French director Louis Malle's feature length documentary "Calcutta" would turn out to be a harrowing experience for anyone who is interested in serious cinema.It is not the depiction of abject poverty which is shocking but the manner in which this film was shot is quite revolting.Etienne Becker's camera did not show least bit of concern for his subjects as their privacy was violated in many ways.It felt as if some intruders were hell bent on snatching moments of innocence from common people.This disputatious position would surely play a leading role in polarizing viewers.It can be surmised that even hardcore documentary cinema admirers would doubt this film's neutrality as it appears much too prejudiced.Louis Malle has not been able to strike a fine balance between what he personally experienced in Calcutta and what Calcutta really had to offer.This is one of the reasons why he chose to highlight what he experienced more than what was being offered.As this is a documentary with minimal commentary,viewers would be forced to draw their own conclusions.City of Calcutta is synonymous with its strong political stance.This aspect of Calcutta has been depicted by Louis Malle in a very light manner.This film's few moments of relief were filmed only when Louis Malle chose to become a sociologist.Those are the moments which would please audiences not accustomed to the depiction of anything controversial.

I wish people who review movies would do exactly that, and not go flying off on political tangents that aren't necessary or relevant. Yes, Kolkata is different 40 years after this film was shot. What bearing does this have on a film made in 1968? And I don't know why one commenter berated the United States in such broad-sweeping terms, beginning with the false assumption that "we" don't know about our own slums-- and the implicit idea, about as inane as it gets, that American filmmakers don't make films about poverty in America. It's hard to find American films that are NOT critical of their own country-- I know this because I pay some degree of attention.Not that diatribes against the U.S. have squat to do with this film under consideration. It is a FRENCH film.There are plenty of sites people eager to vent their bigotry against other peoples and other nations can go, and be welcome.As for this movie, it "speaks" for itself-- mainly by presenting the subject with as little interpretive voice-over as is possible. To see it attacked on trumped up ideological grounds-- well, it makes my jaw drop.

CALCUTTA is a very unusual film in that there is no narration for about the first third of the film and even when it is given, it's only used very sparingly. It seems that director Malle chose to allow the many images of an impoverished city to speak for themselves. In fact, I also appreciated how the film did not push a clear agenda. Sure, it was there (as in any film), but often the film just seemed to be a walking tour of the city--ranging from the interesting to the unusual to the awful and disgusting. Malle did not flinch away from lepers, cremations and people living in abject squalor and considering the source material, avoiding these not so lovely images of the city would have been irresponsible and disingenuous. Additionally, I liked how the lack of narration through the film actually encourages the viewer to make their own interpretation of the film. As a result, I am sure that each viewer has a rather unique take on what the film was about as well as what they think of the future of India. An excellent film that is practically yelling out for a follow-up almost forty years later to show us how life in this crowded city has or has not changed.

I had the opportunity to watch about 3/4 of Louis Malle's documentary Calcutta during a history class that dealt with historical and modern slums. The movie is a hard film to watch at times due to the display of human suffering throughout the movie. As mentioned in the plot outline, there is little commentary or written dialogue in the film and you are given the raw picture, with some sound, of one of the largest and poorest slums in the world. The imagery is hard to take at times. I saw the film roughly three years ago and there are still two scenes which I vividly remember. One is a dramatic funeral scene where members of a woman's family cremate her in the middle of a street. The other was of a small child, with no clothes or shoes, standing next to filthy streams of water that ran through the slums. Despite being produced almost 40 years ago, Calcutta deals with urban planning issues that are still prevalent today. There are still places like Lagos, the City of the Dead, and Karachi where slums and ghettos exist and exact a terrible toll on those who live there. This is an excellent movie for anyone who is concerned with urban planning and the global impact of slums, but not for the light-hearted.