User reviews

Fragile Carne, just before his great period. Although it is sometimes hesitantly directed, and marred by longueurs, HOTEL DU NORD is full of the faded charm and beauty typical of French films of the late 1930s, as well as a relative lightness of touch unusual with this director. All of his great virtues are here: the cramped interiors broken up by gliding, complex, delicious camera movements; a melancholy deployment of light and shade; remarkable, wistful sets by Alexander Trauner, which are so evocative that they, as the title suggests, take on a shaping personality of their own; the quietly mournful music of Maurice Jaubert; a seemingly casual plot about romance, tragedy and fatalism that casts a noose over its characters; extraordinary performances by some of the greatest players of all time, in this case Louis Jouvet and Arletty.

In fact, the film's biggest failing, and I find myself astonished (as someone who usually, didactically, minimises its importance) to admit it, is its script. It has plenty of wit and poignancy, but without the poetry and irony regular Carne collaborator Jacques Prevert brought to their best films, it cannot avoid slipping into cliche (even if it is only cliche in hindsight).

Ostensibly set in the boarding house, the film sets up its opening idea of community with two interconnecting tales of doomed love, and emotional, metaphysical and actual isolation The doomed love scenario is the one that works least well. Annabella is very beautiful, but not very good at doing tragic, while Aumont's callowness, brilliantly appropriate though it may be, by its nature obtrudes any real, felt, romance. Maybe it's just me, but I find it hard to sympathise with a couple, so young, so attractive, who, after only a few months, are so racked with despair that they have to shoot each other. Their high-flown lines are rather embarrassing too. Of course, this affair is not meant to be plausible - they are symbolic of youth, hope and possibility being crushed in France, or maybe France itself, despairing, resigned, waiting for death. For symbols to be truly powerful, they must convince on a narrative level, which, I feel, they don't quite here.

What saves this plot is its connection with the story of M. Edmond, a character linked to the great tradition of French gangsters. Although we only learn it gradually, he is a killer in hiding, living off the prostitute played by Arletty, having dobbed in his accomplices. In his previous 'role' - and the theatricality of his position is crucial - he had one set of traits; in hiding he has assumed their complete opposite. Living a rather aimless life, he is profoundly shaken by the lovers' pact, and becomes fatalistic, realising the folly of trying to cheat death.

In this way - the admission that one is less a person than a collection of signs, and that death is an unavoidable reality the most powerful masculinity must succumb to - Edmond is like a romantic prototype of Melville's clinical killers. With one exception - he gives briefly into hope, a delusion which only strenghtens - if that's not too much of an unbearable irony - his fatal resolve.

All this could have been trite if it wasn't for the truly amazing performance of Louis Jouvet. I had studied his theatrical work at college, but this was my first taste of his screen talents, and he reveals himself to be worthy of the greats - Grant, Mastroianni, Clift, Mason, Mitchum, Cotten - giving a quiet nobility to a role which is more of a conception (he, needless to say, is allegorical too) than an actual person. Edmond begins the film a minor supporting character, but emerges as a tragic hero of some force. Like all those major actors, Jouvet's brilliance lies in what he conceals.

On a formal level, what amazes is Carne's grasping, ten years before its flourishing, of the techniques of the great Hollywood melodramas of Sirk, Ophuls, Ray and Minnelli. Although his theatricality lacks the fluidity and clear-eyed beauty of Sierck's contemporary German melodramas (check out the masterpieces ZU NEUEN UFERN and LA HABENERA), Carne's style truly fits his theme - that of entrapment, paralysis, resignation.

The film's principle motif is that of water - the credits float and dissolve, the hotel stands by a waterway - but instead of Renoir's open river of possibility, we have a canal, stagnant and manmade, going nowhere. The film begins as it ends, and the setting never changes, except for one brief interlude from which both escapees are doomed to return. Characters can only escape through death - their entrapment is emphasised by the narrow rooms they occupy, the walls and frames that hold them captive, the windows that look out on an escape they can never achieve. Any hope at the end, therefore, is profoundly, if romantically, compromised.

"Hotel du Nord " is the only Carné movie from the 1936-1946 era which has dialogs not written by Jacques Prévert,but by Henri Jeanson.Janson was much more interested in the Jouvet/Arletty couple than in the pair of lovers,Annabella/Aumont.The latter is rather bland ,and their story recalls oddly the Edith Piaf's song "les amants d'un jour",except that the chanteuse's tale is a tragic one.What's fascinating today is this popular little world ,the canal Saint-Martin settings.

