Essay on Pepe le Moko - 664 Words

Julien Duvivier’s film â€Å"Pà ©pà © le Moko† is a remarkable story, and a powerful personal account of French colonial life. The socio-political subtext of the story is an important one, which brings to the forefront the particular allure of Casbah and the idiosyncrasies of its inhabitants. This subtext of the narrative connotes the desire and fascination with the exotic. Jean Gabin’s character is a thief, who while running from the law becomes immersed in the maze of the city of Casbah. In light of Edward Said’s ideas of Orientalism, specifically in terms of the cultural exchanges that take place in the affiliation of colonialism, the foreign element (as an â€Å"other†) can become a model with which Western civilization defines itself. The†¦show more content†¦The intersection of this similarity is in the fact that the girlfriends taken by most of the members of his gang are native women, and correspondingly the way that the native women are shown occasionally as prostitutes. The magnetism that is created around Pà ©pà © and Gaby is related to this. His fascination with her is an exhibition of his longing for the familiarity of Paris and the sanctity of his past, a familiarity that is di stant to him in Casbah. In her, Pà ©pà © is reminded of life outside the walls of Casbah. His gradual rejection of Ines in favor of Gaby suggests his shifting disposition and his consuming desire for Paris, possibly even a disgust of the colonialist enterprise on a deeper level. Gaby’s jewelry is a constant reminder of these ideas. The diamond is one of the most readily identifiable symbols of the colonial process, a reminder of the exploitation of resources by the British in South Africa. Gaby is attracted to Pà ©pà © in a similar way. The radical distinction that he embodies as a gangster differentiates him from the upper-class, mainland Frenchmen that she would typically be acquainted with. The fragility of Pà ©pà ©Ã¢â‚¬â„¢s relationship with Gaby is that it is on the verge of intangibility. On the average day she could just as easily be his victim, as the cash value of her jewels are the main focus of the gang.