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Lower Depths [Special Edition,2-Disc]

DVD/APPROX. 125 MINS./1957/US NR

Main feature:

Release Jun 22, 2004
Video Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audio French: Dolby Digital 1.0
Japanese: Dolby Digital 1.0
Subtitles English
Studio Criterion/Voyager
Year 1957

Special features:

  • (Les Bas-fonds) Jean Renoir 1936
  • Introduction to the film by Jean Renoir
  • A new essay by film scholar Alexander Sesonske, author of Jean Renoir: The French Films 1924-1939
  • (Donzoko) Akira Kurosawa 1957
  • Audio commentary featuring Japanese-film expert Donald Richie, author of A Hundred Years of Japanese Film
  • A 33-minute documentary on 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
  • Cast Biographies by Stephen Price, author of The Warriors Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa
  • A new essay by authors Keiko McDonald (From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Films) and Thomas Rimer (A Reader's Guide to Japanese Literature)

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, working amidst the rise of Hitler and the Popular Front in France, had need to take license with the dark nature of Gorky's source material, softening its bleak outlook. Kurosawa, firmly situated in the postwar world, found little reason for hope. He remained faithful to the original with its focus on the conflict between illusion and reality - a theme he would return 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 style converge to create unique masterpieces.

Cast and Crew:

Criterion/Voyager presents
"Lower Depths"
directed byAkira Kurosawadirected byJean Renoir
Production Year: 1957

Please note:

Details are based on information from various sources. We do everything we can to keep them as accurate as possible. However, errors occur so use this information at your own risk and remember to check the product itself before buying.