Directed by Marcel Carné • 1946 • France
Starring Yves Montand, Pierre Brasseur, Serge Reggiani
The last of the celebrated collaborations between director Marcel Carné and screenwriter Jacques Prévert (CHILDREN OF PARADISE) unfolds in a dreamily beautiful vision of a wintry, nocturnal Paris shortly after the city’s postwar liberation. It’s there that Jean Diego (Yves Montand in one of his first film roles), a former member of the French underground Resistance, has an encounter with destiny as he meets a long-lost comrade, villains of the war, a prophetic tramp, and a beautiful woman who will draw him into an inexorable tragedy. A richly allegorical evocation of a country reckoning with the guilt and national trauma of World War II and the occupation, LES PORTES DE LA NUIT (“The Gates of the Night”) was a tough sell for postwar audiences looking for escapism, but it can now be appreciated for both its haunting atmosphere and unique fusion of poetic fantasy and bitter reality.
Up Next in Season 1
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Ladies’ Paradise
Directed by Julien Duvivier • 1930 • France
Starring Dita Parlo, Ginette Maddie, Andrée BrabantThe final silent film directed by Julien Duvivier, this dazzling adaptation of a novel by Émile Zola harnesses the full expressive potential of the form to create a visual symphony of exquisite camera...
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The Lower Depths
Directed by Jean Renoir • 1936 • France
Starring Jean Gabin, Louis Jouvet, Suzy PrimJean Renoir’s fascinating adaptation of Maxim Gorky’s classic proletariat play softens the bleak social realism of the source material thanks to the director’s gently humanist, distinctly Gallic touch. Comedy an...
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They Were Five
Directed by Julien Duvivier • 1936 • France
Starring Jean Gabin, Charles Vanel, Raymond AimosWith more money comes more problems in this spirited comedic drama, a tribute to everyman camaraderie inspired by the optimistic socialism of the French Popular Front movement. Gallic cinema icons Jean ...
