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Le quai des brumes

  • 1938
  • Tous publics
  • 1h 31m
IMDb RATING
7.7/10
10K
YOUR RATING
Le quai des brumes (1938)
Trailer for Port of Shadows
Play trailer2:25
1 Video
99+ Photos
CrimeDramaRomanceThriller

A military deserter finds love and trouble (and a small dog) in a foggy, French port city.A military deserter finds love and trouble (and a small dog) in a foggy, French port city.A military deserter finds love and trouble (and a small dog) in a foggy, French port city.

  • Director
    • Marcel Carné
  • Writers
    • Pierre Mac Orlan
    • Jacques Prévert
  • Stars
    • Jean Gabin
    • Michel Simon
    • Michèle Morgan
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    7.7/10
    10K
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Marcel Carné
    • Writers
      • Pierre Mac Orlan
      • Jacques Prévert
    • Stars
      • Jean Gabin
      • Michel Simon
      • Michèle Morgan
    • 69User reviews
    • 38Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
    • Awards
      • 6 wins & 2 nominations total

    Videos1

    Port of Shadows
    Trailer 2:25
    Port of Shadows

    Photos111

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    + 105
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    Top cast19

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    Jean Gabin
    Jean Gabin
    • Jean
    Michel Simon
    Michel Simon
    • Zabel
    Michèle Morgan
    Michèle Morgan
    • Nelly
    Pierre Brasseur
    Pierre Brasseur
    • Lucien
    Édouard Delmont
    Édouard Delmont
    • Panama
    • (as Delmont)
    Raymond Aimos
    Raymond Aimos
    • Quart Vittel
    • (as Aimos)
    Robert Le Vigan
    Robert Le Vigan
    • Le peintre
    • (as Le Vigan)
    René Génin
    René Génin
    • Le docteur
    • (as Genin)
    Marcel Pérès
    Marcel Pérès
    • Le chauffeur
    • (as Perez)
    Jenny Burnay
    Jenny Burnay
    • L'amie de Lucien
    Roger Legris
    Roger Legris
    • Le garçon d'hôtel
    • (as Legris)
    Martial Rèbe
    • Le client
    Léo Malet
    • Soldier
    • (uncredited)
    Marcel Melrac
      Raymond Pélissier
        Raphaël
        • Un complice
        • (uncredited)
        Jacques Soukoff
        • Lucien's henchman
        • (uncredited)
        Gaby Wagner
        • Complice
        • (uncredited)
        • Director
          • Marcel Carné
        • Writers
          • Pierre Mac Orlan
          • Jacques Prévert
        • All cast & crew
        • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

        User reviews69

        7.710.4K
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        Featured reviews

        blanche-2

        make sure the razor blades are locked up

        Jean Gabin and Michelle Morgan star in the stylish Marcel Carne film, "Port of Shadows," made in 1938. There is simply no one like Jean Gabin - Hollywood had no idea what to do with him - here he was, this amazing leading man who looked like a character actor. Thankfully, the French knew what they had and kept him busy for 48 years.

        Gabin plays Jean, a military deserter who comes into the French port of Le Havre, intending to leave aboard ship for Venezuela. He meets the beautiful Nelly and is adopted by a small dog. Nelly is a real man magnet; she has a boyfriend Maurice, a father figure who is in love with her named Zabel, and Lucien, a hood in love with her. She and Jean fall in love, even though in her heart she knows that he has to leave Le Havre.

        These French films out-noir American film noirs, and this is a stylish, dark film filled with sadness, with a depressing ambiance throughout. If you were miserable when you started watching it, you'll be a mess when it's over. What I've gone through for Gabin - he was in so many dark, depressing films! If you're a fan of film noir (and/or Gabin), this is for you.
        writers_reign

