Romance,Crime,Drama
France
Port of Shadows (French title, Le Quai des Brumes) is a 1938 French film directed by Marcel Carné, and written by Jacques Prévert. The film stars Jean Gabin as Jean, a former French soldier who has deserted from the army and is on the run from the military police. He arrives in the port city of Le Havre, hoping to find a way to escape to Venezuela.
As he tries to find passage on a ship, Jean meets a young woman named Nelly (Michèle Morgan), who lives with her guardian, an ex-sailor named Zabel (Michel Simon). Nelly is unhappy in her current situation and longs to escape to Paris to become a singer. Despite their initial reservations about each other, Jean and Nelly find themselves drawn to each other and slowly fall in love.
However, their relationship is threatened by several bad characters who are also lurking in the port city, including a gangster named Lucien (Pierre Brasseur), who wants to steal Nelly away from Jean, and a corrupt policeman named Slimane (Charles Vanel), who is on the hunt for Jean.
The film explores themes of love, loss, and existentialism, as well as the desperation and hopelessness of the time period just before World War II. The bleak and moody cinematography, combined with the powerful performances of the actors, make Port of Shadows a seminal work of French cinema.
