France

• Gates of the Night
• Portals of the Night

Les Portes de la Nuit continues the long collaboration between director Marcel Carné and writer and poet Jacques Prévert, whose earlier partnership produced the masterpiece Les Enfants du Paradis. Recording the events of a single night in a dingy suburb of northern Paris, it portrays the malaise of a city recovering from the Occupation. Wakeful and menacing, the night echoes with hunger, resentment and suspicion, as collaborators skulk at home, Resistance fighters seek their betrayers and the young hero lives a lifetime of experience between the hours of dusk and dawn. A dark romantic film whose passion and melancholy reflect the wounded spirit of France in the months following the Liberation, it also features the first major screen appearance of Yves Montand.