霧蒙蒙的濱海小鎮(zhèn).海邊的巴拿馬酒吧.陰雨潮濕潮濕的石子街道.小街上并肩行走的讓和奈莉.藏在暗處的殺手，一切看起來充滿了詩意而又充斥著危機(jī)，《霧碼頭》作為一部典型的讓加本神話電影將法國(guó)黑暗現(xiàn)實(shí)主義的絕望感展現(xiàn)的淋漓盡致，其中的霧與岸的含義十分令人著迷，從中可以窺視出法國(guó)當(dāng)時(shí)的社會(huì)情緒。電影中的讓就如同一艘在黑暗中航行的小船，無法在光明中露面，只能在黑暗中摸索，岸是他苦苦追尋的彼岸，而霧則是他航行中的重重阻礙。霧放在讓的個(gè)人身上可以認(rèn)為是他對(duì)戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)的厭惡及對(duì)未來的絕望，而煙霧繚繞如同孤島一樣的小鎮(zhèn)可以視作整個(gè)法國(guó)的縮影，霧是整個(gè)法國(guó)迷茫的象征，經(jīng)過了口號(hào)喊的震天響卻一無是處的左派政府，又引來了保守的右派政府，一戰(zhàn)留下的傷痕沒有愈合反而越拉越大，小鎮(zhèn)中環(huán)繞的霧氣令人無法尋求離開這里的道路而體現(xiàn)的一種無法逃離之感，整個(gè)法國(guó)也是這樣，無法尋找到自己的國(guó)家道路，跌跌撞撞止步不前，這也是法國(guó)在二戰(zhàn)中失利的最主要的原因。海邊的巴拿馬酒吧是小鎮(zhèn)中唯一不受霧氣侵?jǐn)_的地方，是如同讓一樣的人的避風(fēng)港和指明燈，酒吧中的畫家就是如同導(dǎo)演一樣的法國(guó)知識(shí)分子對(duì)于當(dāng)下社會(huì)悲觀心理的寫照，他把自己衣服和畫夾留給讓就是導(dǎo)演希望啟蒙法國(guó)民眾希望他們將自己的思想延續(xù)下去。電影中，讓想要前往委內(nèi)瑞拉，這是屬于他的彼岸，他想要擺脫過去的自己在新大陸上開啟新的生活，這代表著當(dāng)時(shí)的法國(guó)希望擺脫一戰(zhàn)的陰影尋求新的發(fā)展，岸于此是希望的象征，這也是自法國(guó)樂觀現(xiàn)實(shí)主義流傳下來的對(duì)于希望的追求，雖然對(duì)于社會(huì)導(dǎo)演最后以讓的死亡表現(xiàn)了他的悲觀宿命傾向，但是仍然以讓的形象來提醒法國(guó)民眾不要忘卻了對(duì)于希望的探索，這也可以認(rèn)為是對(duì)宿命論小小的反抗以及不甘，最后讓留在船上的畫夾代表著追求希望的精神，會(huì)隨著輪船代代相傳?！笆澜缟现挥幸环N英雄主義，那就是在認(rèn)清生活的真相后，仍然熱愛生活”這是法國(guó)作家羅曼羅蘭的名言，讓就是這樣的一個(gè)人物，即使明知前方黑暗無盡，但仍然不停止尋找希望的腳步，即使明知前方是死亡也不停止。就如同一艘夜航船，于黑暗中探尋著光明。

霧蒙蒙的濱海小鎮(zhèn).海邊的巴拿馬酒吧.陰雨潮濕潮濕的石子街道.小街上并肩行走的讓和奈莉.藏在暗處的殺手，一切看起來充滿了詩意而又充斥著危機(jī)，《霧碼頭》作為一部典型的讓加本神話電影將法國(guó)黑暗現(xiàn)實(shí)主義的絕望感展現(xiàn)的淋漓盡致，其中的霧與岸的含義十分令人著迷，從中可以窺視出法國(guó)當(dāng)時(shí)的社會(huì)情緒。

