The Walls of Malapaga (1949) Poster

(1949)

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8/10
"The tooth ache is just like being in love,isn't it?"
morrison-dylan-fan8 July 2016
Warning: Spoilers
With 1947's The Damned (also reviewed) being the first ever French Film Noir that I watched,I felt that it was time to take a closer look at its auteur director:Rene Clement. Taking a look at the Clement titles I've gathered over the last year or so,I spotted one which offed the unique mix of Film Noir and Neo-Realism,which led to me climbing the walls of Malapaga.

View on the film:

Landing in post-WWII Italy, René Clément & cinematographer Louis Page look into the eyes of the dying ghosts,where rows of bone-dry shadows are collected in fantastic tracking shots stylishly gathering the ruins that are rotting the city to the core.

Continuing on with one of the major themes of The Damned, Clément gives the Neo-Realist city a claustrophobic, cramped shine which sets the earthy Film Noir atmosphere alight,as the Film Noir city (and Roman Vlad's jagged score)finds Arrignon and crushes him into the crumbling walls.

Sending Arrignon to another country,the screenplay by Jean Aurenche/Pierre Bost/Cesare Zavattini/Suso Cecchi D'Amico & Alfredo Guarini brilliantly grinds the Neo-Realist grittiness into Arrignon's "new life",by cleverly making Arrignon's arrival be a Film Noir loner entering a Neo-Realist world,where Manfredini's daily struggle to make ends meet pushes Arrignon's "escape from the cops plan" to the bottom of the list.

Whilst Manfredini's acceptance of Arrignon is a bit too fast moving,the writers bite into the Film Noir hands of Arrignon,by balancing the sharp Neo-Realist with a deadly Film Noir sting,displayed in Arrignon becoming attached to the humble life,but seeing with horror the deadly past over his shoulders.

Taken by Arrignon's mysterious nature,the very pretty Isa Miranda gives a wonderful performance as Marta Manfredini,whose heart-felt expression of love Miranda perfectly links with a tout feisty edge that gives Manfredini the force to make her voice clearly heard.

Casually walking round the city, Jean Gabin gives an amazing performance as Arrignon,thanks to Gabin carrying a firm swagger round the city,but a bitter,Film Noir seed of doubt over keeping his relationship with Manfredini away from the pits,as Arrignon starts to discover that he is unable to climb the walls of Malapaga.
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8/10
terrible print; terrific movie
marcar9127 February 2019
I have to agree with the reviewer who saw "The Walls of Malapaga" recently on TCM. It was really almost unwatchable; only because I speak Italian and have a passing knowledge of French did I continue. The subtitles were impossible to read and the whole movie had a washed out, unbalanced look which didn't add atmosphere to the Neorealism, but instead distracted from it. As for the story, this is the second time I've seen this film and I do love the post-war depiction. Marta (Isa Miranda) and her daughter (Vera Talchi) live in the ruins of a bombed out building in Genoa and Gabin is Gabin. It's shameful that this film has not been restored; hopefully, someone will take it on and release a print that is worthy of it.
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6/10
Hard to Review
evanston_dad5 December 2019
It's hard to know how good "The Walls of Malapaga" may or may not be, because the print I saw (which aired on TCM and which I'm assuming therefore is the best one available) is so horrible that it almost makes the film unwatchable. Most of the time the actors' faces are so washed out that you can't see them, and 50% of the subtitles are unreadable because they're in white font against frequently white backgrounds.

But the film is good for a peek at post-WWII Europe and the daily reminders of desperation and devastation from which America was largely spared. I happened to watch a couple of Susan Hayward melodramas that came out on either side of this film around the same time I watched it, and I was struck by the huge difference between what American audiences were being sold in their movies vs. what Europeans were seeing. In American films, it's like the war never happened, and the wealth and privilege is hard to stomach, whereas European films from the same time period seem to be about nothing but the war and the legacy it left behind.

"The Walls of Malapaga" received the annual Honorary Foreign Language Film Oscar that the Academy bestowed for a decade before introducing the competitive Foreign Language Film category that exists today.

Grade: B
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10/10
The Movie, Like Its Characters, Deserves a Better Fate
boblipton27 March 2018
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.
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9/10
They just don't make movies like this anymore
Red-12517 March 2018
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.
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9/10
Needs a Restoration STAT...
deckerk6 February 2019
Just watched it o0n TCM and the Janus Films copy they showed was terrible and barely watchable in HD. Someone, somewhere need to a restoration. Nonetheless, it was a good film with Gabin being Gabin, and I mean that with all the respect and accolades he deserves. But the real star performance (IMHO) is by Vera Talchi as Chechina. Sadly she has only four other films on her resume'. 8/10.
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5/10
Even Aficionados of Neo-Realism WonÕt Remember It
PolitiCom8 August 2002
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..
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10/10
Love among the ruins of old Genoa after the war
clanciai11 September 2020
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.
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9/10
The burden of being human.
brogmiller2 January 2020
Considering it won an honorary Oscar in 1949(before the category of Best Foreign Flm became a competitive affair) and garnered awards for both director René Clément and actress Isa Miranda at Cannes, the subsequent neglect of this film is indeed mystifying.

Its critical success was not reflected in box office returns however, perhaps because the public did not want to be reminded of post-war austerity.

I have revisited this film on a few occasions and it never fails to move me.

Gabin's career seemed to be in free-fall at this time before Jacques Becker came to his rescue with 'Touchez-pas au Grisbi'. His air of world-weariness, no doubt influenced by his war service, suits the role perfectly. Gabin was certainly no stranger to characters pursued by implacable Fate but this is his final appearance in such a role.

The performances that haunt however are those of Isa Miranda and fifteen year old Vera Talchi as mother and daughter. Miranda would never again to my knowledge be gifted such a part and she is absolutely wondrous. Her chemistry with Gabin is palpable. Talchi was a great find but her career thereafter did not alas amount to much apart from playing the love interest in the first of the Don Camillo series. What a pity.

This and his films 'Battle of the Rails', 'Forbidden Games' and 'Gervaise' guarantee Clément a place in the Pantheon of great directors. Roman Vlad has written a powerful score and the images by Louis Page of war-torn Genoa add to the film's neo-realist feel.

Visconti maintained that the most important thing on screen is to portray the burden of being human. Clément's film certainly fulfils that criterion in no uncertain terms.
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9/10
Not a great film, but a very good film
jromanbaker9 July 2021
A criminal, played by Jean Gabin is on the run, and no spoilers but he gets stranded in Italy, in Genoa which is still coming to terms with the aftermath of the war. Rene Clement who had not yet directed ' Les Jeux Interdit ' arguably his masterpiece, with ' Le Mura di Malapaga ' which uses both the Italian language and the French language. Visually it is stunning and full of people coming to terms with the inevitable desolation around them. He meets Isa Miranda, an abused wife, and a relationship begins. Their struggle to attain happiness in the ruins around them is the core of the film, and although I do not count this as particularly Neo-Realist or Film Noir it is ultimately a dark vision of life set in dark times. Isa Miranda stands out as being one of Italy's finest actors and gives a performance which will linger in my mind for a long while. There is one superlative scene where she is bought a glamorous dress that is deeply moving, because probably this is one of the few times in her life that she looks and feels literally transformed by happiness. I am not so happy about Jean Gabin as I feel he going through the acting motions, having played fairly similar fatalistic parts before, and does not quite inhabit his role as Isa Miranda does. A very good film, and well worth seeking out.
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A "Pepe le Moko" rehash.
dbdumonteil12 May 2007
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"!
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