Les portes de la nuit aka Gates of the Night (1946) French Noir from The Twilight Zone

 "Film noir français de la Quatrième Dimension"

Directed by Marcel Carné (Le jour se leve, Quai des brumes, Hotel du Nord). Written by Jacques Prévert and based on his ballet "Le rendez-vous." 

Cinematography by Philippe Agostini (Rififi) and Music by Joseph Kosma. 

The film stars Pierre Brasseur (Eyes Without a Face) as Georges, Serge Reggiani (Le doulos) as Guy Sénéchal, Yves Montand (The Wages of Fear) as Jean Diego ex seaman, Nathalie Nattier (Moumou) as Malou a chanteuse, Saturnin Fabre (Pépé le Moko) as Monsieur Sénéchal junkyard owner and slum landlord, Raymond Bussières (Paris When It Sizzles) as Raymond Lécuyer railroad brakeman, Jean Vilar (Justice est faite) as Le clochard / La fortune aka Fate, Sylvia Bataille as Claire Lécuyer, Julian Carette (La bête humaine ) as Monsieur Quinquina,  Jane Marken as Mme Germaine (as Jeanne Marken), Dany Robin (Naughty Martine, L'école des cocottes, Topaz) as Étiennette Quinquina, Gabrielle Fontan as La vieille, Christian Simon as Cricri Lécuyer, Mady Berry as Madame Quinquina, Jean Maxime as L'amoureux d'Étiennette.

Yves Montand as Jean Diego

Nathalie Nattier as Malou

Pierre Brasseur as Georges 

Julian Carette as Monsieur Quinquina

Jean Vilar as Le clochard / La fortune

Saturnin Fabre as Monsieur Sénéchal

Serge Reggiani as Guy Sénéchal,

 Dany Robin as Étiennette Quinquina,

Sylvia Bataille as Claire Lécuyer

Raymond Bussières as Raymond Lécuyer

Christian Simon as Cricri Lécuyer

Story

Our story takes place in February of 1945 six months after the liberation of Paris, around the then poor working-class neighborhoods of Barbès, La Chapelle, Villette, Jaurès, and Lariboisière Hospital, close to the Gare du Nord, the Gare de L'est and the Basin de Villette of the Canal Ourcq. The elevated section of the Metro line 6 threads them all together. 

Montmartre

A slow aerial pan left to right takes in the hill of Montmartre, the triangle building at the the intersection of  Quai de la Seine and Avenue de Flandre, the Basin of Villete of the Canal Ourcq, La Rotonde Stalingrad, and elevated curve of the number "6" Metro line over the intersection of the Boulevard de Villette. Avenue Jean Jaures, and the Avenue Secretan. 

4-6 Quai de la Seine, triangle building

Basin of Villete of the Canal Ourcq

La Rotonde Stalingrad

A voice over tells us its the end of a gloomy winter day. The war is not over yet, the battle lines are far to the East, but in this northern part of Paris life is getting somewhat back to normal. There's simple joys, major hardships, grinding poverty, and terrible secrets. 

The pan ends at the Metro curve over the Boulevard de Villette and we watch as a four car train heads West through the arches towards Montmartre and Pigalle. 

No. 6 Metro Line

We cut to the motorman driving a swaying Metro car full of commuters. From his window and looking over his shoulder, we see a passing Metro train heading East.

Standing in the middle of the car in a tie and trench coat is is Jean Diego, watching him intently, standing in front of a near by doorway, is a scruffy, unshaven tramp, in a fedora and a ripped and tattered overcoat. 

The tramp, with both hands reaches up and grabs the lapels of his coat. He stares intently at Jean.

Jean finally turns and notices him staring and like any urbanite with smarts looks away. Universal city survival rule, don't make eye contact with nut jobs. Too late, the guy comes over and taps Jean on his shoulder. Jean turns to him.

The Tramp: You're off at the next stop?

Jean: I am.

The Tramp: So am I. 

Great, Jean is probably thinking.

The Barbès - Rochechouart metro station. We cut to the throng of people that engorged from the train coming down the stairways from the platform. 

A street vender Monsieur Quinquina, is hawking flashlights to these successive waves of humanity, his daughter Étiennette is over by a wrought iron fence selling croissants out of a suitcase. 

