“LOVE AND ANGST—FRENCH STYLE”

By Raymond Benson

One of the most acclaimed films from France in the late 1930s was Port of Shadows (Le quai des brumes), which was among Marcel Carné’s earliest pictures (he is probably best known to Western audiences for his 1945 masterpiece, Children of Paradise). Port was the recipient of the Prix Louis-Delluc, then the equivalent of the “Best Picture” award in its native country.

The film stars the great Jean Gabin in a quintessential role as Jean, an army deserter who wanders penniless into the port city of Le Havre and soon becomes entangled in a conflict between a beautiful young woman, Nelly (the luminous Michèle Morgan), a group of petty gangsters, and Nelly’s creepy guardian, Zabel (Michel Simon). Zabel wants to sleep with Nelly, who finds her godfather disgusting, the gangsters want to kill Zabel for some offence he has committed, and Jean just wants peace and quiet and a meal. Nevertheless, Jean and Nelly quickly fall in love. Much angst is displayed, the gangsters frame Jean for a murder, and our central characters find themselves in an existential crisis.

The picture is billed as a “crime drama,” although in truth it’s more of a melodrama with some shady characters on the periphery who are up to no good. The main focus is on the burgeoning relationship between Jean and Nelly, and apparently this was hot stuff in 1938. The French censors ended up chopping up the movie—especially the sequence in which Jean and Nelly spend the night in a hotel room (shocking!)—and it wasn’t restored to its original form until years later. Some critics have called Port of Shadows an early film noir, but again, the romance takes too much of a center stage in the story for the picture to be thus labeled.

Carné’s direction of Jacques Prévert’s script (based on Pierre Mac Orlan’s novel) is in the style of what was called “poetic realism,” in that the proceedings are not quite as naturalistic as what was achieved later with Italian Neo-Realism. The soft focus, the moody night scenes, and the fog that envelopes the port city combine to create an impressionistic, painterly pragmatism that is indeed realistic, but lyrical as well. It’s good stuff, especially the tangible chemistry between Gabin and Morgan.

Kino Lorber Classics presents a restored 1920x1080p transfer that looks exquisite. It’s in French, of course, with optional English subtitles. Supplements include a video introduction by professor and film critic Ginette Vincendeau; a substantial documentary of the film’s making, On the Port of the Shadows; and the theatrical trailer.

Devotees of French cinema and film history will want to pick up this one. It’s also not a bad date movie.

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