The Lower Depths (1936)
(Les bas-fonds)
Country: FR
Technical: bw 95m
Director: Jean Renoir
Cast: Jean Gabin, Louis Jouvet, Suzy Prim, Junie Astor, Vladimir Sokoloff, Robert Le Vigan
Synopsis:
Unable to pay his gambling debts, an impoverished Baron falls in with the man trying to burgle him, a born criminal who presides over his own fiefdom of society no-hopers.
Review:
Renoir's adaptation of Maxim Gorky has Popular Front written all over it, despite the awkward retention of Russian names and currency, on which the film's Communist producer insisted. Like Monsieur Lange, it also centres on a social group which closes ranks to protect itself and eliminates its despicable landlord; it even closes with the same hopeful image of lovers walking hand in hand towards an uncertain future, and has other striking reminiscences of Chaplin's Modern Times and City Lights. Jouvet's theatrical acting style, juxtaposed with Gabin's quasi-improv, is a singular point of interest, and their scenes together are a delight, like watching Hoffman and Olivier. The corpulent inspector, a kind of Mack Swain avatar, may be straight out of Tsarist Russia, but even he is humanised by Renoir.
(Les bas-fonds)
Country: FR
Technical: bw 95m
Director: Jean Renoir
Cast: Jean Gabin, Louis Jouvet, Suzy Prim, Junie Astor, Vladimir Sokoloff, Robert Le Vigan
Synopsis:
Unable to pay his gambling debts, an impoverished Baron falls in with the man trying to burgle him, a born criminal who presides over his own fiefdom of society no-hopers.
Review:
Renoir's adaptation of Maxim Gorky has Popular Front written all over it, despite the awkward retention of Russian names and currency, on which the film's Communist producer insisted. Like Monsieur Lange, it also centres on a social group which closes ranks to protect itself and eliminates its despicable landlord; it even closes with the same hopeful image of lovers walking hand in hand towards an uncertain future, and has other striking reminiscences of Chaplin's Modern Times and City Lights. Jouvet's theatrical acting style, juxtaposed with Gabin's quasi-improv, is a singular point of interest, and their scenes together are a delight, like watching Hoffman and Olivier. The corpulent inspector, a kind of Mack Swain avatar, may be straight out of Tsarist Russia, but even he is humanised by Renoir.
(Les bas-fonds)
Country: FR
Technical: bw 95m
Director: Jean Renoir
Cast: Jean Gabin, Louis Jouvet, Suzy Prim, Junie Astor, Vladimir Sokoloff, Robert Le Vigan
Synopsis:
Unable to pay his gambling debts, an impoverished Baron falls in with the man trying to burgle him, a born criminal who presides over his own fiefdom of society no-hopers.
Review:
Renoir's adaptation of Maxim Gorky has Popular Front written all over it, despite the awkward retention of Russian names and currency, on which the film's Communist producer insisted. Like Monsieur Lange, it also centres on a social group which closes ranks to protect itself and eliminates its despicable landlord; it even closes with the same hopeful image of lovers walking hand in hand towards an uncertain future, and has other striking reminiscences of Chaplin's Modern Times and City Lights. Jouvet's theatrical acting style, juxtaposed with Gabin's quasi-improv, is a singular point of interest, and their scenes together are a delight, like watching Hoffman and Olivier. The corpulent inspector, a kind of Mack Swain avatar, may be straight out of Tsarist Russia, but even he is humanised by Renoir.