Pepe Le Moko - Criterion Collection

Starring:Jean Gabin, Line Noro, Mireille Balin, Lucas Gridoux, Gabriel Gabrio, Fernand Charpin, Gilbert Gil, Saturnin Fabre, Marcel Dalio, Charles Granval, Gaston Modot, RenÃ© Bergeron, Paul Escoffier, Roger Legris, Jean TÃ©merson, Robert Ozanne, Philippe Richard, Georges PÃ©clet, FrÃ©hel, Olga Lord
Director: Julien Duvivier
Studio: Criterion
Product Type: DVD

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Jean Gabin was a brooding, rough, working-class antihero in France when his role as cool master criminal Pepe Le Moko made him an international star. In the Casbah of French Morocco, an underworld slum of winding alleys dotted with tiny rooms, bars, and hideouts, Gabin's Pepe is the prince of the criminal jungle while at the same time its prisoner. He's safe only as long as he remains in this world the local gendarmes can't penetrate. During a clumsy police raid, he meets a lovely Parisian (the exotic Mirielle Balin) adorned in expensive jewelry, but in the midst of flirting, his eyes leave her baubles and meet her gaze. Pepe falls in love and Moroccan Inspector Slimane, the only cop to have earned his respect, makes this new chink in Pepe's armor the center of his plan to capture the Casbah's most notorious gentleman thief. Gabin is marvelous as the confident yet restless Pepe, a cultured man--equal parts elegance and edgy brutality; at home in this urban jungle, but restless to escape. Julien Divivier's romantic crime classic is a prime example of French poetic realism (a precursor to American film noir, shot in a shadowy style enhanced by the claustrophobic rooms and crowded streets. It's a world where friendship and trust are everything, yet betrayal and duplicity await around every dark corner, and Pepe exacts a harsh justice on those who defy his code. Hollywood remade the film as Algiers with continental heartthrob Charles Boyer in Gabin's role. --Sean Axmaker

Description

The notorious Pepe le Moko (Jean Gabin, in a truly iconic performance) is a wanted man: women long for him, rivals hope to destroy him, and the law is breathing down his neck at every turn. On the lam in the labyrinthine Casbah of Algiers, Pepe is safe from the clutches of the police--until a Parisian playgirl compels him to risk his life and leave its confines once and for all. Once of the most influential films of the 20th century and a landmark of French poetic realism.

Customer Reviews:

Pepe Le Moko.......2007-06-25

This trademark role, along with "Grand Illusion", contributes to French actor Gabin's legacy what "The Maltese Falcon" and "Casablanca" did for Bogart. Duvivier's dark film is one our most atmospheric mysteries, exuding an almost paranoic tension. Gabin (like younger countryman Gerard Depardieu), is not classically handsome, but possessed of a rugged allure that women find unable to resist. At the same time, Balin is pretty irresistible herself, definitely a woman worth taking chances for. See Gabin's charisma at its height in the incomparable "Pepe".

Noir French Classic.......2007-06-09

This film set the standard for French noir as far as I'm concerned. It kick started J. Gabin's career and for a great reason; the man exudes cool and style. It's no wonder the film was remade right away, then again later on. It's a classic tragedy wrapped in lush old black and white film stylings including a larger than life anti-hero and a double cross. If you don't like subtitles, then stick to your Hollywood classics, but you'd miss out on a real treat. I own over 400 films and praise it in my top ten favs.

"Everyone in the world has two fatherlands: his own and Paris".......2007-03-28

"Pepe Le Moko" (1937) directed by Julien Duvivier - is a wonderful movie with the great performance from very young Jean Gabin. It just happened that I've seen several movies with him in the older age where he is serious, not very talkative man with the head full of grey hair and I like him in the later movies, too but it was so much fun to see him as Pepe - young, charming, dangerous, smart, brutal, irresistible, and so much in love with Paris that he'd lost forever. As much as I enjoyed the film as an early noir and crime, I think it is about the longing for home, about the nostalgia and as such it is even more interesting, deeper, poignant that just a noir. The celebrated film director Max Ophüls, who knew a lot about nostalgia and immigration said about Paris,

"It offered the shining wet boulevards under the street lights, breakfast in Monmartre with cognac in your glass, coffee and lukewarm brioche, gigolos and prostitutes at night. Everyone in the world has two fatherlands: his own and Paris."