        Play Misty for Me

        Was there ever a better example of Poetic Realism (no, but one just as good, Le Jour Se Leve, from the same stable)than this, crafted exquisitely by the onlie begetters of the genre, Jacques Prevert - Marcel Carne. All the ingredients are present and accounted for; low-key lighting, atmos - perm any two from drizzle, sleet, cobbles, out-of-season resorts - and two doomed lovers who come together for one Mayfly moment in the sun before it all ends in tears to the distant sound of hammers striking firing pins and the heady, pungent aroma of cordite. Did anyone, with the possible exception of Bogie, do bruised tough better than Jean Gabin and pre-Audrey Hepburn were there ever so expressive eyes as Michele Morgan brought to the party. The Prevert-Carne team were on top of their game in this one which still holds up sixty years on. Purists may quibble that 'brumes' translates as mist rather than shadows but without a shadow of a doubt this is classic fare.
        9nin-chan

        Doomed Romance In A Port Of Shadows....

        ...lascivious, resentful old storekeepers, effete "toughs", thieving winos, crestfallen, impecunious artists and other downtrodden types. Like Duvivier's incomparable "Pepe Le Moko", "Port Of Shadows" is shrouded in mist. The fog here, however, doesn't evoke a sensual surrealism, but envelopes everything with a graven pallor and dampness. Indeed, everything here screams asphyxiation- Gabin is INCREDIBLE as a well-intentioned Byronic figure embittered by the realities and absurdities of war, whose near-consummate weltschmerz is offered salvation...until inescapable tragedy strikes. As a tragic poet of the cinema, I believe Carne was nearly unrivalled in the Golden Age of French film.

        The thick veils of smog give the amplify the film's preoccupation with solitude and opacity- dialogue here is often barbed, strained and bitter, the world-weary cynicism of the characters betraying their immense suffering. Principles are a luxury in an age of disenchantment- the proprietor of Panama's is impassive towards the suicide of his resident Werther (his existentialist exclamation "What's the use?" accenting the futility of suicide- far from offering a reprieve from superfluity, it merely confirms it) while loyalty amongst Leguardier's posse is dispelled briskly after his humiliation. Superfluity is the order of the day- "The world is better off with one less good-for-nothing"..."He needs an identity...I can give him mine.". Each character is acutely aware of his own gratuitousness, and each of them tries desperately to cobble together a raison d'etre in the face of nothingness. When these collapse, as in the case of Michel, Zabal and Leguardier, they are driven to murder or suicide.

        As with Les Enfants Du Paradis, Carne's forte lies in sculpting exquisitely intricate characters- the sheer HUMANITY of this movie warrants multiple viewings. Michel Simon's grotesque, graceless Zabal is brilliantly rendered- scorned doubly for his money and his cosmetic deficiencies, Zabal's resignation to a cruel fate (soul-corroding loneliness and a burgeoning moral ugliness) culminates in a death as clumsy and maladroit as his demeanor. His reverence for beauty, as exhibited in his adoration of Nelly and religious hymns, is severely at odds with his environs.

        Leguardier, petty hoodlum, imitates American gangster archetypes gleaned from film and hardboiled novels, but his seemingly cocksure swagger is a poor facade for his suffocating ennui and moral cowardliness. Nelly, forbearing and forlorn, is prey to reveries of love, fantasies that promise fulfilment until the film's heartrending conclusion. Looming ominously in the background of the movie are questions on the purpose of art in this grim epoch- the characters on display are all victims of quixotic myths: of war, patriotism, love, crime, masculinity. The incongruities between these fables and cruel reality, the hideous gulf between romance and fact, these are perhaps the saddest truths the film yields.

        The ending, seen in this light, is bittersweet- Jean, the tragic character par excellence who has said Yes to all that is absurd and obscene in his life, relinquishes all illusions about the impermanence of all things, including love. Nelly and Jean have achieved true communion, true intercourse, if even for an ephemeral moment. His death is a noble one, an affirmation and acceptance of transience. This is the happiest conclusion that Carne can offer, and even in the film's unrelenting fatalism there is fortitude and life-affirming courage. Camus would've given the thumbs up! In the absurd quandary of life, there is room for sentiment and fraternity, as long as we accept its temporal nature. In Proustian fashion, memory renews all things, so let us embalm these precious moments!
        10zetes

        Like Being Punched Really Hard in the Gut

        I took a class in French Poetic Realism and Italian Neorealism this past Fall in which I saw many of the best films I will ever see. The third film we watched in the class was Jean Vigo's L'Atalante, which is just about the most gorgeous experience in film viewing I have ever experienced. I left the building in a cloud of euphoria, and I have never stopped thinking about it. One week later, we watched Le Quai des Brumes (Port of Shadows). It affected me greatly in the opposite direction of L'Atalante. It made me lonely and grief-stricken. That is in no way a criticism; for the most part, any film that transforms my emotions, whether for the better or the worse, is a great film.

