Gates of the Night (1946)

Marcel Carné's Gates of the Night ( Les Portes de la Nuit) is one of the first movies featuring Yves Montand. This poetic drama launched Montand's career and featured the beautiful "Autumn Leaves" song ("Les Feuilles mortes" by Prévert). It is now considered a classic, although at the time the movie didn't achieve great critical or commercial success. Montand plays along Nathalie Nattier, Serge Regianni ("Jo" in "Casque d'Or"), Pierre Brasseur and Jean Vilar. The script was written by poet Jacques Prévert. A young resistant coming back to post-war Paris, Diego (Montand) meets Malou (Nattier), a lonely girl unhappily married to a rich man (Brasseur), and together they wander around Paris' streets. They immediately fall for each other - but encounter several times a tramp called Destiny (played by Jean Vilar, creator of the Avignon theatre festival), who urges them to stay away from each other. They don't take his advice into account and a succession of events follows...

Malou & Diego, Les Portes de la Nuit, 1946.

My favourite lines:

Diego: Ce serait bien, si tous les jours étaient comme aujourd'hui, et toutes les nuits comme celle-ci.
Malou: Vous n'avez pas peur de la monotonie?
Diego: Mais le bonheur n'est pas monotone, puisque c'est le bonheur!
Malou: Vous croyez donc au bonheur?
Diego: Oui, quand je vous regarde!

in English that is:

Diego: It would be nice, if every day was like today, and every night like tonight.
Malou: Aren't you afraid of monotony?
Diego: But happiness isn't monotonous, since it's happiness!
Malou: So you do believe in happiness?
Diego: I do, when I look at you!