This movie is dear to the French movies buffs for another very special reason.The pimp Jouvet tells his protégée Raymonde he wants a change of air(atmosphère) Because she does not understand the meaning of the world atmosphère,the whore Raymonde (wonderful Arletty)thinks it's an insult and she delivers this line,that is ,undeniably,the most famous of the whole French cinéma:

In French :"Atmosphère?Atmosphère?Est-ce que j'ai une gueule d'atmosphère?" Translation attempt:"Atmosphere?atmosphere?Have I got an atmosphere face? This is our French "Nobody's perfect".

I suppose I always felt that Hotel Du Nord was studio-bound, the movement of people cars and camera were just too effortlessly smooth and stagey to have been filmed on location. But no problem - it's still a much underrated lovely composition from Marcel Carne. The plot seems a bit choppy at times, as if they were making it up as they went along, but because it is unpredictable holds the attention to the bitter end. The comings and goings and goings-on at hotels are always full of rich possibilities anyway. The money shots when the two lovers are alone in their room are saddled with some rather stilted dialogue, but it's all so lovely to fall into any inanity can be accepted. Are these two young people symbols of a cancerous hopelessness in pre-War France or simply idiots? Suicide pacts are fairly common; if the suicidees are young and healthy with their lives before them untrammelled would you think anything other than that they were just misguided fools?

Arletty played the part of prostitute well - she kept that zipper on her dress busy throughout anyway! I've only seen a few films with Jouvet - he is the most impressive invention as pimp in HDN - my trouble is shallow: every time I see his face I think of Sonnie Hale in Evergreen!

A remarkably atmospheric, well acted and photographed film with so much happening it needs a few viewings to get it all in place. Annabella and Aumont made an exceptionally beautiful couple; Francois (Heurtebise) Perier in his 2nd film had a small amusing part as a gay man. All in all, a wonderful film. Next: Le Jour Se Leve.

Hotel Du Nord is a gripping drama of guilt in which Marcel Carne portrayed an entertaining tale of ill-fated love which also functions as a revolt against the cruel world.The film is based entirely on a pair of hapless lovers.Pierre and Renee were mistaken when they believed that suicide would put an end to their misery.Hotel Du Nord has its own inimitable charm as its inhabitants have become an essential part of the establishment.There is an element of togetherness as everyone flocks to Hotel Du Nord to eat,chat etc.Marcel Carne has remained true to the spirit of the films produced in 30s and 40s as Hotel Du Nord has a certain kind of nostalgic feel.Carne,while recreating the life of Parisian roads was able to create a sort of nostalgia for black and white giving a unique genre of poetic realism to his oeuvre.Hotel Du Nord can be termed as a quintessence of cinematographic populism.The 14th July ball scene on the banks of Saint Martin canal remains a magnificent sequence.The film's immense popularity can be judged from the fact that Hotel Du Nord has been declared as a national monument.

I've just checked out the previous comments for this movie; it is interesting to note that 1) they are all favorable, 2) they all date from 1999 onwards and 3) they range from a simple recording of a joyous experience to the quasi-academic/analytical. This tells us clearly that even a film made 65 years ago can still speak to us today and bring pleasure on the one hand whilst inspiring in-depth analysis on the other. I am only saddened that not one commenter deigned to give a nod to Jean Aurenche, the great screenwriter (though one correspondent, did acknowledge Aurenche's co-writer Henri Jeanson who helped adapt the Eugene Dabit novel). In his 80-odd years Aurenche wrote more than 70 movies, just under half with Pierre Bost, and arguably his best known script outside France was 'Jeux Interdits' in 1952, though he also wrote 'Paris brute-t-il?' (Is Paris Burning?) an international production, and toward the end of his career, wrote for Tavernier - 'L'horlager de St. Paul', 'Coup de Torchon' - and his stories about working during the occupation inspired Tavernier to immortalize him in 'Laissez-Passer'. But I digress: French actors have always had a penchant for single names - Raimu, Bourvil, Coluche, Fernandel, etc - and in Hotel du Nord we have no less than three of them, Andrex, Annabel and Arletty. The first two fell by the wayside - unless you want to count the toilet tissue made famous in England by TV commercials featuring puppies - but Arletty remains one of the all-time greats and even rumors of collaboration have failed to dim her memory. Here she is at her best which was just as well as she was up against Louis Jouvet, another giant of the French stage and screen. The film is drenched in atmosphere which is echoed, whether intentionally or not, in Arletty's great line, which our French commenter rightly says is the most famous in French cinema and which he/she translates well as 'atmosphere, does this face look like atmosphere (is it that this face). Though he was no Jacques Prevert (but then, who is?) Aurenche had undoubtedly absorbed the poetic realism invented by Prevert and brought it to bear on this, only his sixth screenplay. Though at a basic level it is just another melodrama that ends in tears there are metaphors and symbols a plenty if, as our Dublin commenter, you care to look for them. The small, enclosed and private world just behind Gare de l'est, the 'trouble in paradise' motif that is introduced as soon as the idyllic opening sequence of 'one big happy family' has been established, the threat from outside - at a basic level the hoods who have come to find Mr Edmond, at another the Nazi thugs waiting in the wings - etc. Read it how you will it remains a great film. Apart from Aurenche none of the other commenters mentioned Bernard Blier, also at the beginning of a long and distinguished career, to say nothing of siring director Bertrand Blier - the commenter who was so struck with Louis Jouvet may care to know that Blier played opposite Jouvet some nine years later in Clouzot's 'Quai des Orfevres'. The Hotel du Nord is still standing but is now (or was when I last visited), owned by Greeks who haven't a clue about its place in history despite the smattering of lobby cards, affiches, etc in the bar and it is now a venue for English comics. The canal St. Martin is itself undergoing major changes, presumably not for the better but as for Carne's movie and Sandy Traunaur's sets, both were Canal Plus long before there was a TV channel (now technically defunct) and will remain so long after Canal + is just a co-producer credit on sub-Carne movies.

