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Port of Shadows
Directed by	Marcel Carné
Produced by	Gregor Rabinovitch
Written by	Jacques Prévert
Starring	Jean Gabin Michel Simon Michèle Morgan Pierre Brasseur
Release date(s)	May 18, 1938
Running time	91 min
Language	French
IMDb profile

Port of Shadows (French: Le quai des brumes) is a 1938 French film directed by Marcel Carné. It stars Jean Gabin, Michel Simon and Michèle Morgan. The screenplay was written by Jacques Prévert based on a novel by Pierre Mac Orlan. It is a notable example of the poetic realism genre.

Jean, a deserter from the French army arrives in the port of Le Havre where, by chance, he is offered a change of identity and the opportunity to sail to the safety of South America. He is reluctant to leave, however, because he has met and fallen in love with a young woman, Nelly. Jean's fortunes take a turn for the worse when he makes a stand to protect Nelly from her guardian, Zabel, and a former admirer, both of whom are ruthless crooks.

Maurice Jaubert's moody opening theme transports the viewer into a world of mists and shadows. There are a few attempts at light relief - the charismatic little white dog which is contantly at Gabin's heels, the depressive artist who sees death in everything he paints ("La nature morte!" comments another character in response), the uplifting music of the fairground scene. However, the sense throughout is one of overwhelming doom and unavoidable tragedy, capturing the mood of pre-war France quite well. One can almost see the writer and director each holding a cut-throat razor to his throat as they worked on the film.

Although a very gloomy film, its stars, Jean Gabin, Michèle Morgan and Michel Simon (now all revered as legends of French cinema) affect the background to the film. Gabin is at his most enigmatic and engaging as the taciturn ex-soldier looking for a better life and not expecting to find it. Morgan shows her worth in the last minutes of the scene when she realises that her love is going to be lost, one way or another. And Michel Simon's supremely villainous Zabel is sophisticated but undoubtedly evil.

• Jean Gabin as Jean
• Michel Simon as Zabel
• Michèle Morgan as Nelly
• Pierre Brasseur as Lucien
• Édouard Delmont as Panama
• Raymond Aimos as Quart Vittel
• Robert Le Vigan as Le peintre
• René Génin as Le docteur
• Marcel Pérès as Le chauffeur
• Jenny Burnay as L'amie de Lucien
• Roger Legris as Le garçon d'hôtel
• Martial Rèbe as Le client

• Port of Shadows at the Internet Movie Database
• Criterion Collection essay by Luc Sante

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