Jean is a man of a few words, but his demeanor and his clothing talk loud enough about his condition, he's dressed as a soldier and aimlessly wonders somewhere out of the city, he's at the edge of the world and at the edge of himself. Although the word is never uttered in the film, but the innuendo are obvious, he's a deserter. He's not too proud of himself, some circumstances might have pushed him: malcontent disillusion, some existential sickness, but the movie doesn't give him excuses or alibis, his desertion isn't the end of the journey, but the starting point
or is it?
Jean doesn't say much but doesn't refuse the cigarette a truck driver amiably offers, and with the cigarette butt stuck to the corner of his mouth, he utters brief and laconic responses, "not a talkative fellow" comments a driver who expected to break the serene monotony of his own routine. But if Jean isn't stingy on words, he knows how to act without asking for permission, he suddenly grabs the wheel and deviates the truck from the road, to spare a puppy dog from being crushed to death. How ironic that this seemingly careless man displays his first signs of interest for this frail little animal, there's still a heart beating behind that tough facade, and one's strength can be measured through his reaction in life-and-death situations, eventually, when the grateful puppy follows him, he coldly dismisses it.
There is something in Jean Gabin that is inexplicably appealing, he's a man who exudes confidence and charisma even in situations of seemingly weaknesses or immobility, he never really acts and is rather static in many of his films, but it's not in quantity, he can take as many provocations as possible but one word too many against a woman he happens to life and you get the backhanded slap à la Bogart. Gabin is perhaps the first Bogart-figure before Bogart, a guy who acts and reacts but doesn't talk much. When it comes to talk, it's all in the characters gravitating around him that his films can inject their philosophy, about life, looks, love, everything. Jean is too stubborn, too earthly to think of the meaning of his life, he just wants to get the hell out of her, in the Port of Havres, some talk the talk, he walks the walk.
But this is not any Port, it's a Port of shadow and foggy atmosphere, there's no clear visibility whatsoever in the future or the past, it's all in the present, a present incarnated by many shades of black, white and gray, or a present incarnated by the beautiful Nelly, played by Michèle Morgan. She's obviously not a lady of the world, she's young and looks sweet but she must have a past, too. And she does, she also flees a nasty godfather infatuated with her, played by Michel Simon, the most recognizable face of French cinema, with his ugly mug, he could be a sensitive teddy-bear or a cynical villain, he resents his ugliness but "better this face than no face at all", and the place Jean lands on is populated of these gray areas fellows, one of them is a small time crook, Lucien played by Pierre Brasseur, looking for Nelly's boyfriend one of his guys who disappeared.
This little world evolves around the Port of Shadows and it's such a small one we expect the inevitable collisions, and not a happy ending, this is a film takes such a somber departure and there are not enough pixels to carry a rainbow. The film has been called somber by the New York Times, and guess how the word translates n French: noir, this film is perhaps one of the first and finest examples of pre-noir film, the kind of movies where you know as certitude that this port of shadow is a nasty place can be both an end or a start, some ships sail to Venezuela, and some gangster matters are handled in the port like in such films as "On the Waterfront". Meanwhile, Jean spends a nice evening with Nelly, they go to a café, to the carnival, and this is where they have the most famous exchange of French cinema, where Gabin, staring at Morgan tells her "you've got pretty eyes, you know". Her answer is as sweet as it is perfect, she asks for a kiss.
This is the brief and enchanted parenthesis before the plot moves to its tragic destination, and I guess the film is so sad and dark, that it's no wonder the most remembered line was a happy one, that was Jean life's highest spot, before Karma could come back at him, and make him victim of his principles. Some 'heroes' just can't win, because they're doomed, because the ugliness of the world is just too great to sustain or because there is more poetry in losing and dying than just hiding somewhere like a rat, he couldn't go full deserter, he had to redeem that ugliness never explicated, that's the poetry. It is indeed funny that we refer to poetic justice for deadly events, but this is a poetry that forged the realism poetic genre in France and contributed to some of its great classics, directed by Marcel Carné and written, of all the authors, by poet Prévert.