        Le Quai des brumes is about a man played by the great Jean Gabin (the star of La Grande Illusion) who has deserted the army (a fact that is never mentioned specifically, since the French censors refused to let the filmmakers portray such an immoral deed). Everyone who he finds around him is morally corrupt. He finally befriends a dog, the most loyal of all animals, and then Nelly, a young woman who is being torn apart by her gangster suitor, Lucien, and her foster-father Zabel (played by L'Atalante's own Michel Simon).

        The whole film falls into unavoidable and quite grueling violence. It is so depressing that the French director Jean Renoir (of La Grande Illusion and Rules of the Game) accused it of being Fascist. Those who know the film know this quotation, and have pondered it for the longest time. It does make perfect sense however. Hope leaves quickly after it is seen, and it is hard to get rid of. It fascistically knocks you down. 10/10
        9Polaris_DiB

        Engaging, provoking theatre

        Interesting what a contrast this movie makes to Carne's "The Children of Paradise". The two are almost complete opposites where mise-en-scene is concerned, and yet more interesting is that they both show a filmmaker with a craft of form and expression that rises beyond most other filmmakers, including his contemporaries.

        "Port of Shadows" is about a French army deserter (Jean Gabin, wonderful as usual) who attempts to flee the nation in order to finally begin a life away from the bad luck that's always held him. He appears at a small port town, immediately falls in love, and sets off a chain of events that show an inherent fatalism with a sense of humor, tragedy, and substance.

        This movie has one of those scripts that's very appealing in the way that it sends characters wandering through the mists, and yet somehow everything comes together and ties up all loose ends by the end. Adding to it the moody, brooding cinematography filled with fog and smoke, and one can't help but immerse oneself gladly into a different world. Also, Carne adds a sense of theatricality and the Carnivalesque that even Fellini couldn't compare to.

        This is definitely a film that well deserves being called "a classic of French cinema." --PolarisDiB

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        Storyline

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        Did you know

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        • Trivia
          Some may notice that the Le Havre setting, while realistic, seems to have a slightly strange perspective. This is because the streets were constructed with a "false perspective" technique: the buildings were gradually scaled down in size the farther they go into the background; when shot with the proper camera lens, such a street will seem to stretch away from the camera up to four times longer than it actually does.
        • Goofs
          When Jean and Nelly have their picture taken, they are standing close together. After a brief cut to the photographer who instructs them not to move anymore, there is a clear gap between them.
        • Quotes

          Quart Vittel: What could be simpler than a tree?

          Le peintre: A tree. But when I paint one, it sets everyone on edge. It's because there's someone or something hidden behind that tree. I can't help painting what's hidden behind things. To me a swimmer is already a drowned man.

        • Connections
          Edited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: La monnaie de l'absolu (1999)

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        Production art
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        FAQ

        • How long is Port of Shadows?
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        Details

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        • Release date
          • September 12, 1938 (Sweden)
        • Country of origin
          • France
        • Language
          • French
        • Also known as
          • Port of Shadows
        • Filming locations
          • Le Havre, Seine-Maritime, France
        • Production company
          • Ciné-Alliance
        • See more company credits at IMDbPro

        Box office

        Edit
        • Gross US & Canada
          • $27,389
        • Opening weekend US & Canada
          • $6,618
          • Sep 16, 2012
        • Gross worldwide
          • $39,623
        See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

        Tech specs

        Edit
        • Runtime
          1 hour 31 minutes
        • Color
          • Black and White
        • Aspect ratio
          • 1.37 : 1

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