Studio Canal have lovingly restored a key film in the history of French Cinema and Film Noir. Marcel Carné’s Port of Shadows (Le Quai des brumes) is a foggy vision of doomed romance and moral fatigue that captures the essence of pre-war disillusionment. Jean Gabin plays Jean, a French soldier turned deserter who encounters Michèle Morgan’s Nelly, a beautiful young woman trapped in an abusive domestic situation with her godfather. Together they plot an escape from the lives and selves they find themselves imprisoned within.
The film takes a beautifully subversive approach to masculinity. Jean is stoic, tough and more than capable of violence. But he carries with him wounds and a fragility that bespeaks so many later cinematic tough guys. He’s the brooding loner that would come to define so much of Hollywood cinema and noir in particular. Though built upon a bedrock of literary and even cinematic precedent, Gabin’s performance feels definitive.
Carné and screenwriter Jacques Prévert tell a story of yearning that is rendered especially heartbreaking in the context of the imminent war. These young people resent the older generations and their mistreatment but will suffer the fate of the roles in which they’ve been cast. Fleeing the army, Jean yearns for a life untainted by betrayal or corruption. His chemistry with Morgan is beautiful and exciting but the inescapable sense of fatalism underlines every interaction.
Visually, Carné and cinematographer Eugen Schüfftan fill the small Port town with shadows and fog, a mythological and psychological landscape in which Jean’s demons can manifest. This world is populated by a fascinating cast of misfits and gangsters; a melancholy troupe of the damned. It’s easy to see the film as a midpoint between German expressionism and American Noir.
Studio Canal have released a beautiful restoration comprising the best available elements of a film whose release was disrupted by censorship and re-editing. The image and sound quality restore the grandeur and mystery to forgotten classic. The disc also includes an alternate credit sequence, the pedigree of which speaks to the film’s fragile history.
Extra features include an introduction by Ginette Vincendeau, professor of film studies at King’s College London, which offers helpful context, specifically mentioning the film’s legacy, cast and crew, and expressionist influence. She describes the challenges the film faced in getting made and its eventual success. It’s a helpful introduction that lays the groundwork for enjoying the film without spoiling the experience.
The release includes two insightful documentaries. The Poetry of Misfortune documentary features French journalists and academics in cinema and film music exploring the film’s production, style and legacy with a particular focus on cinematography, positioning Schüfftan as auteur. They contextualise the film within the poetic realism movement and within a singular moment of anticipation in French history on the eve of the second world war. The documentary is stylistically straightforward, utilising film clips to illustrate some points whilst consisting mainly of the interview subjects discussing the film.
More glossy, conventional but perhaps accessible is On the Dock. This documentary utilises more clips and visual material to explore a more traditional view of Carne as auteur and a more factual account of the film’s production.
Studio Canal have released a stunning edition of Port of Shadows. The film’s depiction of masculinity on the verge of collapse in an immortal Noir-style is a thrilling addition to French film cannon and an essential addition to any collectors home archive.
Port of Shadows is available now on DVD and Bluray. Order here.