The Lower Depths

Year: 1936
Genre: Drama
Directed: Jean Renoir
Stars: Jean Gabin, Louis Jouvet, Suzy Prim, Jany Holt, Vladimir Sokoloff, Junie Astor, Robert Le Vigan, Camille Bert, Rene Genin, Paul Temps, Robert Ozanne, Henri Saint-Isle
Production: Films Albatros




A funny thing happened on the way to WWII. In the midst of the Great Depression, hard-nosed political leftists all around Europe found themselves in a panic over the rise and consolidation of power of Nazi Germany. While Hitler was quietly rounding up Socialists and Communists all across the Rhineland, the French artistic intelligentsia found themselves utterly agog with the Russian economic and social experiment. The news had not yet sunk in that Stalin's Russia was just as dysfunctional, but what artists like Jean Renoir and Maximilen Luce did know was exiled socialist writer Maim Gorky had been accepted by Stalin to much fanfare in 1932. Perhaps as a form of unification, Renoir directed Gorky's play "The Lower Depths" to the screen.

The Lower Depths stars Jean Gabin as Pepel a miscreant who lives in a flophouse, in a crime-infested neighborhood by the Maine River. He plans to rob the Baron (Jouvet), an almost defiantly casual nobleman with a penchant for high-stakes gambling. When Pepel enters the Baron's home, the Baron finds him and tells him because of his debts, he's in-fact just as poor as the would-be thief. After multiple run-ins with each other and the law, the two develop a friendship the grows as a love triangle at the flophouse threatens to consume Pepel.

The love triangle involves Pepel, the landlord Kostylev (Sokoloff) his wife Vassilissa (Prim) and Natasha (Astor), Vassilissa's sister. Within the confines of the flophouse the pieces of class struggle are set with Natasha promised to a slovenly police inspector to further complicity of the tragic events to society at-large. The Baron stands outside of the proceedings, absorbing everything though too engrossed with the measly card games of shacks denizens to pay too much mind. Unlike in Gorky's play, where the Baron seems uncomfortable wallowing in poverty, here the Baron  seems liberated. He has no care for the material trappings of his former title. He just wants to distract himself with gambling.

Distraction seems to be a reoccurring theme in The Lower Depths. Many characters, instead of becoming disheartened by their situation, take heart with distractions such as cooking, gambling, idle entertainment, lofty unrealistic ambitions and religion. Vassilissa insists that "one day, everything will be ours." Meanwhile Pepel sits idly inattentive to her disillusions. At another point an elderly couple at the flophouse proclaim a Christian faith to Pepel disgust. "When we believe we make it real," says the man before resting on his hardwood bed.

Within that scene we get a glimpse into director Jean Renoir's inner thoughts. Unlike Gorky or other proponents of the French Popular Front, Renoir was not a moralist. As he's made plain in later films such as Le Grande Illusion (1937) and The Rules of the Game (1939) he's an excellent observer of human behavior. The Lower Depths proves to be his most pessimistic film but as with all true models of poetic realism, there's still a tiny slimmer of hope.

The Lower Depths is Renoir's most accessible comedy/drama providing some interesting insights into human behavior and some excellent acting on the part of Jean Gabin and Louis Jouvet. While some of the humor is a little dated and Junie Astor's performances as Natasha is a vapid as one can see on screen and still not mind, the film is nonetheless a great example of French film during the Golden Age of Hollywood.

Final Grade: A-