Hotel du Nord
Directed by Marcel Carné
Written by Jean Aurenche and Henri Jeansen from the novel by Eugéne Dabit
1938/France
Societé d’Exploitation et de Distribution de Films (SEDIF); Impérial Film
First viewing/ Streamed on Hulu Plus
[box] I was very nervous at the beginning of Hôtel du Nord. — Marcel Carné [/box]
Louis Jouvet’s performance was the highlight of this slice of life at a Paris hotel.
The kind and boisterous Lecouvreur family operate the modest Hôtel du Nord in Paris. Pimp Edmund (Jouvet) and prostitute Ginette (Arletty) occupy one of the rooms and argue constantly. As the story begins, Pierre (Jean-Pierre Aumont) and Renée (Annabella) rent a room for the night. We soon find that they are down to their last sou and have made a murder-suicide pact. Pierre is to shoot Renée and then himself. But when first shot is fired, Edmond rushes in to the room and Pierre flees.
It turns out that Renée is only wounded. Next morning, Pierre turns himself in. He is mortified but the romantic Renée is still madly in love with him. After she is released from the hospital, Renée returns to the hotel to get her belongings. She is offered a job as a domestic by the Lecouvreurs. Edmond develops a fascination with Renée, much to Ginette’s disgust. In the meantime, some bad guys are on a revenge mission to locate Edmond.
I enjoyed this a lot though I wouldn’t call it great. The Jouvet-Arletty relationship is more interesting than the Pierre-Renée romance and Jouvet does very well with a multi-layered, rather mysterious character.
I wonder how often murder-suicides turn into straight up murder in real life?
Clip with Arletty and Louis Jouvet (unfortunately no subtitles)
