Les bas-fonds (1936)

Director:

Jean Renoir

Writers:

Maxim Gorky (play)
Yevgeni Zamyatin (writer) ...

Release Date:

10 September 1937 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Romance

Plot:

The winner of the Louis Delluc Prize as the most outstanding French photo-play of 1936, as selected...

Plot Keywords:

Poverty | Despair | France | Rivals For Love | Sister Sister Relationship

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Jean Gabin	...	Wasska Pepel
Suzy Prim	...	Vassilissa Kostyleva
Louis Jouvet	...	Le baron / The Baron
Jany Holt	...	Nastia
Vladimir Sokoloff	...	Kostylev
Robert Le Vigan	...	The Alcoholic Actor
Camille Bert	...	The Count
René Génin	...	Louka, the wise old man (as René Genin)
Paul Temps	...	Satine
Robert Ozanne	...	Jabot de Travers
Henri Saint-Isle	...	Kletsch, the cobbler (as Saint-Iles)
Alex Allin
André Gabriello	...	The Inspector
Léon Larive	...	Felix, le majordomo
Nathalie Alexeeff	...	Anna, the dying woman

Also Known As:

The Lower Depths (USA) (literal English title)
Underground
Underworld (UK)
Nachtasyl (Austria) (Germany) [de]
Los bajos fondos (Spain) [es]
O Mundo do Vício (Portugal) [pt]
O ypokosmos (Greece) [el]
Sto vytho (Greece) (TV title) [el]
Verso la vita (Italy) [it]
Yömaja (Finland) [fi]

Runtime:

USA:90 min | France:95 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Tobis-Klangfilm)

Certification:

USA:Approved | Finland:K-16

Filming Locations:

Bords de la Seine, Epinay-sur-Seine, Seine-Saint-Denis, France

Company:

Films Albatros

Trivia:

Cameo: [Jacques Becker]a silhouette.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Il mio viaggio in Italia (1999)

Renoir and the classics

It was not the first time Renoir had tackled a literary work:he had already transferred to the screen Zola's "Nana" and Flaubert's "Madame Bovary" .More masterpieces were to follow with Maupassant's "Une Partie de Campagne" -though unfinished,it's my favorite- and Zola's(again)"La Bete Humaine".

I do not think that "les Bas-Fonds" is in the same league as the four works I mention above.The problem lies in the fact that this is a Russian classic and that a French director cannot "feel" it like he does in a celebrated novel of his cultural heritage such as "Madame Bovary".Yes,the names are kept,and they pay in Roubles and Kopecks.It's not enough to create a Russian atmosphere .Renoir told that he wanted to Frenchify the novel :but Gabin and Jouvet ,although they are the creme de la creme of French actors of that era (and of all time) ,are not credible as Russians or Frenchified Russians.

Renoir's permanent features of the thirties are present.His anarchist mind ,present in such works as "La Chienne " and "Boudu Sauvé des Eaux" comes to the fore:the endings of "Boudu" and "Les Bas-Fonds" are similar ,when the two heroes hit the road,turning their back on a society they despise.Suzy Prim's Vassilissa is a distant relative of Lulu "La Chienne".