A true classic. Beautifully filmed and acted. Reveals an area of Paris which is alive and filled with comedy and tragedy. Although the area of 'Hotel du Nord' and the Hotel itself still exists, it is not as gay (in the original sense of the word) and joyful as it once must have been. The film makes one yearn for the past, which has been lost, with a sigh and bittersweetness.

A fairly intriguing mood piece from Marcel Carne loosely based upon a book involving various tales of persons staying at the Hotel du Nord at the side of the Canal Saint-Martin. I have stayed close to this very spot myself and what was considered very much a working class spot is now much regenerated but still most recognisable. Recognisable, that is from the sets built by Carne for there is no location shooting in this 1938 film, the set apparently being so famous (and costly) at the time that the public were encouraged to visit and even dine under artificial lighting in the evenings. The film itself does not begin well and although of the two young but desperate lovers, the lovely Annabella is fine her young man played by Jean-Pierre Aumont is very bland and spouting seemingly silliness by comparison. Incredibly it turns out that the writer had objected to the choice of the actor and when thwarted deliberately gave him flat dialogue in spite. Whatever the reason this begins a little oddly, becomes very strange and settles into being a fairly diverting amusement, if that is not damning this with too faint an amount of praise. At best I would consider this an interesting insight into a strange moment in time for the French with their imminent capitulation to the Germans. Officially considered part of a limited movement known as 'poetic realism', I find the term a rather appropriate oxymoron, despite the film coming to life a little as Annabella's character interacts effectively, if not altogether believably, with those around her. I would just mention the older and more prominent couple also staying at the hotel, a prostitute and here pimp. The latter is played somewhat stiffly by Louis Jovvet, more used to working on the stage, but the jolly lady of the night is played in a much more spirited fashion by Arletty and is probably the most lively element of the film.

I love this movie, Jouvet, Arletty, Blier, Carné... almost everything has already been said about the movie, but there is one detail I'd like to shed some light onto: no footage of the real, still standing, Hôtel du Nord (is it still? I heard it was to be demolished...) has been used for the movie - the whole scene has been rebuilt on set, the main reason being that they could not stop the traffic on the St Martin canal for several weeks.

For reference, these are my ratings for some previous Marcel Carné movies i've watched :

Le jour se lève : 8,1/10.

Port of shadows : 7,9/10.

Consequently, this is my my least favourite movie of his, up until now. As the reviewer "dbdumonteil" is mentioning : "Hotel du Nord " is the only Carné movie from the 1936-1946 era which has dialogs not written by Jacques Prévert, but by Henri Jeanson".

Prevert's absence is obvious : With all due respect to Jeanson, script here is not very good. And the interactions between the characters seem a bit forced. Supposedly, there is a couple here so much in love that they decide to do something unimaginable. I didn't feel anything watching them. Perhaps acting is to blame too. Annabella was beautiful for sure, but as an actress, she was not convincing here.

