Le Quai des Brumes exists in a world of myth and premonition. The story of Jean (Jean Gabin), an army deserter, who finds a coterie of lost, distressed people in a Le Havre, dockside bar; and Michele Morgan, beautiful and so young, in her transparent raincoat. Poetic realist Jacques Prevert allows no relief from the view of life as brief moment of passion set in a fog of misery.
In WWII, Vichy said that the war was lost because of Le Quai des Brumes. Director Carne, said you don't blame the barometer for the weather. But even though the the occupation was two years away, the film's shattered, weary fatalism seems to anticipate the impotent shame of the war.
A powerful film, with another great performance by Jean Gabin, a wonderful script and a gloomy pre-noir look, Le Quai des Brumes is a haunting, depressing experience.
Strangely, costumes were by Coco Chanel!