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| Michel
Simon, Charles Granval, Marcelle Hainia, Sévérine Lerczinska,
Jean Gehret |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
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DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Boudu (Michel
Simon): I jumped in
to save myself. I've had it with life.
Boudu, a tramp, jumps into the Seine.
He is rescued by Mr Lestingois, a gentle and good bookseller, who
gives shelter to him. Mrs Lestingois and the maid Anne-Marie (Mr
Lestingois' mistress) are far from delighted, for Boudu is lazy,
dirty and salacious.
 Remade
- inadequately, if entertainingly - in the 1980s as Down
and Out in Beverly Hills, Jean Renoir's 1932 comedy has remained
by far the fresher, more vivid film of the two despite a fifty-odd
year age difference between them. Much of the film's attraction
is due to its star Michel Simon, whose playful rambunctiousness
puts contemporary imitations (like Billy Bob Thornton in Bad
Santa) to shame. His character here is truly one of the great
screen performances, aided at every turn by outstanding supporting
characters, actual Paris locations, and Renoir's direction, which
is poetic and naturalistic in equal measure. The perfect antidote
to the flood of treacle-sweet melodramas that traditionally glut
the holiday season, Boudu Saved from Drowning may also
be the perfect stocking filler: a humanistic, compassionate take
on the hypocrisy of bourgeois notions of charity. |
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A region-free edition is available
from the Criterion Collection, with more extras and a sharper
image than the Region 2 release available on DVD in the UK.
The Criterion Collection release served as the basis for
this review.
The fullscreen
image is framed at its original aspect ratio of approx. 1.33:1.
The transfer for this DVD has been created with the painstaking
attention to detail we have come to expect from the Criterion
Collection, but the surviving prints of this aging film are
rather the worse for wear, sporting occasionally heavy damage
that can be obtrusive in places. Grain is also present in
abundance, if rarely distractingly so, but the jarring transitions
between heavily damaged shots and parts of the film that
are in better condition can be annoying.
The mono sound mix is presented in Dolby Digital 1.0, and
although we wouldn't describe it as high-fidelity, it carries
across the rather scratchy score adequately.
 Although
it isn't one of Criterion's upper-tier releases, this disc
still carries a decent amount of supplemental material in
the form of various interviews as well as an illuminating
'interactive map' op the film's Paris locations. The film
has an optional intorduction from ever-avuncular director
Jean Renoir, which was recorded for TV in the early 1960s
and which heaps praise on star Michel Simon. Among the interviews,
the archival footage of Renoir and Simon reminiscing on the
film is truly priceless, while an immensely pretentious but
highly rewarding half-hour is spent by director Eric Rohmer
and film critic Jean Douchet discussing various aspects of
the film in detail.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed:
2005
Click
here for IMDB info on Boudu
Saved from Drowning.
Click here
to return to the front page.
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