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DVD The Lower Depths (Kurosawa 1957) / The Lower Depths (Renoir 1936) - Criterion Collection
Criterion's two-disc double bill of The Lower Depths provides a scintillating lesson in comparative cinema. When Jean Renoir adapted Maxim Gorky's acclaimed 1902 play in 1936, he changed the setting from Czarist Russia to an unspecified French slum, casting the great Jean Gabin as a thief struggling to rise from his misery, and Louis Jouvet as the benevolent Baron, a flat-broke gambler on a downward social spiral. Renoir altered the play considerably, retaining its serious tone while infusing it with his trademark warmth and humanity. Two decades later, Kurosawa remained faithful to Gorky while daring to craft The Lower Depths as a comedy, in which Edo-period peasants (including Toshiro Mifune, in Gabin's role) concoct lavish illusions to ease the burden of their impoverished reality. While both films remained relatively overlooked during the careers of their creators, Criterion's DVD restores them to the prominence they deserve.
Both films have been meticulously restored and remastered to Criterion's high standards; Renoir's film still shows its age, but it will never look or sound better than it does here, and Renoir provides an informative introduction culled from the same archival materials featured on Criterion's The Rules of the Game DVD. Better yet, Kurosawa's film is accompanied by a superb commentary by peerless Japanese film scholar Donald Richie, who provides a feature-length treasury of anecdotes (he had actually visited Kurosawa's set in 1957), thematic analysis, production history, and scholarly insight. A 33-minute excerpt from the Japanese TV series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create offers rare interview clips with Kurosawa and surviving members of his cast, along with script, art design, and storyboard details to illustrate Kurosawa's creative process. Kurosawa expert Stephen Prince profiles the esteemed cast of the 1957 film, and exclusive essays about both films are included in the accompanying booklet. As a kind of Rorschach test for each director's approach to style and theme, The Lower Depths offers a back-to-back master class in the art of adaptation. --Jeff Shannon
Review(s): DVD The Lower Depths (Kurosawa 1957) / The Lower Depths (Renoir 1936) - Criterion Collection
Too wonderful
I watched the Renoir version and the Kurosawa version back-to-back one night and TRULY enjoyed both. Renoir mentions in the booklet that was wasn't too pleased with the performances of some of the actors, but I enjoyed their portrayal of the characters. Even though both movies draw from the same play - they are different - I am biased towards the Kurosawa version as being superior. However, I wouldn't be alone as Renoir even remarked after watching Kurosawa's film, "that is a much more important film than mine."
The commentary for the Kurosawa film is exceptional (as with all Criterion versions of films) and the extras for both films are not a bunch of filler. I look forward to Criterion's versions of Ran and other Kurosawa films in the future!
The Human Heart in the Depths
Kurosawa's most neglected masterpiece, "The Lower Depths" takes us into a ravine tenement, run by greedy, brutal landlords, and inhabited by the lowest of society's strata. All action takes place in two locations: the interior of the tenement, or the tenement grounds.
How amazing, then, is the fascination this film exerts on us, with its very modest settings. I am astonished at the creativity of the film shooting, the beauty of the ensemble acting, and the profound expression of truth that the film achieves.
We find ourselves engaged in the lives of these people, and puzzled over the character of Bokuzen Hidari as the pilgrim. Is he good? If he is good, and pacifies the dispossessed by acknowledging their illusions, does it mean that self-deception is good?
What wonderful ensemble acting! The director put them through long, tough rehearsals, and the result is a seamless film. No wrong notes, no overacting, just a beautiful and strange film that haunts us after we've experienced it. Such invisible, great acting, and humor and pathos.
The character of the actor is the finest piece of work by the Kurosawa veteran Kamatari Fujiwara. It is amazing that this actor appears in such diverse roles as Matahichi in "The Hidden Fortress" and as a corrupt executive in "The Bad Sleep Well". What astonishing range and depth! How brilliantly Kurosawa uses the actor's range!
And, of course, we have our beloved Toshiro Mifune, laughing, kicking up his heels in devilish delight, trying to impress the girl, pouting with the landlady, listening with suspicion, then respect to the pilgrim...doing so many things so well, we are bereft when he is absent for the film's conclusion.
And what a conclusion! The harsh clappers that end the movie, the frontal shot of the gambler as he addresses us (for the only time in the film) directly, and the sudden end!
Gorky...Kurosawa, Bokuzen Hidari, Toshiro Mifune, Kamatari Fujiwara and the rest....they live on in this masterpiece, for which I am very grateful.
an excellent double feature.
This double feature by the Criterion Collection contains two versions of the film "The Lower Depths" based on the play by the Russian playwright, Maxim Gorky.
The set includes the 1936 French version "Les Bas-fonds" directed by Jean Renoir, and the 1957 Japanese version, Donzoko, directed by Akira Kurosawa.
The story is about a group of poor people living in a slum.The Japanese version is well adapted to portray the events during the Edo period in Japan. Both films are quite good and have fine scenes and some great photography. They are both critically acclaimed and are quite impressive.
The special features are quite good also but the lack of extras on the French film is disappointing.
Disc 1 contains the French version of the film with an introduction by director Jean Renoir.
Disc 2 contains the Japanese version of the film with optional audio comentary by Donald Richie, a set of Biographies of the main cast and, a chapter of the TV serial, "Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create" which gives further information on the film including interviews.
This one is one that you should not miss.
Related DVD's The Lower Depths (Kurosawa 1957) / The Lower Depths (Renoir 1936) - Criterion Collection
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