Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

PiraBit if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

FirstWitch A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

avik-basu1889 Jean Renoir is a filmmaker who is very well renowned for his humanism, for his acceptance of all sorts of people and all sorts of cultures and schools of thoughts. Having said that, 'Boudu Saved from Drowning' is a very sharp attempt at social commentary without much restraint. He explores the distinctions between the lower classes and the bourgeois class by making them clash. Although he doesn't make bad/evil people out of either of these two sections of people, he doesn't shy away from showcasing the underlying hypocrisy that was a part of the bourgeois class in France at the time and he also underlines the wild and unsophisticated disrespect and disregard for others that can be shown by people belonging to the lower classes.Renoir wrote the screenplay for the film based on a play René Fauchois. The film starts with Edouard, the bourgeois bookshop owner as Priapus pursuing Anne-Marie who is supposed to be Chloe. This fantasy sequence takes place on a lateral stage with no doors separating the two. Suddenly the shot dissolves and we are transported to the interior of Edouard's bookshop/apartment, but he is still calling Anne-Marie his little nymph and he is referring to himself as Priapus. This means that in his mind's imaginations, Edouard wants his relationship with Anne-Marie to be like the one shown in the opening shot. But then he asks Anne-Marie to ready the soup and we see them separate and carry on their respective duties. Renoir carefully draws out how separated they are in the apartment due to their social roles. One of the many important reasons why the design of the apartment is important is because Renoir shoots it in a way to underline the way people are separated. This apartment is a metaphor for bourgeois society. The whole apartment is littered with numerous doors that separate the people living inside. Renoir uses deep focus filming to not only allow the actors to live the environment but also to underline the geometry of the apartment. There is a marvellous scene in which the camera accompanies Anne- Marie from the dining room through a series doors and windows with one tracking shot until she arrives at the kitchen at then comes forward to the window which offers the frame within a frame visual appeal. This fantastic shot allows Renoir to brilliantly show the barriers of this apartment. These rooms and corridors are enclosed and isolated and suffocating and in a thematic way restrictive. This is a subtle, wordless, visual, but still a scathing attack on the bourgeois culture.The suffocating and enclosed nature of Edouard Lestingois' apartment is contrasted by the outdoor and open locations where we first find Boudu. The pillars in the apartment are replaced by the vertical rows of trees. Renoir uses the water body as the place of meeting and separation between the two classes. But once Boudu enters the apartment of Lestingois and hence the bourgeois culture, the hypocrisies that are inherent to this culture get gradually revealed.The film is pretty impressive in my opinion with one reservation. There is a scene where one character forces himself on another and the way that scene gets executed is a bit objectionable especially today. That particular scene is immensely dated and doesn't work at this day and age. The lighthearted way in which this scene gets brushed aside is a bit offensive.Apart from a singular reservation, I think 'Boudu Saved from Drowning' is a solid film in the filmography of the French master Jean Renoir who went on to make even better and more critically acclaimed films. This film had a huge influence on the French New Wave directors in the aspect of shooting on actual locations. This particular film can also be seen as a prototype for subsequent films dealing with similar plots about 'uncivilised' individuals being introduced to 'civilised' society like Truffaut's 'The Wild Child' or Herzog's 'The Enigma of Kaspar Hauser'. Recommended.

LobotomousMonk An earlier reviewer noted that Simon's character in Renoir's La Chienne is a "metamorphosis" partner of Boudu. I cannot verify that per se, but it is interesting to point out that many of the stylistic developments in La Chienne carry over into Boudu. There is amazing depth of field - through windows (like Chienne... or M. Lange), exteriors (the hunt for Boudu's dog is exemplary) and especially in the Lestingois house. Renoir utilizes long pans to help construct the space. Again, Renoir positions the camera in a manner where there are obstructions to a full view created by objects in the space. This technique fosters a sense of realism through the unobtrusive camera. Narrow corridors abound and provide for deep staged setups. Renoir is finally liberating the camera and allowing for some of his later 'signature' mobile framing shots. The long take is also being introduced into the stylistic system... one of the final shots of Boudu floating in the canal as the Blue Danube Waltz plays in the soundtrack reminds us that originality in auteurship is still borne of influence and respect (Kubrick's 2001). Renoir also pays some respect to the French Impressionist filmmaker colleagues of his from years past. His novel use of sound as bridges between scenes is as creative and compelling as the ways in which avant-gardists were bridging with images in the silent era. Renoir also continues with practical applications of sound which began in On Purge. He positions a police officer with back facing the camera creating an ominous sense of authority when provided spoken lines. Although I am not a huge fan of Renoir's Hollywood productions, the drowning sequence in Boudu surely influenced some of the action sequences in a film like This Land is Mine (1943). The drowning sequence in Boudu is composed of a montage of shots, with unique angles and povs. The sound during the sequence is diegetic - traffic and crowds - which adds a suspense built around milieu realism as opposed to theatrical drama. Boudu (played excellently by Simon) is an incorrigible rascal whose physical comedy evokes laughing out loud (Chaplin, Keaton and the like). However, there are deep social relationships at play and it isn't so reducible to a critique of "misguided" bourgeois charity. We must be reminded that as sentimental as Boudu can be, it is also clear that he is mentally ill. I find it preposterous to believe that Renoir would be condemning a socio-economic class for diseases of the mind which discriminate against no one. My thesis for now is that Renoir is an impresario of the film medium above all else and as such sought to provide a pleasurable experience for the spectator. The treatment of Boudu remains lighthearted... enough so to not rouse suspicion of moral implications for the scenario. Again, Renoir is not so ambiguous or ambivalent in his politics as he is committed and determined to rendering a film experience that satisfies the myriad of audiences that might be in attendance. To that end he succeeds marvelously with this film.

planetguy No one, including the critics on the Criterion supplements, remarks on the fact that Boudou is saved from drowning. But more than that, from suicide. The obvious clashes between, free-spirits and bourgeoisie, Apollo & Dionysus, order and chaos, are there of course. But doesn't Boudou's attempt at suicide..in the title after all..deserve some notice. The fact that he seems happy at the end, may mean that after viewing the way the other half (or is it the other 90%) lives, he realizes his original life wasn't too bad after all. Meaning a clear winner, or does it? None of the bourgeoisie are so unhappy they think to snuff it.

Michael_Elliott Boudu Saved from Drowning (1932) ** 1/2 (out of 4) A wealthy man saves a homeless guy from drowning and then takes him into his home where the bum soon starts to seduce his wife and mistress. As Jim stated earlier I too prefer the remake Down and Out in Beverly Hills. I think the biggest problem with this film is that the homeless guy is such a jerk it's hard to really care about him and he does the dumbest things that just seem so over the top that I couldn't laugh at him either. Halfway through the movie I was wishing the rich guy had let him drown so that the movie would have already been over.