電影中的讓就如同一艘在黑暗中航行的小船，無法在光明中露面，只能在黑暗中摸索，岸是他苦苦追尋的彼岸，而霧則是他航行中的重重阻礙。霧放在讓的個(gè)人身上可以認(rèn)為是他對(duì)戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)的厭惡及對(duì)未來的絕望，而煙霧繚繞如同孤島一樣的小鎮(zhèn)可以視作整個(gè)法國(guó)的縮影，霧是整個(gè)法國(guó)迷茫的象征，經(jīng)過了口號(hào)喊的震天響卻一無是處的左派政府，又引來了保守的右派政府，一戰(zhàn)留下的傷痕沒有愈合反而越拉越大，小鎮(zhèn)中環(huán)繞的霧氣令人無法尋求離開這里的道路而體現(xiàn)的一種無法逃離之感，整個(gè)法國(guó)也是這樣，無法尋找到自己的國(guó)家道路，跌跌撞撞止步不前，這也是法國(guó)在二戰(zhàn)中失利的最主要的原因。海邊的巴拿馬酒吧是小鎮(zhèn)中唯一不受霧氣侵?jǐn)_的地方，是如同讓一樣的人的避風(fēng)港和指明燈，酒吧中的畫家就是如同導(dǎo)演一樣的法國(guó)知識(shí)分子對(duì)于當(dāng)下社會(huì)悲觀心理的寫照，他把自己衣服和畫夾留給讓就是導(dǎo)演希望啟蒙法國(guó)民眾希望他們將自己的思想延續(xù)下去。電影中，讓想要前往委內(nèi)瑞拉，這是屬于他的彼岸，他想要擺脫過去的自己在新大陸上開啟新的生活，這代表著當(dāng)時(shí)的法國(guó)希望擺脫一戰(zhàn)的陰影尋求新的發(fā)展，岸于此是希望的象征，這也是自法國(guó)樂觀現(xiàn)實(shí)主義流傳下來的對(duì)于希望的追求，雖然對(duì)于社會(huì)導(dǎo)演最后以讓的死亡表現(xiàn)了他的悲觀宿命傾向，但是仍然以讓的形象來提醒法國(guó)民眾不要忘卻了對(duì)于希望的探索，這也可以認(rèn)為是對(duì)宿命論小小的反抗以及不甘，最后讓留在船上的畫夾代表著追求希望的精神，會(huì)隨著輪船代代相傳。

“世界上只有一種英雄主義，那就是在認(rèn)清生活的真相后，仍然熱愛生活”這是法國(guó)作家羅曼羅蘭的名言，讓就是這樣的一個(gè)人物，即使明知前方黑暗無盡，但仍然不停止尋找希望的腳步，即使明知前方是死亡也不停止。就如同一艘夜航船，于黑暗中探尋著光明。

Marcel Carné is a standard bearer of “poetic realism” in the French cinema of the 1930s, notably also for his collaboration with surrealist poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert. Here are two sterling specimens, both starring Jean Gabin and espousing Carné’s uniquely atmospheric and fatalistic aesthetic, which foreshadows the advert of film-noir in Hollywood in the 1940s, although it doesn’t chime in with the esprit de corps of the WWII epoch.

The titular port in PORT OF SHADOW is Le Havre, Jean (Gabin) is an army deserter, hitch-hiking to the port in hopes of hopping on a ship to a new land to start anew, preferably with a new identity. Everything goes incredulously frictionless - a world-weary painter (Le Vegan) conveniently leaves his identification card before voluntarily shuffling off this mortal coil, and an unwitting doctor (Génin) is more than willing to take him on board, but the catch is always the one his heart desires. Jean falls in love with a 17-year-old Nelly (Morgan), who is a typical damsel-in-distress with irresistible charm to spare.

Although the script makes a heavy weather to suggest that Jean will eventually leave Nelly in situ with her jealousy-stricken godfather Zabel (Simon, memorably baring his lecherous teeth only after giving an impression as a clodhopping goody two shoes), and she is all too considerate not to be a pitiful bother, yet instinctively, audience can sense that will not happen. Zabel is a homicidal brute, even more so than the equally murderous gangster Lucien (Brasseur, a despicable snake in the grass who can also genuinely convey the glint of tremor in the next reaction shot), whom Jean repeatedly humiliates in front of the latter’s sidekicks, “saving the girl then die gloriously” is a foregone conclusion when he rushes off the ship, compelled by the desire to see Nelly before his departure.

