Film Criticism 17 "Au-delà des grilles", 1947 by René Clément

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Also known as Le mura di Malapaga, this French-Italian co-production starring the ever-reliable Jean Gabin takes place in a ruined Genoa during the early postwar years, offering a perfect setting for a neorealist film (with Cesare Zavattini involved in the screenplay). However, the film also ventures into a kind of gentle melodrama, reminiscent of réalisme poétique français, clearly imprinted by director René Clément. While the dramatic plot is centered on the journey of a fugitive, Pierre, and his romance with Marta, the film contains several social digressions, and yet romantic poetry emerges in the dilapidated streets of Genoa. Jean Gabin remains true to his style, delivering a performance in line with his pre-war roles, though he is clearly overshadowed by the two actresses surrounding him.


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Isa Miranda lights up the screen with a highly nuanced performance that perfectly blends realism with romantic impulses, and the very young Vera Talchi, who plays Marta’s daughter, belongs entirely—through her spontaneous acting—to the neorealist tradition. Au-delà des grilles is ultimately a simple film, whose mise-en-scène feels closer to the Nouvelle Vague than to the so-called “Tradition of Quality” in French cinema, despite Truffaut’s critical stance towards Clément. The film's true protagonist is wounded, desolate Genoa itself—completely in ruins and used as a psychological space that, like the title suggests, becomes a mirror of the symbolic prison, or beyond the gates, that all the characters in the film inhabit.

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