Description: Akira Kurosawa's The Lower Depths, an adaptation of Maxim Gorky's classic proletarian play. Instead of his usual broad canvas, Kurosawa instead explores the possibilites of the stage in this film, finding intimacy in his examination of a group of destitutes, set during one of Japan's most prosperous ages. Starring an ensemble cast led by frequent collaborator Toshiro Mifune, the film is a Buddhist meditation on the human condition, yet also a poignant and comic investigation of the conflict between illusion and reality.
Amazon.com essential video: 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
Russian dramatics, doused in foreign sympathies Two masters of cinema showcase their artistic ingenuity with these two adaptions of Maxim Gorky's play. Both stories simmer in a destitute realm of hopelessness and drudgery. ________________________________________
Jean Renoir (1936)
You've got a cluster of lewd, impoverished folk that struggle with the dire circumstances of their banal existence. Like pus-infected sores, they fester in unruly fashion in the cellar of a poorhouse. The disparity of their economic status is examined and exposed thoroughly after a former baron is forced to join their masses. Still the mood is often upbeat. Add in a twisted love story and you have a much more light-hearted adaption of this story. ________________________________________
Akira Kurosawa (1957)
Supposedly this version is much more faithful to Gorky's play. It focuses entirely within the lower depths where these inhabitants dwell, giving quite a confiscating sense. The entire setting of this film is extremely morose. Akira doesn't offer any semblance of hope, which contradicts Renoir's rendition. The attitudes and relations between these homeless people seems more bitter, which is probably more realistic. ________________________________________
This is an amazing collaboration between two of the greatest directors that ever lived. For serious fans of classic cinema, come immerse yourself in the lower depths.
"Money buys your fate in hell" Criterion has done something different here. They have released two adaptations on Gorky's play "The Lower Depths" from two famous film makers: Akira Kurosawa and Jean Renoir. It is interesting to watch both to see two interpretations of a play, one which works marvelously and one which could have been better, had the story been better delivered.
I agree with Donald Richie in his commentary that this film is perhaps one of Akira Kurosawa's most underappreciated films. Fairly faithful to Gorky's play, Kurosawa presents a movie with impressive sets, fine acting, and as always great filmmaking. Kurosawa moves the location to 19th century Japan. The run-down inn that the characters stay in is a crammed, dying entity made up of fierce diagonals, decaying wood, and working shadows. Kurosawa continues his practice of directing his actors to enhance the mood of a scene, and the use of camerawork as well as lighting works well throughout. The script, like the play, has something of a plot with a game of control over the landlady's little sister and the thief, but really it is all about these people and the way they deal with their own position. Everyone seems to have dreams, or some kind of beautiful past they used to know. Is it really true? In the case of Osen the prostitute it seems not to be, but then with cases like the ex-samurai you really never know. Like Kurosawa explored in "Rashomon," the boundary between realities and personal fantasies, but it is this wish for a better life and the starch defense of all characters against the laughter of their peers that makes one feel for these characters. Like Gorky's play, Kurosawa presents us with seventeen characters (!) but you get to know and feel for every one. They all have their own unique personality, their own unique problems, and they never once break out of character.
The acting for this film simply could not have been better. If you've watched Kurosawa films before (or you watch a lot of old Japanese films) then you'll recognize a lot of faces here. Minoru Chiaki ("Hidden Fortress," "Ikiru," "Throne of Blood," "Seven Samurai") is an ex-samurai, Kamatari Fujiwara ("Ikiru," "Seven Samurai," "High and Low") is great as the drunken actor, Toshiro Mifune (who needs no film reference) is even present as the thief, but Bokuzen Hidari (Yohei in "Seven Samurai") tops everyone with the most memorable performance as the Buddhist priest who arrives and tries to mediate the conflict and anguish present in the slums. He perfectly sums up the feeling of the movie when asked if Buddha exists and he replies, "I'm sure he does to those who wish him to."
With reviewing Jean Renoir's adaptation, I feel somewhat guilty...because all in all, I was not very impressed. Other reviewers called it a "forgettable version" and I wanted to go into it with a neutral mind and not as some bitter Kurosawa fan stuck with an extra movie. (let's not forget Kurosawa himself was a fan of Renoir) Yet as I watched, I couldn't help but feel that something was terribly lacking - things had gone wrong. For example, Gorky's play never seems to be center stage. The first forty minutes are almost entirely dedicated to an added sequence where we see the background of the Baron character. Admittingly I enjoyed it at first (Louis Jouvet did a fine job as the Baron) but when you hit forty minutes and it actually goes into Gorky's play I realized how ridiculous it was to have that plot. Once the Baron joins the slums he just becomes a member of the ensemble cast, and (except for that overrated moment with the snail) never stands out again. Why was it necessary to know about the Baron? Why was it necessary to hear about his problems with the ministry? I've heard that people enjoy it because it shows how one falls to the lower depths, but it hurts Gorky's original concept by detracting from the rest of cast and eating up film time on information we really have no reason to know. What hurts it even more is after the forty minute mark the story forgets about the relationship between the Baron and thief Papel and focuses on the romance between Papel and Natasha.
What I am getting at here is this: you aren't in the lower depths, and therefore lose all empathy with the cast. Gorky's play and Kurosawa's adaptation existed solely in the slums, so you are constantly in the lower depths, so that the more you stay there the deeper you get into it's world. Renoir has it fly around the place, from the high class neighborhoods to the open fields and even a fancy restaurant. I laughed during the introduction with Jean Renoir because he claimed he wanted to take Gorky's play and bring it to the shores of the Marne, yet the Marne River must be in here for about five minutes. Likewise, he claims the actor character is there to offer sense and poetic language, but that's all the actor does - offer poetic language and kill himself. Characters such as the old man Luka and the cobbler are totally wasted, and are only there to simply exist around the main actors. When the old woman dies I didn't feel sad, and so little time is spent on it's effect that you doubt the writers cared either. This is precisely what is so dangerous about Gorky's play and why several stage adaptations have failed: Gorky's play showed to the high class that the lower class were individuals with their own problems - if done wrong, all it will be is a bunch of poor people. Renoir has done that: all I know about these people is they're poor and they think it's bad. Otherwise, I could care less.
Ultimately, I wish Renoir's adaptation had been left out so that the DVD box could have been thinner. (and therefore could have fit in my DVD tower) I had read reviews by Renoir fans who admit it is not his best, and even Renoir himself admitted after seeing Kurosawa's version that it was far more important than his. If you are a Kurosawa fan then I would highly suggest this, or if you are a Renoir fan and you need to finish your collection than buy it as well.
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.
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