The tragedy continues in DAYBREAK, here Gabin plays an ordinary foundry worker Fran?ois, and the film commences in medias res, audience sees a man is gunned down by Fran?ois, who then locks himself inside his pokey apartment, resists the intrusion from the inept police force and reminisces the causality leads to the killing.

It is another eternal triangle, Fran?ois is besotted with Fran?oise (Laurent), a florist’s assistant, who inexplicably falls under the spell of a much older dog trainer Lucien (Berry), whom eventually Jean kills on the spur of the moment. Naturally, it only makes Fran?oise look like an imbecile, a stock object of desire for the sterner sex. The film doesn’t specify what she sees in Lucien, whose odiousness almost overflows out of the screen owing to Berry’s over-the-top ostentation of a self-destructive, pontificating, cowardly weasel, a humdinger of a dastardly villain. Again, like in PORT OF SHADOWS, the fateful encounter with a young-and-beautiful girl becomes a man’s undoing and that’s it, while the one-sided devotion from Clara (Arletty), Lucien’s discontent former assistant, to Fran?ois is affixed only to balance out Fran?oise’s romantic dangling. It seems only fair both Fran?ois and Fran?oise are recipients of unrequited love to make them worthy of each other, doesn’t it?

Unfolding the story from three flashback, DAYBREAK manifests great facility of superimposed dissolves, and when Fran?ois is contained in his gar?onnière, Carné knows exactly how to move the camera on a dime and let despair gradually throttle Fran?ois until he finally capitulates, the seething anguish reaches the climax in Gabin’s impassioned outcry toward the rubberneckers on the square beneath, and the ominous daybreak sounds a death knell to a besieged Fran?ois. A tear gas is thrown into the room after the sound of a gunshot, then the alarm clock rings, DAYBREAK strikes home with the piercing irony of a nihilistic dread.

As the leading man, Gabin asserts himself impressively as a flinty proletarian hero, bristling with coolness, virility and emotional weight whenever the script demands him to emote. For his love interest, in PORT OF SHADOWS, Morgan is born to be adored and gazed upon on the silver screen, her pulchritude is simply beyond words in those soft-focus close-ups; whereas in DAYBREAK, Laurent looks too prim and proper to be equipped with a wandering heart, so it’s up to Arletty to extract enough heart and soul into Clara’s expression of the struggle between independence and codependence, she cannot win Fran?ois’s heart, but prompts audience to ponder about why? It also betrays human’s ingrown bias of agism and virginity obsession.

It is invigorating to report that, viewed today, both films still possess their indelible allures, namely, the haunting, fog-wreathed mise en scène in PORT OF SHADOWS, with its star-crossed lovers’s heartbreaking romance, and DAYBREAK’s epic invasion of dysphoria, its narratological intrigue, all lead to the supernal pathos of witnessing a decent man driven to his ruination by the vagaries of destiny. Carné’s “poetic realism” - poetic tragedy plus moody realism - is a significant cinematic achievement whose elegance and Weltschmerz might be an unexpected antidote to a world overrun by cynics and sensationalists.

referential entries: Julien Duvivier’s PéPé LE MOKO (1937, 7.9/10); Jean Renoir’s BOUDU SAVED FROM DROWNING (1932, 7.7/10); Jean Vigo’s L’ATALANTE (1934, 8.4/10).

English Title: Port of Shadows

Original Title: Le quai des brumes

Year: 1938

Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance

Country: France

Language: French

Director: Marcel Carné

Screenwriter: Jacques Prévert

Based on the novel by Pierre Mac Orlan

Music: Maurice Jaubert

Cinematography: Eugen Schüfftan

Editor: René Le Hénaff

Cast:

Jean Gabin

Michèle Morgan

Michel Simon

Pierre Brasseur

édouard Delmont

Raymond Aimos

Robert Le Vigan

René Génin

Marcel Pérès

Roger Legris

Jenny Burnay

Rating: 8.0/10

English Title: Daybreak

Original Title: Le jour se lève

Year: 1939

Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance

Country: France

Language: French

Director: Marcel Carné

Screenwriters: Jacques Viot, Jacques Prévert

Music: Maurice Jaubert

Cinematography: Philippe Agostini, André Bac, Albert Viguier

Editor: René Le Hénaff

Cast:

Jean Gabin

Jules Berry

Arletty

Jacqueline Laurent

Bernard Blier

Arthur Devère

René Génin

Georges Douking

Rating: 7.6/10