There is wildly transgressive material here.

It is a long film -- with French dialogue and English titles -- but despite the slenderness of the story it is gripping and exciting in every moment.

Because it is so uncompromising, so pure, "Port of Shadow's" particularly French brand of romantic fatalism still knocks us out decades after the fact.

Many of its elements would gain wider recognition via the film noir movement of the 1940s.