Pigalle (1994) Pigalle Paris Neo Noir

"A Twisted French Freakshow"   (Noirsville)

Written and Directed by Karim Dridi, a Tunisian born director. 

He's known for for Khamsa (2008), Fureur (2003). Never heard of any of his stuff, including this before now. 

The excellent Cinematography was by John Mathieson known for (Gladiator, Pan, The Phantom of the Opera). Music was by Antidote and Alain Bashung. 

The film stars Véra Briole as Véra a Stripper at both a Nightclub and peep show owned by l'Empereur (played by Jean-Claude Grenier) 

l'Empereura is a diminutive vice mobster / narcotics dealer who is a sort of combo "Miguelito Loveless" with a Basket Case vibe. He appears to be deformed enough, so that  he's unable to walk. He's carried around by Marc- Antoine a burly bearded henchman but also has a hydraulic wheel chair where he can elevate himself to a higher level than whoever he's speaking with.

Francis Renaud plays Fifi the head of a pickpocket team, who is in various on and off relationships with Vera. 

Divine (played by Blanca Li), is a transvestite prostitute who gets off on Fifi's abuse. In this mix is Fernande (played by Raymond Gil), another transvestite who is a cabaret performer.

Younesse Boudache plays Mustaf, who is sort of Fifi's protege in the pickpocket / slash and grab purse snatching racket. Fifi finds a mark, then when the situation is right Mustaf runs up and grads a purse runs down the street and passes the purse off to a waiting Fifi. They also work at rolling drunks.

Philippe Ambrosini is Le Malfait the rival mobster. 

l'Empereura wise guys include Bobby Pacha as hitman Le Pacha, Jean-Michel Fête as l'Empereura's peepshow and adult bookstore manager P'tit Fred, Christian Saunier as Cri-Cri a cashier at the bookstore.

Other underworld figures are Roger Desprez plays Roger l'Elégant an arms dealer to the mob and Patrick Chauvel as the Gypsy Le Gitan, and  Olindo Cavadini as Polo

Christian Auger as René the drunk, Jacky Baps as adult bookstore / peepshow patron Forceps, Philippe Nahon as Lezzi and Pigalle. Paris circa early 1990s.

Here's a film that if you don't speak French can enjoy purely for the visuals alone. I understand some French but not enough to get the details of the conversations. I did read a synopsis so you get the gist of what's going on and it's enough because you are getting carpet bombed phototropic-ly with Noir Style that it can be entertaining on a purely visual level. 

I tried every which way to find a copy with English subs but no  luck. 

The Story

We get an introduction to Moulin Rouge, Place Pigalle, Boulevard de Clichy, and our story's characters. Place Pigalle, Moulin Rouge are the two poles, and the Boulevard de Clichy that runs between them, is the Paris' equivalent to Piccadilly Circus, London. Times Square, Manhattan, and old Main Street, Los Angeles. 

Amusement arcades, restaurants,  bars, taverns, peep shows, adult book stores, nightclubs, strip clubs, dance clubs, jazz bars, clients, weirdos, addicts, tourists.

Fifi and Mustafa on the job

Vera without makeup on her way to work

We watch as Fifi and Mustafa pull a slash and grab on woman's purse. Fifi picks the mark Mustafa zeros in then Fifi moves off down the sidewalk waiting for Mustafa. Mustafa waits until he's got a clean shot and makes his move. He runs up to the woman, grabs a strap and pulls it out of her grasp. He runs down the street and passes it to Fifi who appears to just be window shopping. Mustafa keeps running drawing the woman and her partner away from Fifi. 

The Slash and Grab

The mark

Mustafa zeroing in....

The purse

The Grab

The pass of the purse to Fifi

Once Mustafa passes the purse to Fifi he covers it with jacket and walks away in the opposite direction where he meets Vera is on again off again gal pal. 

Vera is a stripper in two of L'Empereur's vice dens, his strip club and in his peepshow.

Vera's Strip Show

We watch  the end of one of Vera's performances to an adoring crowd. 

L'Empereur and his minions are trying to get Vera to also sell her body.  Le Gitan (The Gypsy) is L'Empereur's pimp. At the end of her shift she stops at the bar for a chat and then she as she is leaving the club she is followed out side by Le Gitan.  She resists. 

It all starts going Noirsville when we start to delve into Fifi. The reason the Vera and Fifi relationship is not hitting on all cylinders is because Fifi we find out is bisexual and very attracted to "Divine" a transsexual heroin dealer, who's favorite look is to wear a platinum blond pageboy wig. Fifi is alos an object of desire for Fernande a female impersonator at another vice den. It's not apparent if Vera knows the complete score. 

Divine & Fifi

Vera may think Fifi is just shy around women. 

But again take all this with a grain of salt since I haven't watched a subtitled version and I'm not familiar with the sang terms and missing a lot of the convos.

