Miriam Figueras

The British film industry of the 1950s underwent intense financial pressure. Audiences were changing and diminishing, and earlier attempts to protect domestic production had often backfired, exposing just how fragile local filmmaking had become and how increasingly dependent it was on American money. To slow the drain of dollars overseas, US studios were encouraged to reinvest their UK profits locally.

From its opening scene, Le Quai des Brumes (Port of Shadows,1938) feels like a reverie, a period of sustained waiting, during which the characters stand at a threshold knowing that a tragedy will occur if they cross it. As mist settles over a highway at dawn, a deserter (Jean Gabin) from the French colonial army gets a lift from a lorry driver heading to Le Havre. As they pull into the city, the driver notes the heavy fog. The soldier says he knows all about fog – the fog in his brain.

From its opening scene, Le Quai des Brumes (Port of Shadows,1938) feels like a reverie, a period of sustained waiting, during which the characters stand at a threshold knowing that a tragedy will occur if they cross it. As mist settles over a highway at dawn, a deserter (Jean Gabin) from the French colonial army gets a lift from a lorry driver heading to Le Havre. As they pull into the city, the driver notes the heavy fog. The soldier says he knows all about fog – the fog in his brain.