Le mura di Malapaga

Jean Gabin in a typical role of his, is a stowaway on a ship arriving in Genoa, a Frenchman on the run from what appears to have been a terrible crime, but in old Genoa he meets Isa Miranda who works in a trattoria and takes care of him out of pity, but gradually she falls in love with him. She has a daughter, and they are persecuted by her former husband. There is a typical noir love drama in the bombed ruins of Genoa with only one possible outcome, but at least there are some dreams allowed on the way. Her daughter plays an important part through the whole film and at times appears as the lead indeed, but Isa Miranda is the one you will remember for her beauty and excellent acting. You can always rely on Jean Gabin, he is always the same, but most striking of all are the sets among the old harbour quarters of Genoa with its ruins. It reminds you of "The Third Man" and other post war films like that with very emotional moods throughout, and this film could hardly have been made more beautiful in its neorealistic strictness. You will love it from beginning to end, and when the end comes it will not be a surprise, but like Isa Miranda and her daughter and Jean Gabin himself you will just accept it as something of a naturally fallen curtain.

Although highly regarded at the time, it also has to be one of the most easily forgotten French films of the late 1940Õs.

This gritty, neo-realist tale set in post-war Genoa is a vehicle for the two stars, Isa Miranda and Jean Gabin , but is bereft of compelling dialogue or dramatic content.

The story line is sparse: Gabin, on the run for murdering his lover in France, disembarks at the port of Genoa seeking treatment

for a toothache. He encounters a young girl, Vera Talchi, who helps him find a dentist. After being pick pocketed, he meets, Miranda, the girlÕs mother, who serves him a meal at the trattoria where she works.

Quickly they become attracted to each other, she takes him home and they fall in love. The daughter becomes jealous of the new relationship. Meanwhile, the police began to close in on Gabin.

Rene Clement, better known for Purple Noon and is Paris Burning, scored not only the Best Director award at Cannes in 1949 but also an honorary Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film in 1950. In addition, Isa Miranda was named Best Actress at the Cannes Festival..

Coming just after "les maudits" ,perhaps René Clément's best film -and of course totally overlooked-,"Le mura di Palapaga" aka "Au-delà des Grilles" displays the same respect for the audience as far the languages are concerned.Italians speak Italian between them,and Gabin speaks French with Isa Miranda.There the comparison ends.

For "Au Delà-des Grilles" highly praised at the time, lauded far beyond its station,and incomprehensibly awarded at the Festival de Cannes ,has not worn well.The screenplay borrows lots of ideas from "Pépé le Moko" ,Duvivier's masterpiece (1937) and the atmosphere tries to capture that of the Italian neo-realism .Gabin does not seem to be interested in his part -he had played this kind of role of the good-guy-with-policemen-hot-on-his-heels many times before ;outside "Pepe" there 's also "La Bandera" "Quai des Brumes" "Le Recif de Corail" ,etc.Isa Miranda is the stand-out but in that context,it does not mean much.Try to see "les Maudits"!

The copy of this movie that I watched on TCM was a poor one. It looked like a bad 16 mm. print; the subtitles were hard to read because they were fuzzy and the portion of the frame might have a white or black background. Given that this won the Best Foreign Picture Oscar, it seems strange that Criterion, the print's source, would be satisfied with a bad print.

The story of this French-Italian co-production is a simple one: Gabin is a fugitive from France, where he has murdered a woman. He gets off ship in Genoa because he has a toothache and has his wallet stolen, meets Isa Miranda and her daughter, Vera Talchi, and they all fall in love. Miss Talchi is a fugitive herself, from Marseilles. Her wife-beating husband has just gotten out of jail and wants his punching bag back.

In broad, this movie could have turned out like one of the movies Gabin had made with Duvivier back in the 1930s, full of Poetic Realism. Now, however, the Second World War has destroyed the world,and there is no poetry left, just bombed-out buildings for people to live in, and dentists who pull your teeth for 450 lire -- 800 if you want anesthesia. Director Rene Clement and DP Louis Page give us a tired, ugly world where people are hungry for a little kindness, simply because it has grown so rare. It's a great movie and I hope someone locates and makes available a good copy before it is forgotten.

Le mura di Malapaga (1949) is a Italian/French movie directed by René Clément. It stars Jean Gabin as Pierre Arrignon, a French criminal who escapes to Genoa, Italy.

René Clément was a famous French director in the mid-20th century. He is sometimes called the father of French New Wave Cinema, although the directors in the New Wave were younger than Clément.

Jean Gabin was the leading French male actor of his day. Clément and Gabin made a great team, and what resulted was a great movie. As others have pointed out, this film is a mixture of film noir and neorealism. We see film noir touches everywhere--shadows, steel bars, crimes. Neorealism was easy if you were shooting in 1949 Genoa. The rubble left behind by WW II was everywhere. People speak of "living in the rubble" or "playing in the rubble" is if this is just part of everyday life. (I assume it was part of everyday life.)

The movie also stars Isa Miranda as Marta, the Italian woman who falls in love with Pierre. She's easy to distinguish--the beautiful, slender woman with high cheekbones. (That's a joke, because it describes every French movie star of her day. However, she really was beautiful, and she really was a great actor.)

However, for me, acting honors go to Vera Talchi, as Cecchina, Marta's daughter. At age 15, it couldn't have been easy to play alongside Gabin and Miranda, but she managed it extremely well.

This film won the Oscar as Best Foreign Language Film in 1950. We saw it in 35mm at Rochester's wonderful Dryden Theatre in the George Eastman Museum. However, it will work almost as well on the small screen. If you love film noir and 1940's neorealism, it's a must see. Even if those are not your favorite type of films, it's still worth seeking out and seeing.

P.S. The Walls of Malapaga in Genoa still exist. It was hard to get information about them, because my search brought up either the movie or a restaurant in Genoa. However, I finally tracked down the fact that Malapaga was a terrible debtor's prison for centuries. It's these walls that physically keep Pierre from getting away. Of course, there are emotional walls as well.