Last year the Criterion Channel introduced a Poetic Realism collection, which introduced me to the work of Marcel Carne. Somehow I was completely unfamiliar with the work of Carne, which is pretty inexcusable since he's one of France's most famous and beloved directors. I ended up admitting to my friend Erik that Carne had become my favorite French director, which is a bit of an odd statement considering how many great directors were/are French (although I don't think it's just me being a contrarian). This morning I re-watched his 1938 film Hotel du Nord, which I think I liked even more than the first time. The film itself if often overlooked because it's falls in between two of his much more famous films, which I'll hold off discussing until the inevitable re-viewing of them. It focuses around a cast of characters who work at or frequent the fairly rundown Hotel du Nord. We're supposed to care about the star-crossed young lovers Renee (Annabella) and Pierre (Jean-Pierre Aumont) - they make a suicide pact which is based on Pierre shooting Renee in the heart and then killing himself - somehow he shoots her, it doesn't kill her, he runs away, and somehow they end up together at the end (it makes more sense in the movie). However, the film is completely stolen by Arletty, who plays the prostitute Raymonde, and her tortured relationship with her lover and procurer Edmond (Louis Jouvet). If you don't know the story of Arletty you should check it out. Beyond being a big star, she's also famous/infamous for having an affair with a German general during World War II in occupied Paris. After the war she was accused of treason, had her head shaved to be publicly humiliated, but then continued her acting career (it's the French, you know). As she brilliantly explained: "My heart may be French, but my ass is global." Recommended.
No comments:
Post a Comment