Pepe Le Moko is a poetic realism film made in 1936. According to our reading, the characteristics of poetic realism films are;
“Based on realist literature or original scripts and usually set in working-class milieux, Poetic Realist films featured pessimistic narratives and night-time settings, and a dark, contrasted, visual style prefiguring American film noir.”
I noticed the comparison to film noir in both story and in technical aspects. I also found it interesting that the genre depicts “mythical women characters.” As there is a stereotype to women’s roles in film noir as well. In Pepe Le Moko, the two traditional roles are represented. The madonna and the femme fatale. Seemingly women’s roles only extend to be either the loose and wicked female that goes well with the sinful way of life or the woman who represents the purity of an honest life. In Pepe, Ines represents the lustful woman as Pepe’s favorite lover, and Gaby represents the pure life he longs for in Paris. However, not all film noir films center around a love story, and as I’ve read, many poetic realism films do.
I suppose it’s only natural that a genre with the word “poetic” in its title would only depict the ache that real life brings, as life doesn’t end the way happy movies do.
I’ve seen others chose to look up the word Xenophobic, but I was also intrigued by this word.
Xenophobic
Noun
An intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries.
I suppose this word fits in suitably to a class entitled, International Cinema.
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Jen, You're off to a good start here, but I'd like you to go deeper in analyzing the film, it's context, and the issues it brings up. I would like to hear more from you... for example, what do you think makes the film "poetic" and how you feel about the ending...? I really like how you started defining the different roles for the women. I could see you reversing what you wrote - i.e. Ines is the 'madonna' and Gaby is the 'femme fatale' since Ines is trying to save Pepe and keep him in his normal, safe routine, while Gaby is the attractive, but ultimately fatal and doomed new lover that Pepe falls for and which causes him to act irrationally.
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