Having participated in a violent and spectacular robbery, a young gangster looks forward to the division of the spoils. However, he gets killed by one of his former colleagues. The young man's sister, a pretty butterfly familiar with the more dubious kind of nocturnal entertainment, takes the news badly. She teams up with an ageing police inspector determined to avenge the death of his own long-time friend and collaborator...
"Le pacha" unites a fine cast which includes a considerable number of good actors with remarkably expressive or picturesque faces. Many of these people look as though they were created in order to play either cops or robbers. (In the movie, the boundary between both categories tends to be fluid, with more than one servant of the law slowly getting seduced into a world of vice and crime.) Protagonist Jean Gabin does very well, but then this was the kind of role the man had played so long and so often he could have given the performance in his sleep.
Thanks to an efficient and assured direction, "Le pacha" moves along at a good clip. The story, which is told in a linear fashion, is not particularly revolutionary or new, but it gets enlivened by visual splashes of beauty and imagination. (Lovers of the crime genre can spend many a happy moment pondering the later movies which may or may not have ripped off certain scenes or images.) The various props, sets and locations were chosen with a great deal of care, resulting in a great deal of liveliness and atmosphere.
Yet the movie, competent as it is, does not escape moments of unintentional hilarity. The nightclub scenes in particular feel remarkably overheated : the viewer isn't looking at the wild and saucy nightlife of France, the viewer is looking at the wild and saucy nightlife of France as imagined by some prude scared by the boldness of a younger generation. Hippies ! Free love ! Drugs ! Indian music instruments ! Naked breasts ! Where Will It All End ?
Fun note : the musical score, which is quite good, was provided by Serge Gainsbourg, who shows up performing his own song. Arrestingly, the young Gainsbourg already looks as unpleasantly self-satisfied as the middle-aged man he will turn into in later decades.
"Le pacha" unites a fine cast which includes a considerable number of good actors with remarkably expressive or picturesque faces. Many of these people look as though they were created in order to play either cops or robbers. (In the movie, the boundary between both categories tends to be fluid, with more than one servant of the law slowly getting seduced into a world of vice and crime.) Protagonist Jean Gabin does very well, but then this was the kind of role the man had played so long and so often he could have given the performance in his sleep.
Thanks to an efficient and assured direction, "Le pacha" moves along at a good clip. The story, which is told in a linear fashion, is not particularly revolutionary or new, but it gets enlivened by visual splashes of beauty and imagination. (Lovers of the crime genre can spend many a happy moment pondering the later movies which may or may not have ripped off certain scenes or images.) The various props, sets and locations were chosen with a great deal of care, resulting in a great deal of liveliness and atmosphere.
Yet the movie, competent as it is, does not escape moments of unintentional hilarity. The nightclub scenes in particular feel remarkably overheated : the viewer isn't looking at the wild and saucy nightlife of France, the viewer is looking at the wild and saucy nightlife of France as imagined by some prude scared by the boldness of a younger generation. Hippies ! Free love ! Drugs ! Indian music instruments ! Naked breasts ! Where Will It All End ?
Fun note : the musical score, which is quite good, was provided by Serge Gainsbourg, who shows up performing his own song. Arrestingly, the young Gainsbourg already looks as unpleasantly self-satisfied as the middle-aged man he will turn into in later decades.