Port of Shadows - Criterion Collection
by Marcel Carn?
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: ?douard Delmont, Jean Gabin, Mich?le Morgan, Michel Simon, Pierre BrasseurDirector: Marcel Carn?
Brand: GABIN,JEAN
Cinematographer: Eugen Sch?fftan
Editor: Ren? Le H?naff
Producer: Gregor Rabinovitch
Writer: Jacques Pr?vert
Writer: Pierre Dumarchais
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono; English (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Special Edition, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 91 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2004-07-20
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Port of Shadows - Criterion Collection
Movie Review: much superior to Children of Paradise
Summary: 4 Stars
Marcel Carne is well known for directing Children of Paradise, a quaint but inoffensive film that's actually quite mediocre. Quai des Brumes (Port of Shadows) is a little long-winded at times, perhaps too poetic, but it so effectively captures the pessimistic mood of pre-war France. And it's always great to watch Gabin in a good role, slapping around some malcontent while scoring with the female lead. He is superb. I've read some reviewers criticize the role of the drunk (can't remember his name now), and yes, it is a bit over the top, but this is nitpicking. Quai des Brumes with all its flaws is still well worth seeing, even more than once.
Summary of Port of Shadows - Criterion Collection
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 Mich?le 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 Carn? and writer Jacques Pr?vert deliver a quintessential example of poetic realism, one of the classics of the golden age of French cinema.On a foggy highway, a lonely soldier hitches a ride and ends up in a lonely bar on the outskirts of town, where lost souls gather for a melancholy repast. The soldier is Jean (Jean Gabin), a deserter on the run whose flight is interrupted when he meets sad runaway Nelly (Michele Morgan) and falls in love. He becomes entwined in the troubles of her life, notably the lascivious guardian (Michel Simon) who lusts after Nelly and attempts to blackmail Jean, and a cocky, hot-headed gangster (Pierre Brasseur) who tries to scare Jean off, only to be humiliated in front his men and the town. It's not hard to see where this spiral of threats and confrontations is leading (the title, after all, translates to "Port of Shadows," as ominous a title as any American film noir, especially in a small town where everyone's lives become tightly wound together. Director Marcel Carn? and writer Jacques Pr?vert (who went on to collaborate on the French masterpiece Children of Paradise) infuse the film with a sense of dignity and quiet poetry. At night the port town is like a world in the clouds, cut off from the rest of the world, where all the sordid yearnings and desperate plans of the ambitious players take on a mythic resonance. It's only by light of day that everything returns to its shabby place. A classic of French poetic realism. --Sean Axmaker
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