Publisher's Synopsis
The Criterion Collection is proud to present two dramatically different interpretations of Maxim Gorsky's classic play by two of cinema's greatest masters.
Jean Renoir's The Lower Depths
(Les Bas-fonds/1936)
Made in the 1930s, amidst the rise of Hitler in Germany and the Popular Front in France, Jean Renoir took license with Maxim Gorky's source material for The Lower Depths. Aware that the plight of Gorky's desperates might sit uneasily in his own country on the edge of war, Renoir never lets his derelicts sink quite to the depths, offering them--like in so many of his other films--the possibility of hope. Marking the first time the director would work with Jean Gabin (Grand Illusion) and featuring the great Louis Jouvet (Quai des Orfhvres, Carnival in Flanders), The Lower Depths demonstrates one of cinema's greatest directors transforming a classic play into his own terms for a distinct time.
Akira Kurosawa's The Lower Depths (Donzoko/1957)
Director Akira Kurosawa's transformation of Maxim Gorky's classic proletarian play, The Lower Depths, demonstrates another side of the acclaimed filmmaker's remarkable versatility. In contrast to his usual broad canvas and kinetic filmmaking style, here he explores the possibilities of the stage, finding intimacy in his examination of a group of destitutes set, ironically, within Japan's prosperous Edo period. Starring an ensemble cast that includes Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, and Minoru Chiaki, this adaptation is a Buddhist meditation on the human condition, a poignant yet comic investigation of one of Kurosawa's favorite themes--the conflict between illusion and reality."
