La Bandera (1935)

La Bandera is a French romantic film drama first released in 1935, directed by Julien Duvivier.  The film is based on a novel by Pierre Mac Orlan and stars Jean Gabin, Annabella, Robert Le Vigan, Raymond Aimos and Pierre Renoir.  It has also been released under the title: Escape from Yesterday.  Our overall rating for this film is: very good.


Having killed a man in Paris, Pierre Gilieth flees to Barcelona where he enlists in the Spanish Legion.  Here he meets up with fellow countrymen Mulot and Lucas, and falls in love with a Moroccan girl, Aischa.  Unbeknown to Pierre, Lucas is a detective who intends to betray him to the authorities...

La Bandera is one of Julien Duvivier’s most memorable films, providing a satisfying and early example of poetic realism, albeit in a setting far removed from contemporary France.   Although not nearly as ambitious or daring as the religious epic, Golgotha, which Duvivier made immediately before this film, La Bandera is a worthy film which presages many of the director’s subsequent great works (most obviously Pépé-le-moko ).

Perhaps more significantly, this film offers Jean Gabin his first major role in a series of great films which would quickly establish him as an icon of 1930s French cinema.  The film also features three other notable actors of the period, Robert Le Vigan, Pierre Renoir and Annabella (although the latter is almost disfigured by the heavy make-up she had to wear for her part as the Moroccan woman in this film).

As in many of Duvivier’s subsequent films (such as La Belle équipe and Pépé-le-Moko ), La Bandera is a masterfully woven psychological drama which is tightly focused on the interaction between its principal protagonists (here the compelling rivalry between Pierre and Lucas).  The exotic location is far less important, as is the absence of any set-piece battles (unusual for a legionnaire film).  Duvivier is far more concerned with exploring the frailties and redeeming qualities of human nature, a characteristic which makes his films both compelling and relevant to any generation of cinemagoer.

The film’s tragic ending was surprising at the time, although it proved to be a successful and oft-repeated formula in French films of the late 1930s (reflecting the change in mood of the country at the time).

© James Travers 2002

Write a review for this film...


What do you think of this film?

More French Drama
More French Romance
Recent DVD releases