THE LOWER DEPTHS

Very rare original French 9 3/4 inch x 10 3/4 inch 16 page illustrated Pressbook for the 1936 Jean Renoir Drama THE LOWER DEPTHS (LES BAS-FONDS), based on the play by Maxim Gorky and starring Jean Gabin, Suzy Prim, Louis Jouvet, Jany Holt, Vladimir Sokoloff, Robert Le Vigan, Camille Bert and Junie Astor.

Cover art by Jean-René Poissonnie

The posters illustrated at the back of the pressbook are by Jean-René Poissonnie, J.A. Mercier & Verabert
The one panel poster has the same art as the cover to this pressbook.

The portrayal of a disgraced nobleman’s descent into the ‘lower depths’ was seen as a mixture of realism, tragedy and burlesque. Jean-René Poissonnie highlights the poster for Les Bas-Fonds with the image of Jean Gabin, who plays the thief determined to climb out of the ‘lower depths’. Poissonie was a versatile member of the 1945 Syndicate for Film Poster Designers, which was formed by another renowned poster designer, Edgard Derouet His emblem of the bow and pencil appears on many post-war posters.

The cover of the pressbook is completely separated along the spine and there is some separation at the top and bottom of the spine in the interior pages. There is a fine vertical crease down the centre of the pressbook from it having been oddly folded at one time and there are minor nicks at the edges and minor creasing in the bottom right corner. There is a “MADE IN FRANCE” ink pad stamp on the back cover at lower centre.