***** "One of the greatest social comedies ever made." - Total Film
Pathé Productions' fully restored version of Jean Renoir's 1932 classic BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING (Boudu sauvé des eaux) screened to an excellent reception at this year's Cannes and London Film Festivals and will be back in cinemas from Friday 17 December.
Charlie Chaplin said of Jean Renoir that he was "the world's greatest director". His films are studied in schools around the world and his name is associated with some of cinema's greatest masterpieces. Even today, the director Jean Renoir remains a key figure in the history of the silver screen.
In the 1930's, the arrival of talking pictures revolutionised cinematic narrative techniques, something which was enthusiastically adopted by Renoir. He made an impressive series of major films during this period including BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING, LA NUIT DU CARREFOUR and MADAME BOVARY.
BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING is about a Parisian bookseller, Lestingois, who fishes Boudu, a vagrant, out of the river Seine. He befriends the tramp and puts him up at home, where Boudu causes nothing but trouble. However, events take a different turn when Boudu wins the lottery...
The restoration of the film was carried out through a 2K digitalisation of the original nitrate negative and a safety print. The original 1.19 aspect ratio has been re-established; this specific ratio was often used in the early days of talking pictures but was soon abandoned in favour of a more rectangular frame. The restoration of the soundtrack was based on the best available source, a positive exhibition print, as the original elements - incomplete and chemically damaged - were impossible to use.
A previously missing scene was, by chance, conserved in the original negative, allowing a more complete version of the film. This is the surprising sequence in which Boudu spits on a book by Balzac then jeers at the portrait of a soldier in uniform. This scene was probably removed following the intervention of the Paris Chief of Police, who summoned Jean Renoir and Michel Simon in order to make them cut certain scenes that could have possibly "disturbed the peace”.
The film's grading was completely revised by Isabelle Julien, renowned for her work in this field (and recently on the restoration of LA DOLCE VITA). The work was carried out at the Immagine Ritrovata laboratories in Bologna and at Digimage, Paris.
BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING will be released from 17 December, opening at Curzon Renoir, Curzon Richmond, Filmhouse Edinburgh, Irish Film Institute and key cities.
