It's a warm Sunday here in Los Angeles, and I have reviews of two foreign films, one rare, and the other a restored classic.

Criterion's Pépé le Moko is the source film for all those steamy romantic adventures that play out in exotic locales, from Casablanca to The English Patient. Young, virile proletarian crook Jean Gabin is the uncrowned king of the Casbah, untouched by the frustrated French police, until he's smitten by a visiting woman of easy virtue. The atmosphere and hormones ooze off the screen, in Julien Duvivier's lush treatment. With a host of unique interviews and text resources.

Image Entertainment's The Wide Blue Road is about fishermen, not truck drivers, but Yves Montand makes a credible Italian fisherman using dangerous and illegal fishing methods, who stubbornly refuses to play by the rules of his fellow workers, while avoiding the cops who are determined to bust him. Unusually intense and fair-minded to all concerned, this colorful feature by Gillo Pontecorvo has good acting, especially from Montand's complex, troubled hero.

This welcome note from Guillaume Lessard at CalTech: Dear Savant: You and your readers might be interested to know that Jacques Tati's Jour de fete is being released this week as a Region-2 two-sided disc in France, with the original black-and-white version and the restored color version. For your reference, here's the link to Amazon's product page:
Amazon-France

It's back to work at an accelerated pace, but Savant has a number of reviews banked, and new discs coming in that will be easy to write on, tired or not. Stay healthy .... Glenn Erickson