The port appears in literature in multiple ways. It is described as a point of arrival in
Mémoires d’Outre-Tombe (Memoirs from Beyond the Grave) by Chateaubriand (1768-1848), after the journey of the narrator and character in America.
The port is also a point of departure. It can be a “dreamed” departure and the port is then linked to exotic images, as in “Boitelle”, a short story by Maupassant (1850-1893). It is also the setting of painful departures (exile, escape, separation), as in the episode
L’histoire du Chevalier Des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut by the Abbé Prévost (1697-1763), or in the 20th century, in
The Thibaults by Roger Martin du Gard (1881-1958), when the two characters part.
There are numerous paintings of the boats in the port of Le Havre, first during the Romantic Era, then by impressionist painters, including
Camille PISSARRO (1830-1903).
The industrial dimension of the port was described in many films, starting with
Port of Shadows, directed by
Marcel Carné in 1938. The port appears several times in
The Brain by Gérard Oury (1969),
Disco by
Fabien Onteniente (2008) and
38 Witnesses by
Lucas Belvaux (2012).