La Marie du port

La Marie du port (Marie of the Port) is a 1950 French drama film directed by Marcel Carné and starring Jean Gabin, Blanchette Brunoy and Nicole Courcel.[1] [2] [3] The screenplay was written by Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes and Jacques Prévert, based on the 1938 novel of the same title by Georges Simenon. The music score is by Joseph Kosma and the cinematography by Henri Alekan. It was made at the Saint-Maurice Studios in Paris and on location around Cherbourg in Normandy. The film marked a comeback for Carné after the poor reception of his previous film Gates of the Night in 1946 and several subsequent unsuccessful attempts to launch projects.[4]

Marie of the Port
Theatrical poster
Directed byMarcel Carné
Written byGeorges Ribemont-Dessaignes
Jacques Prévert
Marcel Carné
Louis Chavance
Based onLa Marie du port by Georges Simenon
Produced bySacha Gordine
StarringJean Gabin
Blanchette Brunoy
Nicole Courcel
CinematographyHenri Alekan
Edited byLéonide Azar
Music byJoseph Kosma
Production
company
Films Sacha Gordine
Distributed byLes Films Corona
Release date
25 February 1950
Running time
88 minutes
CountryFrance
LanguageFrench

Plot

Henri, owner of a busy brasserie and cinema in Cherbourg, takes the easy-going Odile who lives with him to the funeral of her father in Port-en-Bessin. The two are bored with each other. He waits for her in a café where he is taken with a new waitress called Marie, unaware that she is Odile's tough little sister. He buys an old trawler in Port-en-Bessin, which he visits often to oversee its restoration and to pursue Marie. She has a young admirer called Marcel who gets drunk and is knocked down by Henri's car. Henri takes the lad to his apartment in Cherbourg, where Odile can look after him. One day the provocative Marie turns up at Cherbourg, tantalising Henri but not giving in. Tired of trying to seduce her, he takes her to Marcel's room, where they find Odile in bed with him. Disgusted with all three, Marie gets a bus home. A phone call from there about his boat warns Henri that Marie has been threatening to throw herself into the sea. He drives over in haste and she tells him she can in fact swim like a fish. As a last effort at winning her, he slips the keys to his business into her victorious hand.

Reception

The film had a significant impact on Gabin's star personae, shifting from the doomed man established in pre-war Poetic Realism to the more mature, assured and powerful figure he would make his hallmark over the next two following decades.[5] The contemporary American version was significantly edited and is noticeably shorter.[6]

Cast

References
  1. Witt p.184
  2. Turk p.440
  3. https://en.unifrance.org/movie/1521/marie-of-the-port
  4. Driskell p 101
  5. Driskell p.103-4
  6. "Marie of the Port". Retrieved April 7, 2013.

Bibliography
  • Driskell, Jonathan. Marcel Carne. Manchester University Press, 2016.
  • Harriss, Joseph. Jean Gabin: The Actor Who Was France. McFarland, 2018.
  • Turk, Edward Baron. Child of Paradise: Marcel Carné and the Golden Age of French Cinema. Harvard University Press, 1989
  • Witt, Michael. Jean-Luc Godard, Cinema Historian. Indiana University Press, 2013.
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