Så er den første juni-titel officiel (sådan da):
The Lower Depths: Two Films. Et 2-disk sæt med både Kurosawas og Renoirs adaptioner af Gorkys skuespil. Vejledende pris $39.95.
Hermed kommer så endeligt den længe ventede Kurosawa-film, som Criterion først annoncerede sidste år og siden skubbede ud i uvisheden.
Fra Home Vision Entertainments
hjemmeside:
Citat:
The Lower Depths: Two Films (Special Edition Double-Disc Boxed Set)
The Criterion Collection
Directed by Akira Kurosawa, Jean Renoir
Starring Toshiro Mifune (1957), Isuzu Yamada (1957), Minoru Chiaki (1957), Jean Gabin (1936), Louis Jouvet (1936)
• New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound
• Original theatrical trailer
• A documentary on the making of The Lower Depths, part of the Toho Masterworks series Akira Kurosawa: It Is Wonderful to Create
• Audio commentary featuring Japanese-film expert Donald Richie (A Hundred Years of Japanese Film)
• New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound
• New essay by Keiko McDonald (From Book to Screen: Modern Japanese Literature in Film) and Thomas Rimer (A Reader’s Guide to Japanese Literature)
• New and improved English subtitle translation by renowned Japanese-film translator Linda Hoaglund
• Optimal image quality: RSDL dual-layer edition
• Cast biographies by Stephen Prince (The Warrior’s Camera: The Cinema of Akira Kurosawa)
• 1.33:1 aspect ratio
• Monaural
Jean Renoir's The Lower Depths features:
• New high-definition digital transfer, with restored image and sound
• Introduction to the film by Jean Renoir
• New essay by film scholar Alexander Sesonske, author of Jean Renoir: The French Films 1924–1939
• New and improved English subtitle translation
• 1.33:1 aspect ratio
• Monaural
The Criterion Collection is proud to present two dramatically different interpretations of Maxim Gorsky's classic play by two of cinema's greatest masters.
Jean Renoir's The Lower Depths
(Les Bas-fonds—1936)
Made in the 1930s, amidst the rise of Hitler in Germany and the Popular Front in France, Jean Renoir took license with Maxim Gorky’s source material for The Lower Depths. Aware that the plight of Gorky’s desperates might sit uneasily in his own country on the edge of war, Renoir never lets his derelicts sink quite to the depths, offering them—like in so many of his other films—the possibility of hope. Marking the first time the director would work with Jean Gabin (Grand Illusion) and featuring the great Louis Jouvet (Quai des Orfèvres, Carnival in Flanders), The Lower Depths demonstrates one of cinema’s greatest directors transforming a classic play into his own terms for a distinct time.
Akira Kurosawa's The Lower Depths (Donzoko—1957)
Director Akira Kurosawa’s transformation of Maxim Gorky’s classic proletarian play, The Lower Depths, demonstrates another side of the acclaimed filmmaker’s remarkable versatility. In contrast to his usual broad canvas and kinetic filmmaking style, here he explores the possibilities of the stage, finding intimacy in his examination of a group of destitutes set, ironically, within Japan’s prosperous Edo period. Starring an ensemble cast that includes Toshiro Mifune, Isuzu Yamada, and Minoru Chiaki, this adaptation is a Buddhist meditation on the human condition, a poignant yet comic investigation of one of Kurosawa’s favorite themes—the conflict between illusion and reality.
1957 • Japan • Runtime 85 / 125 min. • BW • DVD • In French / Japanese with optional English subtitles •
Jeg kender ingen af filmene, men jeg ser frem til at kunne sammenligne to formodentligt vidt forskellige tilgange til det samme materiale. Det var en mulighed, jeg syntes fungerede fint i
The Killers-sættet, så det her skal nok blive godt.
Ekstramaterialet er ikke overvældende, men virker dog ganske fint. Et kommentarspor af Donald Richie er for mig altid rart. Han kan sagtens være lidt tør at lytte til, men han er nu engang en af de mest kompetente på området. Endnu mere lækkert er det med et relevant afsnit af den japanske
Akira Kurosawa: It is Wonderful to Create-serie. Afsnittet om
Ikiru var ret interessant, og det kan godt ærgre mig, at man ikke har benyttet serien før - i det mindste til
Throne of Blood.