Étiennette has caught the eye of a young man who slides on over to chat her up.

Jean passes down through all this as a street singer accompanied by an accordionist, starts serenading the commuters their songs and selling sheet music for spare change. (this scene was probably transposed from Prévert's "Le rendez-vous.") We lose Jean in the crowd.

We also see the tramp descend the stairs and we stay with him. He stops when he spots Étiennette just as the young guy she attracted joins her at the fence.

The tramp reaches up and grabs his lapels again, as he stops and stares this time at the couple. and then he continues down the steps. He walks over to them. The young man has one hand on the wrought iron fence that surrounds the station entrance.

The tramp reaches over and places his hand on the same fence upright and slides it down until he touches the young man's hand. He then pulls it away with a jerk, as if it were an accident, the young man stares at the tramp who stares back. The tramp then turns his attention to Étiennette, the ends of his lips turn slightly up in the beginning of a smile, and then he walks off. 

Étiennette and the young man turn their attentions back to each other and they obviously like what each other sees.

We cut to mixed use street consisting of tenement flops, junkyards, and warehouses. The sun is setting on this low rent, urban horizon. In the distance, we watch Jean approach. His destination is a five story building owned by Monsieur Sénéchal. .

He walks in and sees through the opening on the opposite end of the hallway, a woman working in the backyard .

The woman is doing laundry by an outdoor tap. Jean asks her for Mrs. Lécuyer. The woman stops and tells him second floor in the middle. 

As he is about to reach the second floor landing, the middle door opens and a slew of eight kids comes running out. The last kid Cri Cri, sees Jean standing there and yells back to his mom, that there's a man at the door. 

Clair Lécuyer comes to the door and asks Jean in. She's wondering, with a bit of apprehension, what its all about. She asks Jean to sit and apologizes for the kids mess. 

Jean looks around the room, there's a sort of couch strewn with what looks like toys and books, a model of a steam locomotive, and a table with piles of folded clothes. . 

Jean tells her that he's a friend of her husband Raymond. He solemnly apologizes saying that he should have come sooner.

He explains to her he has bad news. Clair, of course, immediately thinks something has happened to her husband. She thinks it's an accident. She asks if he's... Jean answers yes.

Then he tells her it happened at the end of June. He says that Raymond was shot at Fort de Roumainville. 

(Back then probably everybody in France would get this ominous reference. Fort Romainville was built in France in the 1830s, but was repurposed as a Nazi concentration camp in World War II.)

Clair bewildered says "end of June?" Jean again apologizes for not coming sooner.  Clair repeats "end of June" and we think she's going into hysterics but she starts laughing, with relief. Jean is wondering WTF? Clair apologizes to a bewildered Jean saying she can't help it. 

end of June?

As Clair is laughing in the sitting room, Raymond walks in the door from the hallway and hangs up his raincoat. He hears Clair laughing and follows the sound, saying I'm glad everyone is having a good time. 

Raymond walks in and sees Jean. Jean can't believe he's alive. Raymond is equally happy to see Jean alive, each thought the other was dead. 

Jean asks Raymond how he made it out alive, because the last time he saw him he was being marched out to be shot.

Raymond explains to Jean that after they were taken out they were intercepted by Inspector Constantini and his boys who showed up to torture them for more information. They took them to Avenue Henri Martin for the treatment. Raymond shows Jean his mangled hand. 

Raymond and Jean were both in the resistance. 

Jean, then relates that someone very close to Raymond squealed on him. Jean knows this because he heard him. 

Jean was in the john next to the office, and could hear the guy through the wall.  Jean tells Raymond that he'll never forget that voice or that laugh. 

When Raymond asks Clair how come she hasn't offered Jean something, she answers that she has nothing. 

Jean then announces that he'll take Clair and Raymond out to dinner. There is a good restaurant not far that they can walk too. So Jean and Raymond head off to the restaurant for drinks, Clair wants to doll herself up and put on a nice dress. Cri-Cri comes home and is told to wash up because they are going out to dinner.

As Jean and Raymond get out to the landing they meet Monsieur Quinquina coming up the stairs through the shadows. It's Étiennette's father and the stations trinket hawker we met earlier. 

