1936, 95 min.
Based on a play by Maxim Gorky, Underground (also known as The Lower Depths) anticipates the social realist cinema of the 1940s and 1950s and has affinities with the films of Marcel Carné, such as Hôtel du Nord. Renoir explores a low-life world of drinking, gambling, prostitution, and poverty but creates an upbeat tale inspired by the political optimism of the day. The film stars the incomparable Jean Gabin, who was as essential to 1930s French cinema as Renoir.