Not a cheerful evening's viewing, this, but a superb and compelling example of melancholic realism.
Comment
05/02/07
Le Quai Des Brumes (1938)
90
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:10
Fresh:9
Rotten:1
Average Rating:7.9/10
Runtime: 90 mins
Genre: Foreign Films
Synopsis: Based on the novel by Pierre Mac Orlan, Marcel Carne's PORT OF SHADOWS is a defining film in the genre of poetic realism. In the tragic story of doomed love, a fugitive and a malevolent trustee's... [More]
Starring: Jean Gabin, Michele Morgan, Michel Simon, Pierre Brasseur
Director: Marcel Carne
Reviews for Le Quai Des Brumes
1 - 10 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Top CriticShot almost entirely on its main studio set, a waterfront bar, the visuals have the same downbeat poetry as Jacques Prévert's dialogue.
02/09/06
Top CriticThis isn't always cheerful viewing but the startling photography, moody performances and Prévert's poetic script all contribute to its quiet but long-lasting influence.
07/29/03
Top CriticThis marvelous distillation of the prevailing mood in prewar France was the first feature to win critical acclaim for the directing-writing team of Marcel Carne and Jacques Prevert.
01/09/08
Top CriticIt's a thorough-going study in blacks and grays, without a free laugh in it; but it is also a remarkably beautiful motion picture from the purely pictorial standpoint and a strangely haunting drama.
01/28/06
Top CriticOne of the reasons the French so readily accepted the American film noir of the 1940s is because they already had it in the 1930s, and this crime drama is proof of that.
12/31/05
No review available.
11/24/04
Despite the hospitality of any character in the film, Port of Shadows is a clinical tragedy, and its characters are sentenced to suffer the instant they enter the film.
08/03/04
A pleasure to watch, and there’s much to recommend it. But, like that other poetic realist stalwart Pépé le Moko, what's best about it is its atmosphere of romance.
07/25/04
The first and probably least of the collaborations between screenwriter Jacques Prevert and director Marcel Carne.
01/01/00
1 - 10 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
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