Restored

Le Quai des brumes

Port of Shadows

Jean Gabin leads this lyrical archetype of French poetic realism, composed with a black and grey palette, a haunting score, and quietly classy costumes designed by Chanel.

  • Director

    Marcel Carné

  • With

    Jean Gabin, Michèle Morgan, Michel Simon, Pierre Brasseur

  • France 1938. 92min

  • Digital 4K (restoration)

  • Certificate

    PG

  • English subtitles

A deserter from the French colonial army, trying to reach an impossible elsewhere, arrives in the port city of Le Havre, which is concealed by an ever-present fog. While hiding, he falls for a melancholy girl trapped in a world of petty gangsters and disquieting guardians. Written by Jacques Prévert – his first collaboration with Carné – Le Quai des brumes is a definitive example of poetic realism, and was banned as immoral and demoralising as France entered the war.

Contains scenes of graphic violence and themes of domestic violence or abuse. Contains themes of suicide.

Restored by StudioCanal and the Cinémathèque française with the support of the Centre national du Cinéma et de l’image animée – CNC and CHANEL. The sound and picture restoration work was carried out by the laboratory Transperfect and supervised by StudioCanal’s Sophie Boyer and Jean-Pierre Boiget.