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DVD Title
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The Lower Depths
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International
Title
|
|
DVD Length
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Original
Length
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89/125 Minutes
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89/125 Minutes
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Company
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Year of Manufacture
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Criterion
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2004
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Language
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Subtitles
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French/Japanese
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English
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Region
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Number of
Discs
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1
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2
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Aspect
Ratio
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Sound
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1.33:1
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2.0 Mono
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Extras
|
.
|
Menus (English) |
.
|
Chapters (20/22) |
.
|
Renoir Introduction (5 minutes) |
.
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Audio Commentary by Donald Richie (for Kurosawa's
The
Lower Depths) |
.
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Documentary on The
Lower Depths, from Toho's Masterworks,
with interviews from the staff (32 minutes, 5 chapter
stops) |
.
|
Character Biographies (English, 11 in total) |
.
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Five pages of background information on Renoir's
film by Alexander Sesonske, found in the booklet |
.
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Eight pages of background information on Kurosawa's
film by Keiko McDonald and Thomas Rimer, found in
the booklet |
|
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Review
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Criterion's, heavily delayed, release of Akira
Kurosawa's The
Lower Depths (1957) is a change of pace
from the company's usual releases. Kurosawa's
movie is packaged here with Jean Renoir's film
of the same name, both of which are based on
Maxim Gorky's play. Despite the similar subject
matter, the cross-cultural billing might feel
a little odd for Kurosawa,
or Toho, buffs; however, the disc retails for
the same price as other other Criterion releases,
so one can hardly complain regarding the added
content. In general, this set is an incredible
bargain, as between the two titles there are
plenty of extras, although the video and audio
quality, while decent on Kurosawa's
film, tends to suffer quite a bit on the older
Renoir film. |
One has to admire the amount of work that
Criterion has poured into restoring Renoir's
mid 1930 masterpiece here; however, the video
presentation still suffers greatly due to
the age of the film. The most noticeable blemish
being the jittery-ness of the presentation,
as the image appears to shake up and down
at certain points in the film. This doesn't
occur through out the entire movie; however,
it does get bad enough at points where it's
almost painful to watch because of it. Scratches
do appear on the print as well, such as a
very noticeable line across the film around
the 16 minute mark, but overall Criterion
has done a good job at making these less apparent
on the DVD. The contrast and brightness have
both been set at appropriate levels on this
disc, as the black levels look excellent in
Renoir's film. In terms of digital inconsistencies,
like shimmering or artifacting, these are
nearly unnoticeable on the DVD. There
is a lot of noise present, some of which is due to the natural film grain.
The video presentation for Kurosawa's
film is noticeably superior when compared
with Renior's, but then one would expect this
given the 21 year age gap. Despite this, the
second disc in the set still presents its
fair share of problems in regards to the video
quality. Overall, the film is fairly devoid
of scratches, although the amount of grain
on the print is quite noticeable. Unfortunately,
like Criterion's Stray
Dog release, light shimmering, a unnatural
fading from light to dark often appearing
on the edge of films, is a serious problem
on this release, and gets rather distracting
during some parts of the film. The contrast
and brightness is a little off as well, most
noticeable on the title screen as the letters
appear washed out, but for most of the film
it suffices. Digital inconsistencies appear
on this disc as well; while artifacting is
handled well here, shimmering (a rainbow strand
of colors which appear on fine details present
in the film) does appear on occasion, which
is particularly distracting given that the
film is in black and white.
|
The audio presentation on Renoir's work here
is a mixed bag. The movie is presented here
with the film's original mono track, and while
the general presentation is good, the 1936
film does show its age at points. The best
example of this being the closure of the film,
as the audio track sounds very scratchy and
harsh. There are pops in the audio track on
occasion, but for the most part Criterion
has done a superb job in restoring the almost
70 year old film. The audio for the movie,
which is the film's original French audio
track, is complimented with, removable, English
subtitles.
The audio presentation for Kurosawa's
film is pretty solid here, given the limitations
set forth by the original audio track. Overall,
it sounds rather flat, but then that is to
be expected given that the original mono track
is used here. Hisses and pops on this release
are all but unnoticeable, as even the louder
songs sound crystal clear on this disc. The
audio presentation, which is the original
Japanese audio track, is complimented with,
removable, English subtitles that were freshly
commissioned just for this release.
|
Extras for the Renoir film are pretty light,
as all that is included is a five minute clip
which features the film's director as he recollects
on showing the screenplay to Gorky to gauge
his response. Extras for Kurosawa's
film, on the other hand, are more abundant.
Like their Ikiru
release, this DVD contains an episode of Toho's
Masterworks, which focuses on the film
and the time period in which it was made.
The Masterworks' episode is easily
the best feature of this release, as it divulges
into various side aspects that went on during
the making of the film and contains more recent
interviews from a number of the film's actors.
There is also a audio commentary, which goes
with Kurosawa's
movie, that is performed by Donald Richie,
author of the book A Hundred Years of Japanese
Film. The commentary is pretty informative,
and the depth at which he dissects the film
is intriguing; unfortunately, his voice is
a little monotone, which makes the commentary
sound a little dry. The last extra on the
disc are 11 character biographies. This might
seem like a trivial extra, but Criterion has
really done their homework here and each is
very informative as to the actor's background
and their mannerisms in The
Lower Depths.
Like other Criterion releases, the booklet
here is packed with information regarding
the two films as well. For Renoir's film,
there is a five page essay by Alexander Sesonske
about the movie, who covers the impact of
Hitler's rise to power at the time on the
production of the film. For Kurosawa's
The
Lower Depths, there is a eight page
essay by Keiko McDonald and Thomas Rimer,
which covers the influence of theater on Kurosawa's
work and his appreciation of it.
|
Bottom line, this set is a excellent value,
and the pairing of the films does provide a
nice view of two very different interpretations
of the same story. One extra that would have
been nice though, but is missing from this set,
is something that directly contrasts the differences,
and perhaps why these deviations were made,
in adapting Gorky's work. Overall though, if
someone has a interest in either of these films,
or enjoys Kurosawa
movies in general, they shouldn't hesitate to
pick up this set. |
-Anthony Romeros
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