He's got a sad sack look. He also turns out, we learn, to be the father of the mob of seven kids that hang around with Cri-Cri. 

Monsieur Quinquina relates that ever since his oldest daughter took off with a sailor, his wife is overly protective of Étiennette. He tells them that she didn't show up, at the station, when she was supposed to. And he knows his wife, is gonna make him go back out and look for her and not come home until he finds her. 

As Jean and Raymond go down, we follow Quinquina up to the next landing where we meet his wife and the landlord Monsieur Sénéchal.  Sénéchal also makes money selling scrap wood for wood stoves, to his tenants and block neighbors. 

Monsieur Sénéchal is complaining to Monsieur Quinquina and his wife, that his kids are stealing scrap wood. There's a lot of implied politics going on in this extended conversation, apparently Sénéchal sided with the Vici fascist government and the Nazi's, while most of his tenants were neutral or leaning resistance. You don't need to know the politics to get the gist of it. Of course in 1946 it was recent events and very relevant to French audiences. 

The kids, including Cri-Cri, we find out later have a secret way into the junkyard and have appropriated the small watchman's room with a wood stove and bed to use as a club house.

Monsieur Quinquina drops off his suitcase of trinkets, and  heads back down the stair to go back out to look for his daughter.

Later we see Monsieur Quinquina walking around by the Basin de Villette. He walks up onto the high arch vantage point of the Rue de Crimée pedestrian overpass over the Ourcq canal (it's most probably a studio set but it is pretty convincing). While Quinquina is leaning on the railing, the tramp comes up to him. 

They both stand at the railing of the high arch. The tramp and Monsieur Quinquina talk. Monsieur Quinquina tells him he's looking for his daughter.  The tramp reassures him telling him not to worry, that she is ok and, and she is happy. 

Monsieur Quinquina thinks, WTF does he he know, he's nuts and he backs off, and we follow as Quinquina walks down the steps and away from the bridge. Our plane of view drops, and just below the arch of the bridge and lo and behold we see Étiennette and the young man kissing on the quay by the water. She is happy.

Cut to the restaurant. Jean and the Lécuyer's are having a fun evening. Jean and Cri-Cri are hitting it off, Jean is telling him stories about islands with coconut trees, drawing pictures of ships and everything is cool, until Guy Sénéchal the son of Monsieur Sénéchal walks in with his entourage. He spots Raymond, stops,  and comes over to their table.

He's dressed like a wannabe gangster. A light coat, a light jacket, a white tie, and a black shirt. He comes over to the table to say he's surprised and makes the remark that he didn't expect a railway switchman communist to be in a fancy restaurant. He asks Raymond, isn't that against your principals? Raymond jokes, and replies that we got our money from Moscow.

Apparently Guy is a "hero." Here's another vague term. At this time being recognized as a hero by the Vichy Government, would be a dubious honor. The reason as to why, is kept a secret, which now that Paris is liberated makes people suspicious. 

When Guy gets tired of poking at Raymond he goes back to his table. As soon as Guy leaves Jean tells Raymond that he knows that he's met him somewhere before but just can't remember where. 

At this point the tramp walks into the restaurant and asks the proprietress if he can play music. She tells him they don't need any more noise. He replies its not noise its music. 

not noise music...

She acquiesces, and the tramp walks over by the bar and is about to pull out his harmonica to play but stops when he spots a gypsy telling fortunes at Guy's table. She is looking at Guy's date's palm. 

Guy gives her a tip,  and as she is heading towards the door the tramp grabs her arm and tells her to stay away from the water. She tells him she's not superstitious and laughs.

I'm not superstitious

Guy who observed all this calls the tramp over and asks him what he told her. He replies that he told her to stay away from the canal or she might die. The Tramp continues and says that it would be a pleasant death in an alcoholic stupor. 

Then the tramp leans in towards Guy and tells him ominously, that not everyone is granted a pleasant death.

Not everyone is granted a pleasant death.

It's at about this time Jean notices the tramp and says you again. He makes a joke to Raymond that the tramp is the gestapo, and Raymond replies "don't temp fate."

The tramp pulls out his harmonica and plays "Les Feuilles Mortes" aka "Autumn Leaves." Jean says he's heard it before someplace.

