LES BAS- FONDS (THE LOWER DEPTH)
France, 1936, Black and white.
Jean Gabin, Suzy Prim, Louis Jouvet, Jany Holt, Vladimir Sokoloff.
Directed by Jean Renoir.
The Lower Depths won the Louis Delluc prize as the most outstanding French screenplay of 1936. Jean Renoir, coming from an artistic family, had an eye for photography and composition. The opening sequences of this film are most impressive, the Baron talking directly to camera as it circled, the scenes in the rundown flophouse. The quality of the black and white photography, the editing and pace of the photography are outstanding, especially considered for the mid-1930s.
Jean Gabin had a history of appearing in many crime films from the 30s to the 1950s, including Pepe le Moko and Le Quai des Brumes, and La Bete Humaine. Later he was to appear as Inspector Maigret and as Jean Valjean in a French version of Les Miserable.
The film is based on a story by Russian writer Maxim Gorky and the setting is in Russia. This story was remade by Akira Kurosawa in 1957.
The film is a fine example of expressionistic film-making in France in the mid-1930s.
1. The Maxim Gorky story? Of criminals, of the poor, of the idle rich, of gamblers?
2. The title, the depths for each of the central characters, for Pepel, and his transformation? For the Baron and his downfall? For the women? For the actor who hanged himself?
3. The quality of the black and white photography, the design of the film, light and shadow, darkness? The editing and pace? The musical score?
4. The introduction to the group at the flophouse? Pepel as a thief, boarding with the family, his relationship with Vassilissa? Her old husband? Nastasia and her infatuation with Pepel, her condemnation of him? The drunken singer? The situation with Vassilissa, with Kostylev discovering them, the outburst, the struggle?
5. Pepel and the robbery? Going to the Baron’s house? Audiences having met the Baron, his opening statement about his finances, his carefree attitudes, the officials and their blind eye? His going to the casino, paying back the count, gambling again, the huge debt?
6. Pepel, the gun, the discussions with the Baron, their trusting each other, the meal, playing cards? The gift of the statue of the horse? Pepel’s arrest, the denunciation by Nastasia? The police not believing him? The summoning of the Baron? His vouching for Pepel?
7. The sale of the Baron’s furniture, his relationship with his servant, the gentlemanly relationship?
8. The Baron, down and out, going to live in the flophouse, friendliness with the family?
9. Vassilissa, her husband, her husband’s death? The old man and his angers?
10. Nastasia, her love for Pepel, his proposal, her denunciation at the jail, his release, the plans, going off with Pepel, his reform? The gift of the statue from the Baron?
11. The Baron, his indebtedness to the Count, the confrontations, his accepting his fate?
12. The actor, his drinking, courting Nastasia, the confrontation with Pepel, his hanging himself?
13. A picture of Russia in the 19th century? The effete aristocracy? The poor? The encounters between the two – but the optimistic ending?
