Pépé le Moko

Pépé le Moko (1937), directed by Julien Duvivier from the novel by Roger Ashelle and starring Jean Gabin, is the epitome of 1930's French cinema. It tells the story of the glamorous gangster Pepe, trapped in the Casbah in Algiers. This highly romantic and atmospheric thriller was crucial to the development of French film noir and inspired a number of remakes and many imitations. Vincendeau's meticulous analysis, written in a lively and accessible style, places Pépé le Moko in its aesthetic, generic and cultural contexts.