Port of Shadows (1938)

 Marcel Carne's "Port of Shadows"

In the 1930s, France was experiencing a cinema renaissance, one that would later be matched and topped by the Nouvelle Vague movement of the 1960s. The poetic realism movement in the 1930s was a movement that used heightened realism to convey romantic or poetic visual meaning to the realistic images. Filmmakers like Jean Renoir, Rene Clair, and Jean Vigo were at the forefront of this movement. This movement would come to an end with the invasion of the Nazis in 1940. However, toward the end in the 1930s, there was one last explosion of artistic poetic realism that was unmatched. The film that many film scholars consider to be the shining example of poetic realism is Marcel Carne's "Port of Shadows." 

"Port of Shadows" stars Jean Gabin as a rough and tumble army deserter who reached the port city of La Havre. There, he meets and falls in love with a 17 year old who has run away from her godfather. Before they can run away together, they face various issues with her godfather and a gangster looking for trouble. In the end, tragedy strikes everyone's fate.

The most striking thing you'll notice when watching this film is the visual style. Firstly, the prominent 'shadows' from the film's title. In this port city of La Havre, streets, alleys, interiors, and everything else is filled to the brim with shadows and darkness. Mix that with the fog, hazy lights, rugged outlines, and lowdown settings creates a dreamlike quality to the film. This dream is not a happy one, however, but a dreary one. The tragic fatalism of all the characters mixed with these visual dreamlike qualities creates something boggish while at the same time ethereal. The visual style Carne instills in the film is a hazy, dreamy fog of despair.

These visual qualities are only only present to poetically realize the desolation and dreariness of its characters. Each character grapples with fatalistic despair, all somehow aware of their tragic fate that has yet to be revealed to them. Our protagonist has seen nothing but despair in wartime, the 17 year old Nelly is trying to get away from her oppressive and insidious godfather while he tries to grapple with perverse murderous obsession. The gangster Lucien just wants to be respected as a man, all the while Jean beats and humiliates him (for good reason). Each character can't seem to get away from the tragic reality of their nature and their circumstances. There is even an artist so filled with depression that he commits suicide. It's grim and bleak. All the while, our protagonist Jean clings to the romantic passion he feels for Nelly. This romantic passion is the only thing that provides meaning and emotion to an otherwise desolate, dreary life. However, this too comes to a horrible end. 

Above all, the film was a reflection of the French sentiment in 1938. War was coming. The Nazis were knocking on the door of chaos. The French knew that. In the air of the French landscape was despair and fear. "Port of Shadows" captured that despair and questioned whether they could escape such an inevitable fate. The ending of the films reads as 'no,' which only makes the sentiment all the more bleak. Our tragedies await us.

"Port of Shadows" in an otherworldly film. Carne's visual rendering of poetic realism creates visual palettes for each character. It creates a world that muses on the characters' strife and tragedy. It's a world of dreary suffocation that one can never escape from. The blackened corners of every frame and every location will stain the mind of the viewer. The philosophical gravity of each character will leave you reflective. The tragic tale of its desperate characters will leave you empty and cold.