Les Bas-Fonds

The location of Renoir's adaptation of Maxim Gorki's play is not identified, but from the distinctive acting styles the feel is very French, with the enclosed world of a studio-built courtyard suggesting the dark side to his earlier success, Le Crime de Monsieur Lange. But rather than building on a feeling of community, the characters assembled - among them an actor, a drunk, a fallen baron - exist more as individuals looking for a way to escape. Gabin and Jouvet are their usual glorious selves, though the tendency towards pessimism makes this one of Renoir's less rewarding films.