THE LOWER DEPTHS (1936)
Directed by: Jean Renoir.
Produced by: Alexandre Kamenka.
Written by: Jacques Companeez, Jean Renoir, Charles Spaak & Eugene Zamiatine, based on the play by Maxim Gorky.
Director of Photography: Fédote Bourgasoff.
Edited by: Marguerite Renoir.
Music by: Jean Wiener.
Language: French with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: France. 89 min. Not Rated.
With: Jean Gabin, Suzy Prim, Junie Astor, Vladimir Sokoloff, Louis Jouvet & Robert Le Vigan.
DVD Features: New digital transfer with restored image & sound. Introduction by Jean Renoir. New & improved English translation. Essay by film scholar Alexander Sesonske, author of Jean Renoir: The French Films 1924-1939.

THE LOWER DEPTHS (1957)
Directed by: Akira Kurosawa.
Produced by: Akira Kurosawa & Shojiro Motoki.
Written by: Akira Kurosawa & Hideo Oguni, based on the play by Maxim Gorky.
Director of Photography: Kazuo Yamasaki.
Music by: Masaru Sato.
Released by: The Criterion Collection.
Language: Japanese with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: Japan. 125 min. Not Rated.
With: Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, Kyoko Kagawa, Ganjiro Nakamura, Koji Mitsui & Kamatari Fujiwara.
DVD Features: New digital transfer with restored image & sound. Commentary by Donald Richie, author of A Hundred Years of Japanese Film. Documentary excerpt from TV series Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create (33 min.) with interviews of Kurosawa, actress Kyoko Kagawa & art director Yoshiro Muraki. Cast bios by Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa. New & improved English translation. Essay by Keiko McDonald (From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Films) & Thomas Rimer (A Reader's Guide to Japanese Literature).

Dual adaptations of the Maxim Gorky classic play deliciously exemplify how one vision can spawn two radically different, yet equally rich results. Jean Renoir's 1936 version of The Lower Depths follows a down-and-out thief, Pepel (Jean Gabin), as he attempts to change his life. Akira Kurosawa's 1957 version focuses on each of the poverty-beaten characters unilaterally. While both films remain faithful to Gorky's play in their own stylized ways, each one embarks on its own path towards a fully-realized reimagining.

In both versions, as well as in the source material, the characters are inhabitants of a dank, squalid poorhouse. Renoir's version undoubtedly leans more towards the melodramatic, in which a romantic triangle takes center stage. Gabin's Pepel has a romantic history with Vassilissa (Suzy Prim), the landlord's wife, but is in love with Natacha (Junie Astor), the younger and virginal sister. As a bribe, Vassilissa and her greedy landlord husband seek to literally pimp Natacha out to the local inspector.

Kurosawa's version of the film is almost painfully restrictive at times and is the more literal translation of the play. A prime example of an ensemble picture, it almost has too many characters for such a claustrophobic setting. But then that is the point the director is stressing to convey. The camera, for the most part, remains as stagnant as the characters, grounding us in the unattractive terrors of the Japanese slum.

While Renoir's is the more entertaining of the two, Kurosawa's takes more risks. A poignant suicide is the most striking visual moment in Renoir's version, while it is merely talked about in Kurosawa's. And yet, the action has more of a consequence in the latter. Whereas Kurosawa allows light, comedic moments to grace his film, Renoir stays true to his knack for the melodramatic.

DVD Features: The only extra for Renoir's version is an introduction by the director himself where he speaks of the struggle to resemble Gorky's Russia amidst the backdrop of a riverine France. The commentary by Kurosawa expert Donald Richie proves to be an extremely informative explanation of what could easily be misinterpreted as Kurosawa's relentless theatricality. And in the TV documentary, Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create, the construction team and surviving cast members elaborate on the creation of the real star of his film - the engulfing flophouse. Michael Belkewitch
September 23, 2004