“The Lower Depths” (1936)
Truth be told, Renoir’s version of Maxim Gorky‘s “The Lower Depths” squeezed in only by a hair onto this list. But even if Akira Kurosawa‘s version from a few decades later would prove superior (an opinion that Renoir himself held as well), there are a couple of very important reasons why it’s essential viewing for any Renoir fan. It was the first time Renoir worked with Jean Gabin, who would go on to make three more films with Renoir and solidify one of cinema’s greatest actor-director collaborations. It provided a role for one of the most memorable supporting performances in any Renoir film, that of the Baron, played by the irrepressibly magnetic Louis Jouvet. It’s also significant in the way Renoir adapted the play —just like how he tweaked Fauchois via his personalized version of ‘Boudu,’ he refashions Gorky and expands the limits of the setting to show more of the world surrounding the flophouse at its centre. Gabin’s iconic portrayal of the thief Pepel, who dreams of escaping the flophouse and taking his lady love (Junie Astor) with him, is countered by Jouvet’s gambling Baron who goes from riches to rags and finds that the flophouse suits his proclivities just fine. “The Lower Depths” is also one of the greatest examples of how much attention Renoir devoted to marginal characters, so that viewer gets to relive the film’s vitality through the doomed actor or the blonde Nastia (Jany Holt). And even though Renoir infamously hated Astor’s wooden performance (seriously, she’s like a plank next to Gabin), the same film gives us iconic scenes like the one with Gabin, Jouvet, and a snail on the riverbank. Scenes like this, not found in the original source but imaginatively concocted by Renoir’s spontaneous genius, make this version of “The Lower Depths” indelible.
“A Day In The Country” (1936)
Bad weather thwarted the completion of Renoir’s following film “A Day In The Country,” and in doing so stopped short what could’ve been his magnum opus. Luckily, no one dared to encroach on Renoir’s vision, and the film was released as is about a decade later. This featurette is a testament to what Renoir can do in 40 minutes, capturing a bucolic world full of affections with such immense warmth that transcends the screen and dives straight into your heart. Only a handful of directors have ever had this capacity, and even then they’d usually need at least a full hour and a half running time. Adapted from a short story written by Guy de Maupassant (who was friends with Pierre-Augustine Renoir, btw), “A Day in the Country” follows a group of Parisians as they spend a Sunday afternoon in the country. Daughter Henriette (Sylvia Bataille, who for my money delivers the greatest female performance in any Renoir film) and mother (Jane Marken) are consequently wooed and amused by two country boys. And in one fateful moment, encapsulated by a hauntingly piercing closeup, Henriette’s life is changed forever. The film is resplendent with its bucolic imagery, with its glorious shots of the sky and surrounding nature that Henriette is so moved by, and a final tracking shot that ominously glides on the surface of a river disturbed by raindrops representing the passing of time and symbolizing the end of Henriette’s innocence. “A Day in the Country” is the most impressionistic of Renoir’s work: it’s a visual poem pitting the idyllic world of the country against the banalities of urban society, and while short, it’s in many ways the longest breath of fresh air in Renoir’s filmography.