Furthermore, it's a bit confusing and messy. Viewer cannot distinguish the "heroes" from the "villains". I didn't hate anyone but noone was to root for either, until the last minutes at least. I don't mind movies with moral gray zones but this was not even morally gray : Characters were kinda bland and dull.

7 stars because it was well directed and interesting, despite of all these. And Louis Jouvet/Arletty were phenomenal. This is still a good drama. ( It has nothing to do though with comedy either romance)

This is an excellent film, and is the sort of treasure that one can only catch through sporadic cinema showings, as it is unavailable on video/DVD. The way that the film begins with the two lovers arriving, and ends with them leaving (although quite a lot happens in between, and they don't stay in one place during this time), gives you a sense of closure, and a feeling that all is right with the world. If you get a chance to see this film, then do. I can't wait to see it again, and wish that it could be put on general release.

Over the banks of Canal St Martin in Paris, there is "Hotel du Nord", a creation of novelist Eugene Dabit, dialogist Henri Jeanson and director Marcel Carne, a purgatory for the past sins, a lost station where people can relieve themselves from the burden of the pasts, as the weight of luggage thrown on the bed. There's something oddly definite in a hotel room, everyone stays, but some just don't want to be reminded they'll have to go, sooner or later.

The film opens with people celebrating a communion and the atmosphere (beware, this is a word you'll often find in this review) is cheerful with people joking about cops and religion. There is the local lock keeper who takes some pride from regularly giving his blood while he should be more suspicious about the kind of services his very wife provides, she seems to be too much of a good public for the local womanizer but Bertrand Blier in his earlier years of good-natured cuckolds' roles, fails to see it. There is an adopted Spanish kid goes to his mother's arm because the thunder reminds me of the Civil War's bombing, What this dinner with its gallery of colorful characters shows is that, in the interwar period, people took life as it came, at times enjoyed it but some didn't find reasons to find enjoyment, and the past had a lot to do with it.

The film centers on two couples, starting with Raymonde (Arletty) and Monsieur Edmond (Louis Jouvet) who're not "at the party", which literally in French, means that they're far from this universe and don't care about it. In all fairness, Raymonde seems to care about people, she is enthusiastic and welcomes the little girl who brought her a piece of cake, her companion, the grouchy Edmond asks why he doesn't have one. We suspect he couldn't care less and only needed a reason to complain, he's a man who won't let one smile slip from his face, maybe because life plays like a succession of thunders reminding of previous bombings. He eats, he drinks, smokes, practices his hobby which is photography, but inside, he's dead. Raymonde lives and smiles for two, she join the guests and lets her man alone. We'll find out later that they had a past that partly explains their opposite natures.

The other couple is Renee and Pierre (Annabella and Jean-Pierre Aumont), they're young and good-looking and they're ready to commit suicide, they just lost it, they don't trust the world anymore and 'Hotel du Nord' was the edge of their lives, like "Romeo and Juliet", they're dying together. Their dialogues are sentimental and almost too theatrical, contrasting with the lively slang of Arletty and Jouvet and the film takes a weird dark melodramatic turn until we hear a 'bang'. When Edmond gets in the room, he finds Renée lying in the bed and her lover who didn't have the guts to pull the trigger for him; Edmond lets him go and calls the Police. Renee survives but in her act of death, she gave Edmond a reason to live. There's no shortage of ironies in 'Hotel du Nord' and this one is the most poignant.

Edmond find someone unhappier than him and realizes very soon that he can't stand Raymonde. This leads to the iconic moment of the film, one that might be lost in translation, but that can't be ignored due to its resonance in the history of French cinema. Edmond planned to travel with Raymonde then he gave up; realizing that the problem isn't in the destination but the company. He's suffocating with Raymonde, he needs to change his atmosphere, which she is. Now, can you even describe an appeal that all lies in the thick Parisian accent of Arletty who finally has her rebellious moment, tired of her companion's tantrum and shouting "Atmosphere? Atmosphere! do I look like an atmosphere?" This is a line that has the same resonance as the 'Waterfront' contender speech or 'You talking' to me?' It came to the point that people would see the film because of this line they generally heard of before even seeing the film.

Does the line capture the spirit of 'Hotel du Nord'? Yes and no. No, because it wasn't meant to, the word doesn't carry any particular meaning, it just transcended itself in the mouth of Arletty, proving that cinema works in mysterious ways, any quote can become legendary just because it has the right accent, intonation and actor to deliver it. And yes, because this is a key word when you think about it, it's all about the atmosphere where we can find life more livable. The film opens with many couples, some stay the same, some break up and get back together, some live, some try to travel but then realize they have more to lose in leaving and some are tied to other people and can't do any move without them.

