what kind of tomorrow?

Phantom India

1969
1 season
6h 3m per episode
Documentary

5.4TMDB(12)

Overview

Louis Malle called his gorgeous and groundbreaking Phantom India the most personal film of his career. And this extraordinary journey to India, originally shown as a miniseries on European television, is infused with his sense of discovery, as well as occasional outrage, intrigue, and joy.

Fun facts

Episodes
Ran for 1 season and 7 episodes (1969)
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Setting
Set in India
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Details

Status: Ended
Seasons: 1
Episodes: 7
Original title: L'Inde fantôme
First aired: July 25, 1969
Last aired: September 5, 1969
Original language: French
Countries: France

Streaming on

In the United States

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Networks

Production

Nouvelles Éditions de Films

Cast

Louis MalleSelf - Narrator

Episodes

Season 1, 7 episodes

Episode 1: Reflections in a Lens
- Now playing
- 55m
- Jul 25, 1969
How can you capture in the lens of a film camera the essence of a country so diverse, so variegated, and so paradoxical as India?
Episode 2: A Barbarian in Madras
- 55m
- Aug 1, 1969
Southern India pretends to know nothing about the North. Its language is different, its very nature too. In Madras Louis Malle discovers a striking example of that world of opposites to be found in traditional India: thousands cramming the streets at a strange ceremony centuries old, and a family planning clinic; a film studio making folk-lore musicals, and the famous Kalachetra dance school where dancing is itself a language, a prayer, an invocation to God.
Episode 3: Holy India
- 55m
- Aug 8, 1969
Louis Malle finds a devotion to a spiritual life that transcends the poverty of the material one and discovers that in a country as crowded as India, religion is the one way for the individual to be alone.
Episode 4: Shadow Without Substance
- 55m
- Aug 15, 1969
Drifting at random through the numberless villages of the South, Louis Malle finds himself in a timeless, fantastic, and to a western eye, almost surrealist world. Kerala is like a dream, with its exotic lagoons, game reserves and palm-fringed beaches - a species of tropical Paradise Lost. At the same time it's a battleground for the conflicting forces of Capitalism and Maoism, a land where even the Communists are split into three separate parties, and democracy and collectivism wrestle with the traditions of a country that by nature rejects them both.
Episode 5: Invisible Frontiers
- 55m
- Aug 22, 1969
Although officially abolished, the caste system has not ceased to exert a strong influence on Indian social life. It is not a problem of colour, race nor even of class. It is far subtler and harder to pin down, as Louis Malle discovers as soon as he starts to ask those awkward questions about caste that Indians are reluctant to answer. For the Hindu, division into castes is like a law of nature, a logical expression of his vision of the Universe. Castes are religious boundaries that run through heads and through hearts but not along the ground; they are those invisible frontiers of the mind that to India are so natural and to the West so incomprehensible.
Episode 6: Cults, Creeds and Clans
- 55m
- Aug 29, 1969
Turning aside from the traditional India of the Hindus, Louis Malle pans his camera on to the India of forgotten tribes and tiny sects. He discovers two versions of Utopia: one, the Ashram at Pondicherry whose disciples claim through yoga to have discovered the secret of the ultimate meaning of life; the other, the natural gentle life of the Todas, a people who live in total sexual freedom, without laws, leaders or class system, at peace with themselves and with their neighbours, and whose only problem is that they are doomed by the advance of civilisation.
Episode 7: Where East Goes West
- 55m
- Sep 5, 1969
Bombay. It's the last lap of Louis Malle 's journey through India and already it smacks of the West. Bombay is a city on the move, in the middle of an economic boom. Parsee industrialists, Muslim craftsmen, and immigrant labourers from the South all meet here in this cosmopolitan city, whose slums are as poverty-stricken as those of Calcutta, but whose modern factories, oil refineries, and traffic problems all show the shadow of the West. It's where Hinduism meets Industrialisation, where East goes West, where the India of yesterday and today meets the India of tomorrow. But what kind of tomorrow?

Episodes

E1 Episode 1: Reflections in a Lens

E2 Episode 2: A Barbarian in Madras

E3 Episode 3: Holy India

E4 Episode 4: Shadow Without Substance

E5 Episode 5: Invisible Frontiers

E6 Episode 6: Cults, Creeds and Clans

E7 Episode 7: Where East Goes West

Overview

Fun facts

Details

Streaming on

Networks

Production

Cast

More like this

Episodes

E1 Episode 1: Reflections in a Lens

E2 Episode 2: A Barbarian in Madras

E3 Episode 3: Holy India

E4 Episode 4: Shadow Without Substance

E5 Episode 5: Invisible Frontiers

E6 Episode 6: Cults, Creeds and Clans

E7 Episode 7: Where East Goes West

Fun facts

Episode 1: Reflections in a Lens

Episode 2: A Barbarian in Madras

Episode 3: Holy India

Episode 4: Shadow Without Substance

Episode 5: Invisible Frontiers

Episode 6: Cults, Creeds and Clans

Episode 7: Where East Goes West

Episode 1: Reflections in a Lens

Episode 2: A Barbarian in Madras

Episode 3: Holy India

Episode 4: Shadow Without Substance

Episode 5: Invisible Frontiers

Episode 6: Cults, Creeds and Clans

Episode 7: Where East Goes West