DVD Pick: The Lower Depths

In 1902 the Moscow Art Theater staged the first production of Maxim Gorky's play The Lower Depths, which is about a group of people living in a flophouse in Czarist Russia. Two of cinema's greatest filmmakers have made movies based on that play: Jean Renoir (Grand Illusion, The Rules of the Game) in 1936 and Akira Kurosawa (Seven Samurai, Rashomon) in 1957. On DVD, Criterion Collection produced a two-disc set containing both Renoir's and Kurosawa's film versions of The Lower Depths. The two movies are very different, yet each is in its own way quite good. Seeing both is a rich and rewarding experience. Read more

Other DVD Reviews of Interest:

• Grand Illusion DVD
• Rashomon DVD
• The Rules of the Game DVD
• Seven Samurai DVD