Arletty and Jouvet are the two driving forces, the yin and the yang, the woman whose heart is like a window opening to welcome the glow of the morning and the man who lives in perpetual nighttime and realizes that there might not be an atmosphere for him. And through "Hotel du Nord", Marcel Carné proved his importance on the field of French cinema, after "Quai des Brumes" which featured Gabin as a deserter, he went for a less controversial subject, and made film about little people who wonder in the same place and try to find a meaning in their lives, without making their quest too existential, some are stuck to the past, some pray for a brighter future, and some live in the present. The following year, present, past and future will all make one: war.

So like a seeming calm before the" premonitory storm, 'Hotel du Nord' is like a fascinating conjunction of three visions of life, or let's say three atmospheres.

Honestly i don't think i will ever watch it again but it's worth anyway to have seen it once. In France, it's a classic especially with the famous line told by Arletty. My opinion is that the movie is not that gripping or moving but it has a historical value that all the others french movie of that period lack: the amazing technical feat to build this small neighborhood of Paris in a studio is the thing that changes everything (maybe at this time, it was like the future James Cameron building Titanic). The result is extraordinary: For one time, we have the feeling to breathe the street of Paris and this is an unique experience: you can discover that France has always been this decaying, old country inhabited by gentle but limited rednecks (to eat, to seduce, to sing and no rules)! We are not a country of visionaries, of traditions, we don't understand modernism, future... When i watch a movie about an hotel, i expect to see visitors and passing by moments of life. In that way, the movie is rich but in the same time, a bit too calm and slow to be a great experience. When i decided to go back in time in movies, i was fearing that black and white movies would be dull and painful to watch but honestly, it's much less aggressive than the actual blue / orange filtering and the frame can have indeed a poetic or dramatic addition.

Annabella and Jean-Pierre Aumont check into the Hotel du Nord. The are shown to their room and talk about killing themselves. Then Aumont shoots Annabella and runs away.

Looking at Marcel Carne's movies from before the Second World War, one is continually struck by his poetic realism. At times it seems as if he is trying to direct movies like Julien Duvivier, except that his characters are not archetypes doomed by some grand fate. They're just people, struggling for a bit of happiness, sometimes succeeding, sometimes failing. Duvivier, one gets the impression, doesn't really like his characters. Carne is willing to judge them on their own merits, with an almost Olympian sense of humor.

Others might prefer one movie or the other, but this is my personal favorite, because of the wonderful way in which the characters are written and depicted by fine actors. No doubt, a great part of this is due to the source of this movie, a novel by Eugene Dabit, that had me thinking "Maybe not everyone comes to Hotel du Nord, but they're very interesting people": the kindly proprietors; the simple and slovenly housekeeper; but most of all Arletty as a prostitute and Louis Jouvet as her creepy and looks-obsessed kept man, who grows slowly throughout the movie.

You might prefer another Carne film or none at all. I can't fault you for differing in taste from me. I'll still stick with my call for this as Carne's best and a great movie.

In a hotel in Paris two lovers agree to take their own lives, the woman is romanticizing the suicide in a degree she must represent the escapism of many not so well-off in prewar Paris. The hotel is in itself a meeting place for the people of the district. Pierre shoots Renee, but is disturbed by Edmond so he flees the scene.

The story in itself is not so extraordinary today, but nothing takes away from its impact still. It has no problem of holding your attention to the very end. Its my first meet with any involved in 'Hotel du Nord'. Louis Jouvet is very good in his joy and meaningless role that finds meaning for just a little while. So is Arletty.

A hotel. Its clients. The life.

Two couples are the pillars of a story about love, sacrifice , acceptance- a prostitute and her amant, a young lady, too romantic, in first part, to accept the death for love and her less courageous boyfriend .

Two gun fires opening and closing the film.

Not the story itself , a large puzzle about sentimental relations and drops of bovarism are, for me, the seductive ingredients, but the beautiful acting of Arlety- jealouse and possesive-, Louis Jouvet - cold and affectues- , the impressive young Annabella and the French language of period.

Indeed, the basic gift for viewer is a sort of nostalgia - refuge, more than the story itself.