Jean Gabin would shoot Marcel Carné's "Daybreak" before war broke and end the first part of his career but Marcel Carné was still in a terrific streak that started with "Drole de Drame" and ended with "Children of Paradise" contributing to some of the greatest and most celebrated French films, "Port of Shadows" is one of the most emblematic, if not the most, it certainly has the most iconic kiss.
Jean doesn't say much but doesn't refuse the cigarette a truck driver amiably offers, and with the cigarette butt stuck to the corner of his mouth, he utters brief and laconic responses, "not a talkative fellow" comments a driver who expected to break the serene monotony of his own routine. But if Jean isn't stingy on words, he knows how to act without asking for permission, he suddenly grabs the wheel and deviates the truck from the road, to spare a puppy dog from being crushed to death. How ironic that this seemingly careless man displays his first signs of interest for this frail little animal, there's still a heart beating behind that tough facade, and one's strength can be measured through his reaction in life-and-death situations, eventually, when the grateful puppy follows him, he coldly dismisses it.
There is something in Jean Gabin that is inexplicably appealing, he's a man who exudes confidence and charisma even in situations of seemingly weaknesses or immobility, he never really acts and is rather static in many of his films, but it's not in quantity, he can take as many provocations as possible but one word too many against a woman he happens to life and you get the backhanded slap à la Bogart. Gabin is perhaps the first Bogart-figure before Bogart, a guy who acts and reacts but doesn't talk much. When it comes to talk, it's all in the characters gravitating around him that his films can inject their philosophy, about life, looks, love, everything. Jean is too stubborn, too earthly to think of the meaning of his life, he just wants to get the hell out of her, in the Port of Havres, some talk the talk, he walks the walk.
But this is not any Port, it's a Port of shadow and foggy atmosphere, there's no clear visibility whatsoever in the future or the past, it's all in the present, a present incarnated by many shades of black, white and gray, or a present incarnated by the beautiful Nelly, played by Michèle Morgan. She's obviously not a lady of the world, she's young and looks sweet but she must have a past, too. And she does, she also flees a nasty godfather infatuated with her, played by Michel Simon, the most recognizable face of French cinema, with his ugly mug, he could be a sensitive teddy-bear or a cynical villain, he resents his ugliness but "better this face than no face at all", and the place Jean lands on is populated of these gray areas fellows, one of them is a small time crook, Lucien played by Pierre Brasseur, looking for Nelly's boyfriend one of his guys who disappeared.
This little world evolves around the Port of Shadows and it's such a small one we expect the inevitable collisions, and not a happy ending, this is a film takes such a somber departure and there are not enough pixels to carry a rainbow. The film has been called somber by the New York Times, and guess how the word translates n French: noir, this film is perhaps one of the first and finest examples of pre-noir film, the kind of movies where you know as certitude that this port of shadow is a nasty place can be both an end or a start, some ships sail to Venezuela, and some gangster matters are handled in the port like in such films as "On the Waterfront". Meanwhile, Jean spends a nice evening with Nelly, they go to a café, to the carnival, and this is where they have the most famous exchange of French cinema, where Gabin, staring at Morgan tells her "you've got pretty eyes, you know". Her answer is as sweet as it is perfect, she asks for a kiss.
This is the brief and enchanted parenthesis before the plot moves to its tragic destination, and I guess the film is so sad and dark, that it's no wonder the most remembered line was a happy one, that was Jean life's highest spot, before Karma could come back at him, and make him victim of his principles. Some 'heroes' just can't win, because they're doomed, because the ugliness of the world is just too great to sustain or because there is more poetry in losing and dying than just hiding somewhere like a rat, he couldn't go full deserter, he had to redeem that ugliness never explicated, that's the poetry. It is indeed funny that we refer to poetic justice for deadly events, but this is a poetry that forged the realism poetic genre in France and contributed to some of its great classics, directed by Marcel Carné and written, of all the authors, by poet Prévert.
Jean Gabin would shoot Marcel Carné's "Daybreak" before war broke and end the first part of his career but Marcel Carné was still in a terrific streak that started with "Drole de Drame" and ended with "Children of Paradise" contributing to some of the greatest and most celebrated French films, "Port of Shadows" is one of the most emblematic, if not the most, it certainly has the most iconic kiss.