The Lower Depths
About The Lower Depths
Lodgers crowd a Volga flophouse in this Mosfilm version of Maxim Gorky's play: a thief, a fallen baron, a dying actor, and the landlord's family upstairs. A pilgrim, Luka, tells each of them the lie they want to hear. When he leaves, the comfort goes with him, and one of the lodgers hangs himself.
Cast & crew
More about The Lower Depths
Andrey Frolov directed. The cast is the Moscow Art Theatre company, among them Alla Tarasova, Alexei Gribov, Sergei Blinnikov, and Pavel Massalsky. The set is a single basement room, built to match the play's staging.
Themes
Background
Released in 1952, the last full year of Stalin's life, when Mosfilm was still filming the classical repertoire as prestige pictures.
In film history
It is a film record of the Moscow Art Theatre company in Gorky's play, made at Mosfilm rather than on a theatre stage.
Making
Frolov filmed the Moscow Art Theatre actors rather than recasting the play with a film company. The camera stays close to the bunks and the stair up to the landlord's rooms.
Preservation
A copy is on Wikimedia Commons as 1952. На дне.webm.
Notes
- Gorky wrote the play in 1902. He had died in 1936, before this film.
- Sergei Blinnikov, the Baron, had played in Eisenstein's Alexander Nevsky.
- Akira Kurosawa's Donzoko (1957) moves the same play to Edo-period Japan. This version stays on the Volga.
Scenes
- Luka sits with each lodger and tells a different story about a better life waiting somewhere else.
- After Luka has gone, the Actor hangs himself in the yard.
Influenced by
- Maxim Gorky's play The Lower Depths (1902)
Also available
- Wikimedia Commons (1952. На дне.webm)
