Hotel du Nord (1938)

 Marcel Carne's "Hotel du Nord"

There is something that strikes me when watching French films that were filmed and released just before the outbreak of war in late 1939. These films seem to carry a certain melancholic nihilism, as the sentiment in France was bleak in knowing full well that an invasion of their homeland was imminent. Whether it is the hopeless inescapability of "Pepe le Moko" or the suffocating self destruction in "Port of Shadows," these films seem to carry with them the same sense of dread that many French citizens were feeling at the time. With Marcel Carne's "Hotel du Nord," this trend continued. 

"Hotel du Nord" centers on a young couple who get a room at the Hotel du Nord for the night, planning on doing a joint suicide pact. However, the plan goes awry when the man flees after shooting the woman. The woman survives and begins working at the hotel as a maid while the man is arrested. The woman pulls a local pimp away from his love interest prostitute and they agree to escape to Port Said together. However, the woman chickens out and returns to be with her previous partner. 

I found the storyline to be a bit wanting, however, the ambiance of the film created by Carne is able to iterate just what it needs to. There is a palpable emotional battle happening in the film between hope and destitution. All of the characters in the film are lower class citizens dealing with lower class problems. They all feel a sense of inescapability with their situations. However, they continue to hope for something better and many of the character actively choose to celebrate life. There is a constant back and forth between choosing to remain hopeless and choosing to continue on. 

Two films into Carne and I already admire his direction far more than his contemporary Julien Duvivier. I do like Duvivier, and feel that he can lean a bit more in the 'poetic' aspect of poetic realism, while Carne leans more into realism, especially with this film. However, Carne seems to create a more palpable atmosphere that really externalizes the characters' strife. Carne is a bit more expressionistic, as many of his direction styles mimic the German Expressionist movement of the 1920s. 

Overall, I enjoyed "Hotel du Nord" and felt it to be a worthy addition to the French Poetic Realist movement of the 1930s. There was a palpable dread in the air in France at the time and films like "Hotel du Nord" are somehow able to capture this sentiment. With this, these films become an important document in the mental and emotional state of a place and people.