Hôtel du Nord
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Hôtel du Nord is a 1938 French drama film directed by Marcel Carné that stars Arletty, Louis Jouvet, Annabella, and Jean-Pierre Aumont. It tells the story of two couples in Paris, one being a prostitute and her pimp and the other two young lovers without regular jobs. A work of poetic realism, cinematography, music, and dialogue add a poetic dimension to the lives and surroundings of working-class people.
Plot
At the Hôtel du Nord in a working-class district of Paris, a first communion party unites many of the occupants. Among them is the prostitute Raymonde, whose pimp Edmond stays in their room to develop some photographs he has taken. A young couple, Renée and Pierre, enter and take a room for the night. Once alone they run through their plan to kill themselves, as they can't afford to marry and set up home. Pierre shoots Renée with a pistol, but can't then kill himself. Hearing the shot, Edmond breaks into the room and tells the boy to flee. Later, he finds the pistol the boy had dropped.
Ambulance and police are called and the unconscious Renée is rushed to hospital. Edmond tells the police that she was alone when he entered the room, but they do not believe him. After an emergency operation, Renée comes to and learns that Pierre is in custody for attempted murder. She says it was a suicide pact, but the police do not believe her.
When she goes back to the Hôtel du Nord for her things, the owners offer her a room and a job. Her pretty face having been in all the newspapers, she attracts customers and in particular the attention of Edmond. He had planned to get out of Paris with Raymonde, who warned him that two released criminals were out to kill him, but instead starts courting Renée. He confesses his criminal past to her and she agrees to run away with him but, as they board a ship for Egypt, she slips away and goes back to the Hôtel du Nord. There she learns that the case against Pierre has been dropped, so he will soon be freed.
As the locals drink and dance in the street on the 14th of July, Edmond returns from Egypt and Renée warns him that the two criminals are waiting for him in the hotel. Going upstairs, he finds one of them asleep and tosses the pistol he had found to his opponent, who shoots him dead. In all the noise outside, the shot is not noticed. Just released from prison, Pierre arrives and is reunited with Renée.
Cast
- Annabella as Renée, Pierre's fiancée
- Jean-Pierre Aumont as Pierre, Renée's fiancé
- Louis Jouvet as Edmond, protector of Raymonde
- Arletty as Raymonde, a prostitute
- André Brunot as Émile Lecouvreur, owner of the hotel and husband of Louise
- Jane Marken as Louise Lecouvreur, owner of the hotel and wife of Émile
- Bernard Blier as Prosper Trimaux, lock keeper and blood donor
- Paulette Dubost as Ginette Trimaux, Prosper's wife
- Andrex as Kenel, a regular at the hotel
