The Lower Depths

It might seem a pointless exercise to attempt to compare one of the greatest French film directors, Jean Renoir, with of the greatest Japanese film directors, Akira Kurosawa. There are barely a handful of directors in the history of cinema whose names would be worthy to be mentioned alongside these two.

Through some magical twist of fate, both of these geniuses made a movie based upon a play of Russian writer Maxim Gorky, entitled The Lower Depths (1902). Both directors re-wrote the play to adapt it to their respective cultures. It gets better. Renoir’s version stars one of the greatest actors of all time, Jean Gabin, while Kurosawa’s version stars THE greatest actor of all time, Toshiro Mifune. This is EPIC. Ali vs. Frasier. Page vs. Gibson. Montana vs. Marino. Roll film.

Renoir’s The Lower Depths (1936) focuses on Jean Gabin’s character, who is, above all, honest. And a thief. He doesn’t hide the fact that he’s shagging the flophouse landlord’s wife. He also doesn’t hide the fact that he prefers the sister of the landlord’s wife. The single fantastic scene in this movie is when Gabin breaks into the house of a baron who has just gambled away everything he owns and inadvertently interrupts the baron from killing himself. The two become fast friends.

None of the first part of the movie is in Gorky’s play. But then, just when you think this is going to be an intriguing and original movie, the Maxim Gorky play starts. All of a sudden, a bunch of characters are introduced that we don't give a rat’s ass about. We want to watch Gabin teach the baron the ways of a thief. Instead, the baron character withers into the background.

Jean Renoir doesn’t understand being poor. He finds poor people intriguing and tries to romanticize them, but it comes off like some bad Dickens adaptation. Some lady dies and we are left thinking, who cares? Gabin escapes with his preferred girl in the end.

Kurosawa’s The Lower Depths (1957) never leaves the poorhouse. It is about lies. Everybody’s lies. The pain, desperation and stress of being poor, and that it can happen to anyone, is all here. The balance of bickering and comaraderie between a disparate group of close-quartered individuals is perfect. The acting is great all around, and despite the presence of Mifune, there is no main character. Kurosawa is the best there is at handling several actors, all acting independently, onscreen simultaneously. This version of The Lower Depths basically kicks Renoir to the curb. The ending of this movie is beauty beyond sublime, and I’m not giving anything away to say Mifune’s character ends up alone in prison. A definite must-see.