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Watch this video and more on The Criterion Channel

French Poetic Realism

Spotlight on French Poetic Realism

19m

Up Next in Season 1

  • The Crime of Monsieur Lange

    Directed by Jean Renoir • 1936 • France
    Starring René Lefèvre, Florelle, Jules Berry

    An oft-overlooked jewel from Jean Renoir, this exuberant ode to working-class solidarity is both one of the director’s most thoroughly charming works as well as one of his most sly political statements. Channeli...

  • Port of Shadows

    Directed by Marcel Carné • 1938 • France
    Starring Jean Gabin, Michèle Morgan, Michel Simon

    Down a foggy, desolate road to the port city of Le Havre travels Jean (Jean Gabin), an army deserter looking for another chance to make good on life. Fate, however, has a different plan for him, as acts of...

  • Le jour se lève

    Directed by Marcel Carné • 1939 • France
    Starring Jean Gabin, Jules Berry, Arletty

    One of the defining works of 1930s poetic-realist cinema, the fourth collaboration between director Marcel Carné and screenwriter and poet Jacques Prévert is a gripping story of obsessive sexuality and murder star...