Le Quai Des Brumes (Port Of Shadows, 1938), directed by Marcel Carné (Les Visiteurs du Soir, 1942, Children of Paradise, 1945), is a film that foreshadows film noir and the French New Wave as much as it was made at a time of great apprehension for a second great war. It’s the story of Jean Rabe (superstar actor Jean Gabin) a deserter from the colonial army who arrives at the port of Le Havre seeking to escape the country. He has no money for food or lodging but falls in with Quart Vittel (Raymond Aimos), a homeless alcoholic who is the first of the dispossessed characters that inhabit the film. Vittel guides him to a bar on the edge of the water run by the brusque but welcoming Panama (Édouard Delmont) where he also meets the nihilistic artist (Robert Le Vigan) and the film’s troubled heroine Nelly (Michèle Morgan).
From the outset, when Jean Rabe hitches a ride to Le Havre with a truck driver, there is a sense of having driven into a foggy world where people are trapped by their lives. The film only hints at what people have endured – why did Rabe desert the colonial forces, who is Nelly hiding from, why is the artist obsessed with death? – these things are only revealed as the story unfolds. He discovers Nelly hiding in a back room and, even in black and white, you can tell her lipstick is scarlet and her eyes vivid green or blue. Rabe is brutish and aggressively flirtatious, and their immediate distrust hints at previous failed relationships. However, this slowly changes as they spend time together and especially after he defends her against a trio of small-time hoodlums led by Lucien (Pierre Brasseur) who are searching for the never-seen Maurice as well as Nelly’s Godfather, Zabel (Michel Simon) who they are sure knows where Maurice is.
The film has two parallels in the ship-in-a-bottle Panama covets in his bar, and the all-pervasive fog. Both are emblematic of being held in place by unseen forces. The possibility of escape is glimpsed in most exterior shots which feature the ship that Rabe hopes will take him to Venezuela but, as the love between Rabe and Nelly grows, so there is an inevitability to the fact that events will lead to tragedy for some of the characters. Casablanca has a similar feel; for some people it’s a place offering the last chance for escape whereas for others it’s their final destination. You can hide but you can’t run.
Eugen Schüfftan‘s cinematography is one of the film’s greatest assets. The foggy exteriors are matched by wonderful interiors shot in the studio, and light and dark is used to great effect whether it’s to create areas of menace within the frame or to pick out a face, or just the eyes, to heighten the dramatic or romantic tension. Close-ups on Rabe and Nelly also become more frequent as their love grows.
The performances may seem a little melodramatic by today’s standards, and the earnestness of the dialogue sometimes makes everyone sound like gritty philosophers (“street poetry” as one of the critics says in one of the DVD extras) but the lean storytelling and dark themes could teach a lot modern film makers a thing or two about not over explaining, or spoon feeding, information to the viewer.
Here comes the science bit: this 4K restoration was carried out at the Transperfect laboratory using a combination of the film’s incomplete original negative and a 1938 standard nitrate fine grain with grading that referenced a vintage 35mm nitrate print. The restoration is outstanding with no clicks, scratches or marks that you might expect from a film that’s nearly 90 years old.
When so many current films rely on computer effects to make the unbelievable believable it’s refreshing to watch exceptional work from a time where you could only rely on great acting, directing, lighting and in-camera effects. Some elements may seem dated but what never dates is that je ne sais quoi that comes from all these elements coalescing into film that defies time.
This is released as part of Studio Canal’s Vintage Classic series.
Review by Paul F Cook
Keep up to date with all new content on Joyzine via our
Facebook | Bluesky | Instagram | Threads | Mailing List