When people think of film noir, they usually associate it with 1940s and 1950s Hollywood. Yet, the origins of film noir are relatively easy to find in European cinema in earlier decades, such as German Expressionist cinema in the 1920s and French Poetic Realism in the 1930s. One of the most celebrated examples of the latter is Le Quai des brumes (“The Quay of Fog”), 1938 crime drama directed by Marcel Carné, better known in English-speaking countries under the title Port of Shadows, which also happened to be the very first film described as “film noir”.
The film is based on the eponymous 1927 novel by Pierre Mac Orlan. The plot begins on a foggy night on the road where the protagonist, a French Army deserter named Jean (played by Jean Gabin), hitches a ride that would take him to the port city of Le Havre, from where he hopes to leave the country and start a new life. Before that happens, he has more immediate concerns in obtaining accommodation, food, civilian clothes, and money. He ultimately finds it in a rundown inn at the edge of the city, owned by a kind-hearted eccentric who calls himself Panama (played by Edouard Delmont). The place is frequented by drunks, bohemians, or people who simply need some sort of escape, like a beautiful 17-year-old girl named Nelly (played by Michèle Morgan) with whom Jean falls hopelessly in love. Two of them start a passionate romance that appears to be doomed not only because Jean has found the ship that would take him to Venezuela, but also because Nelly has to deal with her manipulative and possessive godfather and guardian, Zabel (played by Michel Simon), and Lucien Le Gardier (played by Pierre Brasseur), a young small-time gangster who might have killed Nelly’s previous boyfriend.
Port of Shadows could illustrate the meaning of “poetic realism” with its visual style. The plot is set in a rather banal and bleak-looking industrial port city, which happens to be almost always shrouded in fog, thus creating a melancholic and fatalistic atmosphere. The effect is very much created through the work of the famed cinematographer Eugene Schüfttan. Apart from a few establishing shots made on location, Le Havre is almost entirely reconstructed in the studios, with streets, buildings, and port and background being depicted through optical tricks that contribute to the film’s slightly “warped” look. However, there isn’t anything particularly surreal or exotic in the characters. While the author of the original novel had the plot set in pre-WW1 Paris, famous poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert changed it to a contemporary French port and filled it with sometimes eccentric but very believable characters that a filmgoer could have imagined seeing on the street upon departure from the cinema.
The most believable of them all is Jean, played by Jean Gabin, who was at the time the greatest star of French cinema and one of the icons of world popular culture. Gabin again plays a character who is on the run and belongs to the margins of society, but nevertheless projects strength and charisma. Gabin, who had played a very similar character in La Bandera a few years earlier, handles the role of Jean with great ease. Although we never learn what made Jean desert, Gabin confidently projects a protagonist who is capable of both violence and strange kindness, and who, under the surface of world-weary cynicism, hides a hopeless and fatalistic romantic. Just like with so many film noir protagonists, his doom is going to be in the form of a woman. However, in this particular case, the woman is hardly a vampish femme fatale. Played by 18-year-old Michèle Morgan, a beauty who would a few years become one of the few French actresses to make something of a career in Hollywood, Nelly is portrayed as much more naive character, who, despite growing up in difficult circumstances, is prone to romantic self-delusions that would inadvertently start the chain of events resulting in violence. She has excellent chemistry with Gabin and their pairing is very effective. The rest of the cast is also very good, which includes Michel Simon as one of the most despicable characters of 1930s French cinema and Pierre Brasseur as a wannabe tough guy.
Prévert’s script for Port of Shadows is actually quite dark and depressive, and the film would have been unbearable without Carné’s sense of style or a likeable protagonist. The protagonist starts in all but completely desperate state, but the series of random encounters and happy coincidences seem to favour him – he finds kind-hearted helpers, evades capture, secures the path to a new life, and even gets the girl with whom he would share one brief moment of happiness. However, fate proves to be cruel and Jean, just like so many protagonists of film noir, makes a mistake at the last minute that would lead to a tragic end. Some film scholars have argued that Prévert’s romantic fatalism corresponded with the general mood of late 1930s France, a country exhausted with economic woes of the Great Depression, deep political divisions, and increasing concerns about the next round of world wars. Although immensely popular at the box office and winning the prestigious Prix Louis-Delluc, it was dismissed by both left-wing and right-wing critics and, in September 1939, following the start of the war, it was banned by the government. But its reputation survived through those turbulent times, partly because of the enormous effect it had on Hollywood. Extremely well-directed and well-acted, Port of Shadows deserved its status as a classic and can be recommended even to those viewers who aren’t particularly interested in cinema history.
RATING: 8/10 (+++)
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