Boudu, a tramp, attempts to commit suicide by throwing himself into the Seine. But he is rescued by Lestingois, a prosperous Parisian bookseller. Far from being grateful, Boudu abuses his host and seduces his wife. By the end of the film, however, Boudu is in danger of succumbing to the blandishments of bourgeois society, until in a final act of rebellion he again jumps into the water and drifts away.

Boudu Saved from Drowning (Boudu sauve des eaux), made in 1932, is less well known than Jean Renoir's later works but is equally a masterpiece. Aided by a prodigious performance from the legendary Michel Simon as Boudu, Renoir fashioned a profound parable about a social outcast who does not so much reject the rules of society as ignore them.

Besides laying bare the depth of meaning in the film, Richard Boston also traces Renoir's links to nineteenth-century French writers such as Zola and the paintings of the Impressionists, including Auguste Renoir, Jean Renoir's father. And in a fascinating study of Renoir's sources, he shows that in mistakenly dismissing the literary qualities of the original play by Rene Fauchois, previous critics have misjudged the true nature of Renoir's genius.