Sunday, August 23, 2009

The Lower Depths

Jean Renoir

Taken from a story by Maxim Gorky. This deals with a thief and his milieu in the bottom of French society, including a baron who has gambled away all his money. Too broadly played for my eye. This struck me as somewhere between real life and a cartoon. The grit, grime and ignorance of life at the bottom was glossed over. The attempt to end it as a fairy tale was reminiscent of the end of Modern Times, released the same year.

Very few films from this period (1936) hold up today. This wasn't one of them.

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