French Poetic Realism

In French cinema of the thirties there is always fog on the docks, a man arriving from nowhere, a woman who might save him and a fate already written. The studios rebuilt entire districts as sets, the dialogue writers cut lines the public learned by heart, and Jean Gabin embodied the worker or the deserter whom society catches up with. Renoir drew from Zola's novel an engine driver mad with jealousy, Duvivier shut a gangster inside the Casbah of Algiers. The war interrupted this vein.

works 5

• CinemaPépé le MokoJulien Duvivier · 1937A wanted thief is safe only as long as he does not leave the old quarter of Algiers.Cinema
• CinemaLa Bête humaineJean Renoir · 1938A mechanic haunted by an inherited violence falls in love with the wife of a murderer.Cinema
• CinemaPort of ShadowsLe Quai des brumesMarcel Carné · 1938A deserter stranded in Le Havre meets a young girl on the run, in the mist of the docks.Cinema
• CinemaThe Last TurningLe Dernier TournantPierre Chenal · 1939A vagrant and a garage owner's young wife plan together to kill the husband.Cinema
• CinemaRemorquesJean Grémillon · 1941The captain of a tugboat divides himself between the sea, a sick wife and a new passion.Cinema