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.
| 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 |
| 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 |
SPECIAL EDITION DOUBLE-DISC SET FEATURES:
By December 30, 2003
In 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 Read more »
