Les Bas-fonds (1936)
Directed by Jean Renoir

Film Review

By the mid-1930s, director Jean Renoir was fully committed to the ideals of Communism and, in common with a large proportion of the population, saw Marxist-Leninist ideology as a solution to France's political and economic woes. Having aired his left-wing sympathies in La Vie est à nous (1936) and Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (1936), Renoir showed his wholehearted support for the Popular Front (a coalition of left-wing political parties which began to govern France in 1936) in his next film, Les Bas-fonds.  This he described as a 'realistic poem on the loss of human dignity', a film which depicts solidarity among the downtrodden and oppressed dregs of society, crooks, gamblers, prostitutes and drunks.  This was the closest that Renoir ever got to social realism, even if the director's misplaced optimism does somewhat dim the bleakness of the subject.

Les Bas-fonds was based on the popular 1902 play Na Dne by the celebrated Russian writer Maxim Gorky (which was subsequently adapted as Donzoko (1957) by the Japanese cineaste Akira Kurosawa).  Renoir was easily persuaded to make the film by producer Alexandre Kamenka, tempted not only by the left-leaning subject matter but also by the prospect of working with two of the most highly regarded actors of the time, Jean Gabin and Louis Jouvet.  Renoir had some reservations about Gorki's play, however, and largely rewrote it with his screenwriter Charles Spaak, so that it was more in keeping with the spirit of the time.

Renoir and Spaak made two substantial alterations to the original play.  First, they changed the setting from Russia to France, mainly because Renoir doubted he could come up with a convincing depiction of Russia in a French film studio.  Secondly, the tone of the original play was significantly lightened, doubtless to reflect the mood of optimism that prevailed in France once the Popular Front had taken power; the film ends not with a suicide, as in Gorki's play, but with the central character walking off down an open road to a brighter future, as in René Clair's À nous la liberté (1931).  Renoir was obliged to write to Gorki to receive permission for these alterations to the story, and was duly given it, although Gorki died a few months before the film was released.  Later on, under pressure from the Communist Party, the director was coerced into reinstating some of the Russian elements of the play - but he did so in a contemptibly half-hearted manner.  The characters were given back their Russian names, the word 'franc' was replaced throughout with kopeck or rouble and  a few samovars were thrown in, but the setting remained recognisably France of the mid-1930s.  As a result, the realism that Renoir strove for in his re-write of the play is pretty well undermined by the awkward mix of French and Russian culture.  This could explain why the film was less commercially successful than it deserved to be, given its star billing.

Les Bas-fonds is unquestionably one of Jean Renoir's most political films, and this is perhaps why it is less well-regarded today than most of the other films he made in the same decade.  On its initial release, the film was generally well-received, particularly by the critics, and it was awarded the first Prix Louis Delluc in 1937.  Renoir's aversion to class distinction is represented by the ease with which a baron, deprived of his wealth and position, inveigles his way into the company of those at the opposite end of the social spectrum, a foretaste of the wholesale class-levelling that Renoir would depict in his next film, La Grande Illusion (1937).  Equally apparent is Renoir's faith in the solidarity of the oppressed masses, which can be seen in the film's dramatic denouement.  The hero is saved from a certain execution by the willingness of his comrades to assume their portion of the blame for the murder he commits in a moment of madness.  The crime ceases to be an act of individual aggression and becomes a just cause which is advantageous to society - an almost exact replay of the conclusion to Le Crime de Monsieur Lange.  Today, Renoir's optimism appears to be woefully misguided and Les Bas-fonds is infected with a naivety which is irritating and a morality that is questionable, to say the least.

Whilst the film is dated by its contemporary politics and stereotypical characterisation, in other ways it is surprisingly modern.  The extended exterior location sequences imbue the film with a striking neo-realist patina, prefiguring the work of the great Italian neo-realist filmmakers of the 1950s.  Although Renoir would soon discard this style of filmmaking, since it inhibited the scope for poetic expression, it is especially well-suited to this film, as it emphasises both the squalor and freedom experienced by those who exist right at the bottom of the social pyramid.  Renoir's penchant for camera motion is evident throughout the film, most noticeably in the sequence near the start of the film where we are introduced to Jouvet's character: here the camera seems to imprison Jouvet and make us feel as though we are jurymen at his trial.  There are also a few flourishes in which Renoir pays a respectful homage to two of his heroes of the silent era, Eric Von Stroheim and Chaplin - the final sequence is virtually a shot-for-shot remount of that of Chaplin's Modern Times (1936).

Les Bas-fonds may lack the polish and artistic purity of Renoir's other great films but it has one redeeming feature, the inspired casting of Jean Gabin and Louis Jouvet.  These were two actors who could not be more different but they worked together so well here that you cannot imagine a better combination for this film.  Gabin's familiar down-trodden but instantly likeable proletarian hero is perfectly complemented by Jouvet's ruined but nonchalant aristocrat, and both actors bring a warmth and humanity to their portrayals that, whilst they are on screen together, you cannot help sharing Renoir's faith in the intrinsic goodness of mankind.  The scene in which Gabin and Jouvet's characters meet is, on paper, ludicrous in its naïve simplicity, and yet such is the authenticity that the actors bring to the scene that we never, for a moment, question its plausibility.  It is a shame that Jouvet and Gabin never again appeared on screen together, although both worked with Renoir on later films - Jouvet (briefly) in La Marseillaise (1938); Gabin in La Grande illusion (1937), La Bête humaine (1938) and French Cancan (1954).  Although there is a distinguished supporting cast (Suzy Prim, Jany Holt, Vladimir Sokoloff, Robert Le Vigan, Junie Astor, René Génin), none of the other actors (with the possible exception of Prim, superb as the tiger-clawed temptress) comes anywhere near to matching the modernity of Gabin and Jouvet's performances.

Les Bas-fonds has not worn as well as some of Jean Renoir's other films but the fact that it brings together two of the great icons of French cinema, both at their absolute best, ensures that the film will be fondly remembered, long after the Popular Front dream that inspired it has faded from human consciousness.  Denuded of its dubious political associations, the film can now be seen as something more potent and wholesome: a parable on man's ability to rise above his own personal misfortunes and societal constraints so that he may go forward and realise his dreams, come what may.  Les Bas-fonds can no longer be seen as a glib paean to Communist ideology - it is a spirited celebration of the individual, a reminder that out destiny lies not in our stars, but within ourselves.

Film Synopsis

Having been dismissed from his official post for embezzlement, a baron gambles away the last of his fortune at the card table.  Returning home, he is surprised by a young burglar, Pépel Wasska, whom he befriends.  When the baron loses his house to his creditors, he moves into the crowded doss-house where Pépel is staying.  The house is run by Kostilev, a mean-spirited receiver of stolen goods, whose wife Vassilissa has been having an affair with Pépel.   Pépel loses interest in Vassilissa when she tries to persuade him to murder her husband and turns his attentions to her younger sister, Natacha, who is abused and exploited by both Kostilev and Vassilissa.  When a police inspector threatens to bring him to book for his illicit activities, Kostilev contrives to buy him off by letting him marry Natacha...