Boudu, a rambling tramp, is taken into the middle-class household of a Parisian book seller after being rescued from the Seine. Boudu shows scant regard for bourgeois decorum. The humour is gently satirical and subversive rather than cutting, but is far from the original play’s affirmation of middle-class culture. Renoir’s use of long takes, camera movement, depth of field in loosely framed compositions with the continuous suggestion of a world beyond the frame, was the antithesis of the then developing Hollywood style of tight compositions and reverse angle cutting. Re-made as ‘Down and out in Beverly Hills’ by Paul Mazursky (1986). Further reading: Richard Boston. ‘Boudu saved from drowning’. London: BFI Publishing, 1994.
Credits: Producer, Jean Gehret, Michel Simon ; director, Jean Renoir ; writers, Jean Renoir, Robert Valentin ; photography, Marcel Lucien, George Asselin ; music, Raphael, Johann Strauss ; editor, Marguerite Houlle-Renoir, Suzanne de Troeye ; assistan
Cast: Michel Simon, Charles Granval, Marcelle Haina, Severine Lerczynska, Max Dalban, Jean Gehret, Jean Daste, Jacques Becker, Jane Pierson.
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How to watch
Collection
In ACMI's collection
Credits
Collection metadata
ACMI Identifier
X000476
Languages
English
French
Subject category
Foreign language films
Sound/audio
Sound
Colour
Black and White
Holdings
16mm film; Limited Access Print (Section 2)