Synopsis
Jean Renoir and Akira Kurosawa, two of cinema’s greatest directors, transform Maxim Gorky’s classic proletariat play The Lower Depths in their own ways for their own times. Renoir, working amidst the rise of Hitler and the Popular Front in France, had need to take license with the dark nature of Gorky’s source material, softening its bleak outlook. Kurosawa, firmly situated in the postwar world, found little reason for hope. He remained faithful to the original with its focus on the conflict between illusion and reality—a theme he would return to over and over again. Working with their most celebrated actors (Gabin with Renoir; Mifune with Kurosawa), each film offers a unique look at cinematic adaptation—where social conditions and filmmaking styles converge to create unique masterpieces.
Cast
| Pépel (the thief) | Jean Gabin |
| Vassilissa Kostylyov (the landlady) | Suzy Prim |
| Natasha (her sister) | Junie Astor |
| Kostylyov (her husband) | Vladimir Sokoloff |
| The baron (the gambler) | Louis Jouvet |
| The actor | Robert Le Vigan |
| Nastia (the prostitute) | Jany Holt |
| Satine | Paul Temps |
| Jabot | Robert Ozanne |
| Kletsch (Anna’s husband) | Henri Saint-Isle |
| Anna | Nathalie Alexeff |
| The inspector | André Gabriello |
| Felix (the servant) | Léon Lavine |
| Alouchka (the musician) | Maurice Baquet |
| The count | Camille Bert |
| Luka (the pilgrim) | René Génin |
Credits
| Director | Jean Renoir |
| Writer, original play | Maxim Gorky |
| Writers, scenario | Jacques Companeez, Jean Renoir, Charles Spaak and Eugene Zamiatine |
| Producer | Alexandre Kamenka |
| Cinematography | Fédote Bourgasoff |
| Editing | Marguerite Renoir |
| Music | Jean Wiener |
| Sound | Robert Ivonnet |
Disc Features
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:
- New high-definition digital transfers of both films, with restored image and sound
- Audio commentary on Kurosawa’s The Lower Depths featuring Japanese-film expert Donald Richie (A Hundred Years of Japanese Film)
- A 33-minute documentary on Kurosawa’s The Lower Depths from the series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create, including interviews with Kurosawa, actress Kyoko Kagawa, art director Yoshiro Muraki, and others
- Introduction to Jean Renoir’s The Lower Depths by the director
- Cast biographies for Kurosawa’s The Lower Depths by Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa
- Original theatrical trailer for Kurosawa’s The Lower Depths
- New essay by Keiko McDonald (From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Films) and Thomas Rimer (A Reader’s Guide to Japanese Literature) for the Kurosawa film; new essay by film scholar Alexander Sesonske, author of Jean Renoir: The French Films 1924-1939, for the Renoir
- New and improved subtitle translations
- Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer editions
From the Current
Jean Renoir’s The Lower Depths
by Dec 30, 2003In 1936 the rise of Hitler in Germany and the Popular Front in France created within the French Left a new sense of solidarity with the Soviet Union. In that context the Russian immigrant producer Alexander Kamenka asked Jean Renoir to direct a film of Maxim Gorky’s play The Lower . . .
Related Films
The Auteurs Forum
Displaying 0 discussion topics.
