Port of Shadows - Criterion Collection

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Starring: Jean Gabin
Rated: Unrated
Type: DVD
Directed By: Marcel Carné
Studio: Criterion
Release Date: 2004-07-20
Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean (Jean Gabin), an army deserter looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, when acts of both revenge and kindness turn him into front-page news. Also starring the blue-eyed phenomenon Michèle Morgan in her first major role, and the menacing Michel Simon, Port of Shadows (Le Quai des brumes) starkly portrays an underworld of lonely souls wrestling with their own destinies. Based on the novel by Pierre Mac Orlan, the inimitable team of director Marcel Carné and writer Jacques Prévert deliver a quintessential example of poetic realism, one of the classics of the golden age of French cinema.

Beautiful film
I first watched this film in an international film class in college. It struck me the first time I saw it, and I had to have it. It's an excellent film, way ahead of it's time. It mixes poetry and realism to the point of perfection. Anyone who appreciates film will love this one.

Poetic Coincidences?
An example of poetic realism, the French film movement (atmosphere would be more precise) between WWI and WWII, Port of Shadows is heavy on coincidence beginning, arguably, with the truck driver who transports Jean, the Jean Gabin character (and us) into the film. Jean hasn't eaten for two days and is given free food by an innkeeper; he meets a girl and the attraction is mutual; he needs new clothes and a passport so an artist commits suicide and leaves both to him, etc.

All of this would make for a predictable run-of-the-mill thing except for the fact that there is more than coincidence going on here and that the coincidences themselves are in many ways of little concern to the point of the film. Indeed, it seems that the filmmakers used coincidence as a way of dispensing with nettlesome plot necessities in order to focus more intently on what they wanted the film to convey. What it does convey, and quite nicely, is the sense of impending doom, a haunted past (Jean is a deserter who seems to harbor darker secrets in his past), the venality and corruptability of man, love gained and lost, and the futility of daily life when stacked against all of that. Hardly a sunny romp in the woods (somehow the fog seems to linger even in bright sunlight), but an entertaining film nonetheless.

Aside from the coincidences and the atmosphere, another interesting aspect is the way in which the Gabin character exits outside of society. A deserter (and one sense that he joined the army only a way to escape some former social unit), he has left behind that society in search of, not really another one, but perhaps a way to live outside any society at all, at least until he meets the girl. Ill-tempered, abrupt, pugnacious he is an anti-social individual whose wounds and attitudes seem to have been instilled by previous social encounters. He is about escape (and not just to South America on the freighter which is coincidently [there's that word again] departing soon, but only after affording him sufficient time to pursue the girl. His escapes are from the army, from France, from society, ultimaly from himself and, most likely, that past which rendered all escapes necessary in the first place.

He meets his end as a result of his entanglement with the woman (an attempt to re-enter society?) and as a result of a chivalrous act towards her. No femme fatale, she is innocent in the bringing about of his downfall, but brings it about nonetheless. Filled with a fog that could be fate, could be the haze of the past, or could be simply photogenic the film is an enjoyable example of French poetic realism, sort of like an American film noir without the suspense and without the scheming woman but with all of the sense of loss, unfulfilled (or only sporadically realized) desires and dark workings of fate characteristic of that genre. Suspend some of the expectations Hollywood films have created in most of us, spend some time here and you will be rewarded. You can call it a coincidence.

T'AS DE BEAUX YEUX, TU SAIS !
Marcel Carné's PORT OF SHADOWS (Le Quai des Brumes) belongs to the list of movies we had to see in school in the seventies. This film is part of the French cultural heritage and was regularly showed by the film clubs of our schools. Some of the greatest actors of that period appear in PORT OF SHADOWS : Jean Gabin, THE unquestionable star of French cinema from the beginning of the 30's until the beginning of the 70's, Michèle Morgan who attained a cult status with this film she shot while she was 17 years old, the Swiss actor Michel Simon (Zabel) who portrayed numerous unforgettable characters during his long career on the screen (1924-1975), Pierre Brasseur who's excellent as Lucien the hoodlum.

Great actors and also great dialogues written by Jacques Prévert, a poet-artist often associated with the Poetic Realism genre of that period. Lines as "Tu as de beaux yeux, tu sais" (You do have beautiful eyes, you know) or "Vite, on est pressé" (Hurry, we don't have much time left) said by Gabin to Morgan are sentences you don't easily forget if you happen to like PORT OF SHADOWS.

A DVD zone your library.

Improvisational train wreck
What happens when the director shoots a movie without a plot or a point or even a script and lets his famous actors improvise amok? The Port of Shadows. Yes, a few frames of the moody cinematography are worth watching, but you can see one of them for free on the box art. If you like watching high speed artistic train wrecks in super slow motion, then this is the movie for you. It's a 1 star movie plus 1 star for it's historical significance plus 1 star for Criterion's excellent transfer.

Shadows & Fog
I first became aware of director Marcel Carne when I saw "Children of Paradise". In a review I wrote on here for that movie I said to call it a masterpiece is to understate it's case. The same can be said for "Port of Shadows", easily one of the greatest films I have ever seen.

The movie stars Jean Gabin as a soldier running away from the past. What exactly did he do? I don't know, we get the hint he must be a deserter, but maybe that's just the beginning of his problems. Whatever the case may be it doesn't matter. All that matters is the fact he wants to get away. Jean (that's his character's name) finds himself in a hideout run by a man called Panama (Edouard Delmont) which is near what is known as "the port of shadows". Here is where Jean will get all the help he needs to leave the country. But things are never that easy. For instance he meets a girl, Nelly (Michele Morgan) and gets mixed up with criminals; Zabel (Michel Simon) and Lucien (Pierre Brasseur). And soon Jean fears he may be a suspect in a murder.

Jean Gabin is an absolute natural for a role like this. He practically invented the character in "Pepe le Moko". A character that American actors such as Humphrey Bogart would play in films like "Casablanca". Gabin has those rough edges around his face and a dour look on his face that leads us to believe the guy has been through a lot. This is a complete contrast to the look Michele Morgan has. She is to put bluntly a beauty!

The film was based on a novel written by Pierre Mac Orlan and was adapted by Jacques Prevert (a poet as well as songwriter. If you are familiar with the song "Autumn Leaves" he wrote the lyrics). I've never read the book so I cannot comment on how faithfully this film is adapted, but I can say Carne does a masterful job directing this movie. The film takes us down paths I wasn't expecting to travel. Carne doesn't throw too much in our face. He lets the story flow at it's own pace. And things move along quite quickly. The film is only 90 minutes. But at the same time, nothing feels rushed. We understand these characters, their situations and the fate that awaits them. Having only seen two films from this director I'm ready to call him a master. His films manage to touch me on a deep personal level. He creates characters that seems to live off the page. And just think, this was Carne's third film! He clearly had a natural gift. And luckily people took notice during his lifetime. "Port of Shadows" won the National Board of Review award for "Best Foreign Film".

As for the film's title, at first I wondered how they arrived at it. We don't find out the name of the port until the end of the film but couldn't it have a double meaning? Couldn't the "port of shadows" refer to a place where people go looking to escape the shadows of their past? Or maybe it's just that you can't see a darn thing with all that fog hanging around!

Bottom-line: Marcel Carne's film is one of the greatest I have ever see. Carne handles the story and the characters with a sure touch. The movie takes some unexpected turns and takes what could have been a simple story and transcends it into something much more.