He starts to hum along and then put words to it. "and the waves rush in and erase the footprints of lovers, now apart." 

Jean: Funny how love songs are always sad.

The tramp finishes playing the song and walks over to their table.

The Tramp: Love isn't always cheerful. 

Jean: People don't know how to enjoy it or they pretend to. 

The tramp looks down at at Jeans sketch and asks why he drew a Chinaman?  

Jean replies that it does look like a Chinaman. Then Jean remembers where he heard the song. It was in '38 in San Francisco. Jean tells the table that he almost left his hide in San Francisco in a stupid brawl. 

Jean: But my time hadn't come. Fate.

Fate... that's me...

The Tramp: Fate... that's me...[the tramp points at himself, while Jean makes a joke that he's Napoleon] It all comes together. Nothing extraordinary, or rather everything is extraordinary. But man takes it for granted.  For instance: the sun. He finds perfectly natural. It doesn't surprise him. But show him a calf with two heads it disturbs him. Yet a simple ordinary calf with one head, like you or me is strange and inexplicable when you think about it. I say a calf but it could be a tree or an egg. What a mystery: an egg. Or a rooster. I knew people who hearing a rooster crow at daybreak, trembled with terror. It gave then goosebumps. 

Jean: What a story.

Raymond: What a story.

Cri-Cri : What a story.

The Tramp: Yet everyone has their own story. You like everyone else. And like anyone else, you don't know how it will end.

Jean: Sure its a surprise.

The Tramp: A surprise. Do you know why you came here tonight? 

We cut to the outside of the restaurant. A big limousine drives up to a stop. A man gets out. Walks in to the restaurant, goes up to the bar and asks for a brandy.

The Tramp: You never know. Maybe you were wrong to come here.

Jean: He never lets up. [jean jokes] If you want to know I'm here for a date, and no later than tonight. With whom? A beautiful girl. The loveliest girl in the world. The loveliest.

The tramp slides over to the curtain on the window, grabs it and slides it back like a stage curtain.

The Tramp: Why not.

Jean and Raymond look out at the street and see the big limousine, in the limousine is a beautiful blonde. Jean stares at her, then looks at the tramp. 

Meanwhile the man at the bar downs his brandy and goes out the door, gets back in the car and drives off with the woman. Jean swivels his head to follow. When he turns back to the table he tells the Lécuyer's that he better leave so he can catch the last metro. 

The tramp tells him that he'd better hurry. 

The Tramp:  You haven't a minute to loose.

Jean: [grabbing the tramp by his coat] You may mean well but you're wearing me out. What do you want?

The Tramp: I don't want anything, I'm Fate.

Jean: What in the world.

The Tramp: The world is how it is. Don't count on me for the key. I'm not the janitor. I'm not the jailer. I'm fate. I come and go that's all.  

The tramp leaves the restaurant and we cut to Jean and the Lécuyer's approaching the Barbès - Rochechouart Metro station.

Just outside the station they meet Monsieur Quinquina who is still wandering about the neighborhoods looking for Étiennette. He tells Jean he just missed the last metro. 

Clair offers a solution to Jean, he can crash in Cri-Cri's room for the night. They all turn back and head to the apartment along with Monsieur Quinquina little knowing that they are all heading for Noirsville.

Noirsville 

Lariboisière Hospital

Here's another Noir Masterpiece from Marcel Carné. Its a Fantasy, Mystery, Crime, Noir that fits in with similar Hybrid Noirs like Alias Nick Beal, Repeat Performance, Cat People, The Leopard Man, The Amazing Mr. X, Fear in the Night, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes, Nightmare, along with Neo Noirs Angel Heart, and David Lynch's Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive.

All the performances are spot on. Yves Montand in this will remind you an awful lot of Roberto Benigni, and Pierre Brasseur comes off like a French version of Zachary Scott. 

Originally Jean Gabin and Marlene Dietrich were to star, at the time of production, they were lovers and when Dietrich pulled out of the project Gabin followed giving Montand his big break. For some reason some people disparage this film for that fact, but Montand and Nathalie Nattier are just fine.

The song Les Feuilles Mortes aka "Autumn Leaves," has become a beloved standard. Bravo 10/10.