Kurosawa VS Renoir
I've been watching quite a few of these two men's films lately and imagine my surprise when I realized they both adapted the same Russian Novel The Lower Depths by Maxim Gorky with Toshiro Mifune & Jean Gabin playing the same role in both films. Of course I had to check them both out. It took me awhile to acquire both films (Netflix issues) but I finally watched both. In the end neither are Kurosawa or Renoir's best but it was definitely interesting to watch the same story being filmed by these two great directors.
Kurosawa's is apparently much closer to Gorky's original play. It's much more tragic and the setting of the "lower depths" is much more apparent. Kurosawa also pays much more attention to the story's side characters...unfortunately this is at the expense of the main cast & plot line.
Renoir takes much more creative licenses with Gorky's storyline and his setting is weaker. You don't really feel the despair of where these people are living like you do in Kurosawa's version. However Renoir does a much better job establishing the main cast and plot line. I knew who the main characters were right away in Renoir's version and how the love quadrangle was being set up. In Kurosawa's it took me awhile to get it. As much as I normally love Toshiro Mifune, Jean Gabin also outshined him in the lead role. That's probably because the role Gabin was playing was closer to his screen persona than Mifune.
As for the ending Renoir's was a bit too upbeat for the source but the scene that established the tragedy in Kurosawa's version was completely unbelievable. I couldn't even feel sympathy for Kurosawa's main characters because they acted so irrationally. I will say that Kurosawa's final scene (again with the side characters) was great though.
So overall too lesser films from both these directors but it was fun to watch and do the comparisons
Kurosawa's is apparently much closer to Gorky's original play. It's much more tragic and the setting of the "lower depths" is much more apparent. Kurosawa also pays much more attention to the story's side characters...unfortunately this is at the expense of the main cast & plot line.
Renoir takes much more creative licenses with Gorky's storyline and his setting is weaker. You don't really feel the despair of where these people are living like you do in Kurosawa's version. However Renoir does a much better job establishing the main cast and plot line. I knew who the main characters were right away in Renoir's version and how the love quadrangle was being set up. In Kurosawa's it took me awhile to get it. As much as I normally love Toshiro Mifune, Jean Gabin also outshined him in the lead role. That's probably because the role Gabin was playing was closer to his screen persona than Mifune.
As for the ending Renoir's was a bit too upbeat for the source but the scene that established the tragedy in Kurosawa's version was completely unbelievable. I couldn't even feel sympathy for Kurosawa's main characters because they acted so irrationally. I will say that Kurosawa's final scene (again with the side characters) was great though.
So overall too lesser films from both these directors but it was fun to watch and do the comparisons