I could not help thinking of his words when I watched the film. There is one scene that almost reduced me to tears - a middle-aged former chanteuse plays one of her records on a gramophone and sings along with her voice that has not changed at all even if she looks nothing like the picture on the wall from the days of her youth. The time may play very nasty jokes with a woman - she may get fat or skinny, lose her teeth and hair but her voice will stay as strong or tender, ringing or melodious as it was in the long gone days that stay forever in her memory. She sings about Paris and there are tears on her eyes and the scene simply can't leave any viewer indifferent. There is another scene - between Pepe and Gaby the girl from Paris with whom Pepe falls in love (Mireille Balin). They talk about Paris remembering different places which are dear to both of them, and in the end, they both named La Place Blanche where they both belong and not in Algiers's Casbah where Pepe is safe and he rules the world of criminals but can't forget the sound of Metro in Paris. When Pepe wants to tell Gaby that he loves her, he tells her that she reminds him of Metro in Paris...

I have not even mentioned how masterfully the film was shot by Julien Duvivier and how well it was acted, how fast it movies, and there are so many wonderful scenes that I have not mentioned...Great, great movie.

A great film on a superb DVD.......2006-12-17

Pepe le Moko is one of those films that seems to actually improve each time I see it, and not just because it set the mold for every exotic doomed Hollywood romance from Casablanca on. Jean Gabin is at his best here, capturing both the legend and the vulnerability of his criminal king of the Casbah, `ruling' in hell but longing for the heaven beyond its gates. The atmosphere is wonderful, the script sublime, Duvivier's direction superb, and the film so filled with memorable moments that you can forgive the blandness of the leading lady (to be fair, the attraction is meant to be more the lure of the old life and places back home that Pepe once knew) and the over the top performance of Lucas Gridoux, overdoing the Uriah Heap routine as his nemesis Slimaine, potentially the film's most interesting character.

Criterion's DVD is among their very best, boasting a fine transfer and some excellent extras, from a 33-minute extract from documentary Remembering Jean Gabin to a comparison of the film and its first Hollywood remake, Algiers, as well as a 10-minute archive interview with Julien Duvivier, text extracts from Ginette Vincendeau's book on the film and the original French theatrical trailer. Very highly recommended.

Caged in the Casbah.......2005-11-12

French film star Jean Gabin effuses sensuality in his portrayal of Parisian master thief "Pepe Le Moko" in the 1937 film of the same name. Pepe has been sequestered in the Casbah of Algiers for two years, having evaded authorities. The Casbah whose labrynthine mazes of narrow streets, alleyways and terraces and sympathetic populace provide a safe haven for Pepe and his gang.

The suave yet tough Gabin struts around in sartorial splendor a veritable king in this sheltered environment. He fears the consequences of leaving the Casbah into the arms of police. Local authorities, well aware of his wherabouts have been unable to ferret him out.

A chance encounter between Pepe and attractive Parisian socialite Gaby Gould played by Mireille Balin gives local Algerian police inspector Slimane played by Lucas Gridoux an idea. Gabin is so smitten by the stylish, diamond bedecked Balin, that the inspector endeavors to lure Gabin out of the Casbah using her as bait. The cool calculating Pepe has been hopelessly enraptured with Balin and against his better judgement, helplessly seeks her out beyond the confines of his comfortable asylum.

The filming done in large part in Algiers gives an excellent representation of the physical make up of the Casbah. Director Duvivier successfully drives home the axiom that crime ultimately does not pay.

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