Hotel du Nord is a charming and atmospheric film from right before the second world war in France. The ensemble of characters are all likable - of course it helps that the acting is so great and the dialog so sharp. As the star-crossed young lovers - Jean-Pierre Aumont and Annabella sparkle. Though this film deals with the underclass of Parisian society, it's a group of people whom you wouldn't mind at all spending a summer evening with, drinking wine, and conversing together. Final note - This film also makes it clear that the French cinema like its counterparts in other European countries was very far ahead of a more Puritanical American cinema in openly portraying prostitutes or gay people.

"Hotel du Nord" is a somewhat forgotten film by Marcel Carné, wedged in as it is between the better known movies "Le quai des brumes" (1938) and "Le jour se lève" (1939). It is nevertheless an interesting film, a mixture between poetic realism (critical worldview, the world is not good but can become better) and film noir (cynical worldview, the world is bad and will always remain bad).

The film is about two couples who meet one another in Hotel du Nord. A young couple and a somewhat older pimp and his prostitute.

The young girl is in despair.

The young man turns out to be a coward.

The pimp is very cynical and the prostitute is pragmatic, on the edge of opportunistic.

Not a company of characters that cheer you up very much. Although I don't believe in interpretations that establish a direct relationship with concrete political events in France at that time, I understand that the French political elite was not very amused with this gloomy atmospheric sketch of French society.

Lesser known to the general public the film has nevertheless influenced the development of the film noir genre in France. I think Jacques Becker was directly influenced by this film. Jean Pierre Melville on the other hand was more oriented towards the American examples of the '40s and '50s.

This film is an example of what you might see stereotyped in people's discussions about French films, ie, downbeat and emotionally negative. There is a resolve of sorts at the end but it is nevertheless accompanied by other unhappy circumstances.

It's a film that follows the lives of some characters that pass through the Hotel du Nord, none of whom make much of their lives or seem contented with their lot. Bernard Bilier (Prosper) as a blood donor and Arletty (Raymonde) as the town whore are the most dynamic characters in that one is at least always happy whist the other puts some energy into her life. It's an ok film to watch but it has a typically depressing French outlook and very few characters that you will be able to identify with.

It needed a can-can segment and some onion sellers chomping on garlic to settle the audience into realism rather than all the moping around.

This film offers brilliant camerawork, a world of odd and interesting characters, Parisian life at its core, great acting and drama and an atmosphere hardly ever excelled in French cinema. Arletty takes the prize among the actors, she is just gorgeously impressing all the way, while Annabella falls a bit in her shadow. Louis Jouvet is also outstanding in excellence, and Jean-Pierre Aumont, who is better known for his merrier characters, makes a formidable impression as a luckless young man of misfortune, indecision and weakness of character. Immediately the first scene is quite impressive, as the stage is gradually introduced by a moving camera, ending up with the young couple settling down outside the hotel. Remarkable is also the architectural structure of the film, it is a perfect drama in itself, and it ends with a formal consummation as the young couple walk out of the hotel, leaving all its dramas behind. Marcel Carné's other films are better known, like "Quay des brumes" and "Le jour se lève", this falls exactly between them, and I do prefer this one to "Le jour se lève", which is more pretentious. This one feels quite natural all the way, people are ordinary and behave like normal people in humdrum life, and even the passions never bolt into exaggerations. Two revolver shots mark the beginning and the end of the film, the first one introducing the main drama and intrigues of love, and the other one bringing them to a final end. It's a wonderful film of human wonders, and once you have seen it you will not be likely to ever forget it.

Quite simply a sublime, perfect film. From the opening shot passing under the bridge (recreated in reverse for the final shot), you are brought into a world of Parisian intrigue courtesy of the inhabitants of the Hotel du Nord. Tour de Force performances from Arletty and Annabella, along with smouldering Bogart-esque machismo from Louis Jouvet. Finally available to stream in the UK from Apple, this was a very welcome reunion with Marcel Carné's treasure.

Hotel du Nord is both a popular little film, which takes an ethnographic and amused look at the social reality of its time, through its truculent gallery of characters. But it is also a rather profound and severe choral film where the cowardice of some is echoed by the cowardice of others. In the middle of life, on the Canal St. Martin, everyone has to face his or her cowardice at one time or another, or deal with it!

No idea why this is regarded as a 'lesser' Carné. I find it more relatable than the rather stagey and single-mindedly melodramatic 'Quai des brumes'. There is quite a bit of taboo-busting (in the way suicide is presented - apparently, Sartre took notice), coupled with subversive accents (the kid from Civil War Spain, the accepted homosexual), on a background of ever-present empathic humanity.