Le Port du désir
1955 Crime / Drama / Thriller / Romance
Credits
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Summary
Captain Le Quévic intends to raise a sunken ship at the entrance
to the port of Marseilles, not knowing that it contains the body of a
murdered woman. The ship’s owner, a local gangster named Black,
plans to sabotage the operation, since it was he who killed the woman
to prevent her from revealing his crooked activities. To that
end, he bribes Le Quévic’s young diver, Michel, to blow up the
wreck. When he discovers the truth, Michel decides to flee with
the dead woman’s sister, Martine, with whom he has fallen in
love. Angered by this betrayal, Black captures Martine, with the
intention of coercing Michel into carrying out his orders...
Review
Le Port du désir is a
film which was clearly influenced by contemporary American film noir
and has much in common with another worthy example of French film noir,
Du rififi chez les hommes
(directed by Jules Dassin), which was released the same year.
What is striking about both of these two films, and what sets them
apart from the vast majority of noir-influenced French crime-thrillers
of this period, is the palpable sense of realism that is achieved
through the use of natural locations, depictions of "no holds barred"
violence and an almost neo-realist style of cinematography.Unlike Dassin’s film, which is universally acknowledged as a classic film noir thriller, Le Port du désir is a somewhat overlooked work which does merit wider appreciation. It was directed by Edmond T. Gréville, who made several memorable films in France and one or two in Hollywood, notably Princess Tam Tam (1935) (starring Josephine Baker) and Brief Ecstasy (1937). An underrated auteur and brilliant technician who was often ahead of his time, Gréville achieved a very distinctive style in his films that appears to have been greatly influenced by America cinema. The moody use of chiaroscuro and ambitious fluid camerawork that we find in his films certainly invites a comparison with the classier American film noir thrillers. There are even some touches of Hitchcockian suspense, such as the sequence in Le Port du désir where the principal baddy’s henchman attempts to shoot "the dancer who knew to much" through a moving train. The most well-known actor in this film is of course Jean Gabin, although at the time he was at an early stage in his remarkable return to stardom after several years in comparative obscurity. When the film was released, its real star was Henri Vidal, a charismatic and very popular young actor who would die a few years later, at the age of 40, from a heart attack. This is more Vidal’s film than Gabin’s, the latter’s contribution being pretty well reduced to that of a supporting character. The main strength of Le Port du désir is the quality of its cinematography, in particular its stunningly shot underwater sequences. The latter were filmed with support from Louis Malle who, a short while after, would work with Jacques-Yves Cousteau on the ground-breaking underwater documentary Le Monde du silence (1956), before embarking on a hugely successful and highly influential filmmaking career of his own. © James Travers 2008 Write a review for this film... User Comments
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