Quai des brumes won the Volpi Award in Venice, but Luigi Freddi (then the head of Italian cinematography) is extremely critical of the film, as can be seen from his harsh review: ‘This film taking place in a grey, livid and smoky atmosphere, which deprives things and men of shape and reality, while plunging them all into a foggy and devilish context, represents the typical product of a complex which by its latest artistic, political and intellectual manifestations, has shown a morbid and devastating senility, quite well-known for its virulent effects. Were the duty of censorship only to follow closely international film productions, maybe just a few objections could well define with calm certainty, qualities and features of some of France’s latest cinema production. Our duty here, however, is rather wider, nobler and less futile, consisting in protecting audiences, especially younger ones, through an attentive moral conscience, from wrong turns and easy decadence, which would engender unhealthy feelings and notions, as younger audiences accept naively works such as this one, especially effective in its dramatic and representative means, and could be excessively impressed by its strong and effective tones […]’.

(Rapporto del Direttore Generale per la Cinematografia al Ministero degli Interni, in Luigi Freddi, Il cinema, Gremese, Rome, 1994)

Despite Freddi’s harsh dislike, the film was released and distributed in Italy, but the print was cut, as we may see by comparing the fragments of the print circulating in Italy during the Fascist period, with the one released after the war (and censored again!) and the original French print.