Email:

Password:

Forget Your Password? | Not a Member? Join FilmCatcher

The Lower Depths

Cover Image

Photos

  • Screenshot from The Lower Depths

    The Lower Depths
    The Lower Depths Thumbnail 1

Awards

Blue Ribbon Awards 1958 - Won - Best Supporting Actor

Kinema Junpo Awards 1958 - Won - Best Actress

Mainichi Film Concours 1958 - Won - Best Actor

Mainichi Film Concours 1958 - Won - Best Art Direction

Blue Ribbon Awards 1958 - Won - Best Supporting Actor

Kinema Junpo Awards 1958 - Won - Best Actress

Mainichi Film Concours 1958 - Won - Best Actor

Mainichi Film Concours 1958 - Won - Best Art Direction

Mainichi Film Concours 1958 - Won - Best Supporting Actor

Prix Louis Delluc 1936 - Won - Prix Louis Delluc

view all

The Lower Depths

Directors:
Akira Kurosawa , Jean Renoir
 

$35.95 $28.76

Purchase Options & Download Info

Make a Difference

5% of every FilmCatcher purchase you make goes to a worthwhile cause.

How does this work?

At A Glance

Film Synopsis

Jean Renoir and Akira Kurosawa, two of cinema's greatest directors, transform Maxim Gorky's classic proletariat play The Lower Depths in their own ways for their own times. Renoir, who worked amidst the rise of Hitler and the Popular front in France, takes license with the dark nature of Gorky's source material, softening its bleak outlook. Kurosawa, who was firmly situated in the postwar world, found little reason for hope. He remains faithful to the original with its focus on the conflict between illusion and reality- a theme he returns to over and over again. Working with their most celebrated actors (Gabin with Renoir; Mifune with Kurosawa), each film offers a unique look at cinematic adaptation- where social conditions and filmmaking styles converge to create unique masterpieces.

Get Involved

Review This Film>

Our Take

Please check back soon to see our take on this independent film.

Member Reviews Box

Be the first to review this film!

Other Films You Might Like

Details

Country:
UNITED STATES

Language:
English/American

Color:
Color

Plot Summary

SPECIAL FEATURES: 

  • New high-definition digital transfers of both films, with restored image and sound
  • Audio commentary on Kurosawa's The Lower Depths featuring Japanese-film expert Donald Richie (A Hundred Years of Japanese Film)
  • A 33-minute documentary on Kurosawa's The Lower Depths from the series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create, including interviews with Kurosawa, actress Kyoko kagawa, art director Yoshiro Muraki, and others
  • Introduction to Jean Renoir's The Lower Depths by the director
  • Cast biographies for Kurosawa's The Lower Depths by Stephen Prince, author of The Warrior's Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa
  • Original theatrical trailer for Kurosawa's The Lower Depths
  • New essay by Keiko McDonald (From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Films) and Thomas Rimer (A Reader's Guide to Japanese Literature) for the Kurosawa film; new essay by film scholar Alexander Sesonske, author of Jean Renoir: The French Films 1924-1939, for the Renoir version
  • New and improved subtitle translations
  • Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer editions

 

 

 

Curator Reviews

Please check back soon for this Curator Review.
 

Submit a Review The Lower Depths

reset

Title

Body

  • This field is required.

Tag It (optional)

Popular Tags

Drama Comedy Documentary
Foreign Language Romance Mystery / Thriller

Your Tags (enter your tags separated by commas)