At a nearby bar where everyone hangs out more of the confrontations between the different factions in our tale play out. 

When drug dealing Divine walks into the bar we see Le Gitan get visibly upset. Deb=vine maks the rounds greeting Fifi and B=vera then heading over to the bartender. Le Gitan's obviously is not cool with it and  eventually pulls out his knife to prove it. Forcing Divine to split.

Here we cut to rival vice mobster Le Malfait. When we first see him He's laying naked on his belly having a tattoo put on his ass, surrounded by his crew and Divine his prize pusher. 

It all goes seriously Noirsville when L' Empereur and Le Malfait get into a turf war over narcotics. L'Empereur and Marc-Antoine have apparently up Devine in a double cross of Le Malfait. When Divine is whacked, Fifi is out to settle accounts. 

Noirsville

The caps are from a streamer without subs so again take my interpretation of the tale with a grain of salt. My rating at the moment is a 7/10 just on the visuals. 

Below are more reviews from both the New York Times and an IMDb contributor.

Pigalle (1994)  9/10 - IMDb

Excellent study of a dark subculture...

27 December 2007

"Pigalle" is an ultra-stylish character study, dealing with the criminal element who inhabit the infamous Parisian sex and drug district. Filmed in appropriate garish neon colors, the film follows the lives of four young people, struggling to survive in their drug infested, violent world. The sexy Vera, dances nude in a peep show, while her handsome but unstable boyfriend Fifi, struggles with his ambiguous sexuality, and a fascination with transsexual heroin dealer, 'Divine.' Fifi is looked up to by an Arab boy named Mustaf, and the two spend much time hanging out in the crime ridden streets, scamming and ripping off tourists and 'johns.' The four make up a sort of family, and look out for each other as best they can, as the older, corrupt pimps and drug dealers try to use and exploit them in every way possible. "Pigalle" is a dazzling film experience, filled with life, color, eye popping costumes, pulsating music, crazy and fascinating characters, as well as a surprising amount of nudity, drug use, graphic violence, and all around sleaze. And the four leads are physically beautiful as well, in their own unique way, and somehow likable, despite the poor moral choices they sometimes make. "Pigalle" is a film in the tradition of "Pixote," "Christiane F." and "Mandragora," in it's study of young innocents trapped in an urban hell of drugs and prostitution. I was surprised by the low rating at IMDb, but with only 2 reviews, it is obvious that more people need to see this astonishing film.

Edit: It should be known that the dvd available to English speaking countries is HEAVILY CENSORED, deleting an astonishing 15 minutes from the movie. So many scenes are removed that the story becomes incomprehensible. This might explain the low rating here; if you have only seen this disgraceful 78 minute version then you have NOT seen this film.

Pigalle - New York Times

By STEPHEN HOLDEN

NEW YORK - Karim Dridi's film ``Pigalle'' is as bright and shiny and smudged as its recurrent image of reflected neon light sliding over the windshield of a car. The film, which opens Friday in New York, purports to be an insider's picture of life in the red-light district of Paris, where it was filmed.

Despite its graphic depictions of the Parisian sex and drug industries, addiction and transvestism, the movie still has the prurient aura of a hip, sexy tourist exhibit.

The director has assembled an intriguing portrait gallery of stock characters plucked from Toulouse-Lautrec paintings and the novels of Jean Genet. Leading the list are Vera (Vera Briole), a leggy, red-headed gamine who is a stripper in a peep show and is edging toward prostitution, and Fifi (Francis Renaud), the handsome pickpocket with whom she has a rocky romance.

At once sexually cruel and waifish, Fifi is the darling both of Divine (Blanca Li), a transvestite prostitute who craves his physical abuse, and of Fernande (Raymond Gil), a wizened transvestite cabaret performer with a Carol Channing wig who shelters him when his world is about to explode.

His sidekick and protege in thievery is a young Arab boy, Mustaf (Younesse Boudache), who remains fiercely loyal even when Fifi loses his temper and erupts with anti-Arab epithets.

These colorful characters are caught up in a turf war between rival drug dealers, the brutal hawk-faced Malfait (Philippe Ambrosini) and L'Empereur (Jean-Claude Grenier), a fiendish midget who uses neighborhood junkies as guinea pigs to test the strength of the latest heroin shipments. He's delighted when one overdoses because it means the stuff is high-grade.

The desperate, blood-spattered rivalry to control the drug trade is the framework for a confusingly told story in which Vera and Fifi are used as pawns by the opposing gangs, and several people are killed. But the film, although well-acted, does not develop its characters.

The melodrama is really just an excuse for a rambling tour of a demimonde that is made to look considerably more glamorous than its urban American counterparts. Drenched in neon and pumped full of existential dread, ``Pigalle'' feels like a late-1950s fantasy of the underworld as the ne plus ultra of risky bohemian adventure.