Le quai des brumes

The main players of poetic realism, a style of French cinema from the 1930s and ‘40s, include not only directors such as Marcel Carné, Julien Duvivier, or Jean Renoir. The often melancholy mood of these films comes down to the talents of cinematographers such as German émigré Eugen Schüfftan, who captured the (literally and figuratively) shadowy lives of the characters in LE QUAI DE BRUMES in a contrast-heavy and nuanced light. His shots of the fog-cloaked port city of Le Havre, where Nelly (Michèle Morgan) meets and falls in love with the fugitive deserter Jean (Jean Gabin), are famous.