Pepe le Moko (1937)

 Julien Duvivier's "Pepe le Moko"

While watching Julien Duvivier's landmark 1937 film "Pepe le Moko," I couldn't help but notice the immense influences that spring forth from the film screen. Gangster films from the more contemporary Martin Scorsese, for example. More examples include "Casablanca," "The Third Man," and even the "Looney Tunes." All in all, "Pepe le Moko" had an enormous and influential reach and helped continue to expansion of the French Poetic Realism movement happening in the 1930s. 

The film stars Jean Gabin as a wanted gangster who has been hiding in the labyrinthine Casbah for two years evading capture from the police. He is also constantly staving off attempts of informing from people within his circle. When a beautiful Parisian woman visiting Casbah meets him, he becomes obsessed and decides to escape with her. However, things go not as expected.

Many film scholars note "Pepe le Moko"'s influence on the American film noir genre. There are several elements in the film that contain stark contrast lighting and venetian blinds. However, I found myself not connecting with these notions as much, as I felt that weren't as strong visually as I've seen in films, say by Fritz Lang like "You Only Live Once" from the same year. Despite my disagreement, there is still a very 'noir' vibe about the film, both visually and thematically that appears subtly.

What I most gravitated towards was the utter hopelessness of the story. Despite our protagonist being a 'gangster' and an all around nasty and violent fellow, his circumstances leave you empathetic. Not only is he utterly trapped in the labyrinth that is Casbah, but he is trapped by his own inability to change himself as well. Everything about his story is tragic and leads to some sort of downfall. It is a film that reminds me very much of Scorsese's "Raging Bull." He has reached a state of hopelessness and can't seem to overcome his external circumstances on top of his internal troubled state.

To visually realize this state of entrapment, Duvivier employs some of the best poetic realism you'll find in 1930s. Although the film is grounded in a sense of visual realism, the film was actually shot almost entirely on a film set designed to replicate Casbah. Only exterior sequences were actually shot on location in Algeria. The unique alleyways and streets of the Algerian environment allowed for creative visual dictations of the camera's placement. This allowed for more poetic license to the images for Duvivier, who was able to capture Pepe's panicked and claustrophobic sense of inescapability. Visually, it appears that you are trapped and have nowhere to run and nowhere to turn. It looks as though you are trapped in a labyrinth of no escape.

The brutality of the film, along with the film's tragic ending created a very dark piece of film. The oncoming war in Europe created a hopeless attitude in the French mind. There were many great films that attempted to replicate this dramatically destitute sentiment and "Pepe le Moko" was certainly able to capture it. In fact, French authorities felt the film had a 'demoralizing influence' and eventually decided to bar citizens from its viewing. Despite this, the film remains a cornerstone of the poetic realist movement in 1930s France and is perhaps one of the crowning achievements of French director Julien Duvivier.