Rent Hotel Du Nord (1938)
3.8 of 5 from 85 ratings
1h 32min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- The Hotel du Nord is a family-run hotel on the edge of the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris. As the family is celebrating a first communion, a young couple checks in, planning a double suicide. Only one shot is fired, and the man, Pierre (Jean-Pierre Aumont), flees leaving his lover, Renee (Annabella), to die in the room. But, he leaves the gun behind and she survives. A series of convoluted affairs between hotel patrons and staff, as well as passion-fuelled travels across France, ensue - all to end the story in perfect symmetry.
- Actors:
- Annabella, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Louis Jouvet, Arletty, Paulette Dubost, Andrex, André Brunot, Henri Bosc, Marcel André, Bernard Blier, Jacques Louvigny, Armand Lurville, Jane Marken, Génia Vaury, François Périer, René Bergeron, René Alié, Charles Bouillaud, Dora Doll, Albert Malbert
- Directors:
- Marcel Carné
- Producers:
- Onésime Grinkrug, Joseph Lucachevitch
- Writers:
- Eugène Dabit, Jean Aurenche, Henri Jeanson
- Aka:
- Hôtel du Nord / Hotel of the North / North Hotel
- Studio:
- Soda Pictures
- Genres:
- Classics, Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Collections:
- A Brief History of French Poetic Realism, A Brief History of Film..., The Last Laugh: The Film That Changed Cinema
- Countries:
- France
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 10/02/2020
- Run Time:
- 95 minutes
- Languages:
- French Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono
- Subtitles:
- English
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.37:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Au cinema ce soir: Marcel Carne on Hotel du Nord, an in-depth archival interview with the legendary director from 1972 in which he talks at length about the film
- Introduction to Hotel du Nord by Paul Ryan, the film historian revisits Carne's classic film
- Image Gallery
- Original Trailer
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Reviews (1) of Hotel Du Nord
Paris Melodrama. - Hotel Du Nord review by Steve
This is the second of six films directed by Marcel Carné between 1938-46 which are the foundation of French poetic realism. Though without his usual screenwriter Jacques Prévert, there is more realism, and less poetry. It's an ensemble melodrama set among the residents of the title address.
What makes this most like other Carné films is the romantic pessimism of the central story about a juvenile couple who can't make a living in the depression, so check in to execute a double suicide. Annabella and Jean-Pierre Aumont are extremely beautiful and affecting in the roles.
There's a wonderful support cast of French character actors, but the emphasis of their stories is unbalanced by the charisma of Arletty and Louis Jouvet as a sex worker and her pimp. Watching them bicker while shacked up in bed spotlights how much more adult late '30s French cinema was than Hollywood.
There is an awful lot of infidelity going on! The huge set of the Canal St. Martin and Maurice Jaubert's romantic score bring atmosphere. It's arguably the least of Carné's releases around the war years, but the image of the young lovers wresting with malign fate in the dark of their temporary room is among his most potent.
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