LE QUAI DES BRUMES (PORT OF SHADOWS) |
In French with English subtitles. AWARDS -Best Foreign Film, 1939 National Board of Review, USA REVIEWS Because it is so uncompromising, so pure, "Port of Shadows" particularly French brand of romantic fatalism still knocks us out decades after the fact. Kenneth Turan - Los Angeles Times One of the definitive examples of the "poetic realism" style of French cinema of the pre-war and wartime years... Miles Fielder - the List What is often forgotten when discussing poetic realism is how entertaining the films are, and none is more so than "Le Quai des Brumes". Paul Huckerby - Electric Sheep Pessimistic, yet strangely sublime. Peter Bradshaw - The Guardian Essentially, this is film noir, so there's crime and romance, but both are submerged beneath a resolutely ground-level exploration of lives in crisis -- a mood bolstered by shots of the down-and-dirty French port groaning into action. Dave Calhoun - Time out |
Jean (Jean Gabin), a forlorn army deserter, arrives at night in the foggy port city of Le Havre, hoping to escape the country on one of the many ships anchored there. But love gets in the way when he meets Nelly (Michèle Morgan), a 17-year-old who has grown up too fast and is the object of lust for both her overbearing godfather (Michel Simon) and a petty gangster (Pierre Brasseur). Jean plans to skip town with Nelly on a ship leaving for Venezuela, but tempers quickly escalate. Port of Shadows marks the first collaboration between director Marcel Carné and poet/screenwriter Jacques Prévert, the team that went on to create 1945's Children of Paradise (SFFF 2012), and is known for being the epitome of the poetic realism genre that the two men pioneered. It is stunning to look at, a visual symphony of headlights in the fog, brooding docks, and artfully blurred vistas. Port of Shadows, one of the treasures of French cinema, is a melodrama to the core! It was banned by the Vichy government on moral grounds, accused of contributing to a "national malaise," and was also condemned by the Catholic Church for telling "a profoundly demoralizing, somber story.” It contains one of French cinema's most famous lines. You'll have goosebumps when Gabin, seductively and abruptly, tells Morgan (famous for having "the most beautiful eyes of French cinema"): "T'as d'beaux yeux tu sais!" ("You've got beautiful eyes, you know!"), and she replies: "Embrasse moi!" (Kiss me!")... JEAN GABIN Shown with Ressac by Gaëtan Jayle, Guillaume Zaouche, Matthieu Morice, Matéo Ravot, Valentin Panisset Saturday, June 25 - 11am |
