The Lower Depths (1936)

The Lower Depths is a French film from director Jean Renoir, son of the impressionist painter Pierre Auguste. It follows two friends, a thief and a baron, as they struggle with money and love in very romanticized ways. This is not my favorite of Renoir's work, but it showcases the immense talents of Jean Gabin and Louis Jouvet who are always a pleasure to watch.

The story begins with the thief Pepel, living in a flophouse who sets out to burgle the large mansion of a man whom we come to know only as The Baron. By chance or fate it happens that The Baron is down on his luck--he is a gambler who wins big, but loses much bigger. On the eve of the robbery The Baron loses the last of his money and returns home with the knowledge that all of his possessions will be repossessed in the morning. He meets Pepel in his house and the two strike an immediate friendship, playing cards until dawn.

Without money or a home The Baron eventually comes to live in the poorhouse with Pepel, and it is there, surrounded by intellectualism, spiritualism, and love that The Baron comes to find contentment with the world. There is a colorful cast of supporting characters in the flophouse who detest the bourgeois: the sick actor, the old prophet, the drunk musician, who all find solace in vices and mediums other than money.

At the same time, Pepel is struggling to balance the love he shares for two sisters....well, he stops loving one for the other which does not sit well for the first. His new love wishes to be with him to receive his affection, the old one because she believes that Pepel can steal enough to allow her to escape her horrid wretch of a husband who, incidentally, is the owner of the flophouse. In the end comes the struggle between Pepel, the two sisters and the abusive husband which is as much symbolic as it is literal.

I liked this movie for its acting, its theatricality, the relationship between Pepel and the Baron, and its beautiful dialogue. I found its message to be annoying, however, simply because I dislike granola, Bohemian dribble. This film makes the argument that love and money are mutually exclusive entities. The "bad" figures in the movie have money or try to achieve it. The exception is the Baron who lost his money and found happiness without it. I dislike people who preach that those that seek money are heartless and care for nothing else. You never hear those with money saying that wealth is a bad thing; it is only the underprivileged who I feel are simply making the best of a bad situation. They demonize something that they can't achieve which is what people do, but it doesn't make for very interesting movie watching.

3/4