4 - LOUIS JOUVET AND JEAN GABIN

LOUIS JOUVET AND JEAN GABIN During the filming of Jean Renoir’s movie “Les Bas-fonds,” 1936. Photo by Roger Forster, silver gelatin print on vintage card stock, credits (including the photographer) in the image, stamped and annotated on the reverse. 22 x 27.2 cm including margins. Signs of handling. Note: Jean Gabin plays Pépel, a burglar living among the outcasts of a night shelter, while Louis Jouvet portrays a ruined baron, caught off guard by Pépel as he breaks into his apartments. An unexpected bond forms between the two men, now brought together by their marginalization. Freely adapted from Maxime Gorky’s play by Jean Renoir and Charles Spaak, *Les Bas-fonds* transposes the Russian author’s dark world into the social context of France’s Popular Front. The film marks Renoir’s first collaboration with Gabin, preceding *La Grande Illusion* and *La Bête humaine*. Shot in Épinay-sur-Seine and Saint-Ouen, it was the first recipient of the Louis-Delluc Prize. Roger Forster served as the film’s official set photographer.