Take a refreshing plunge into classic French Poetic Realism — pre-noir drama with softer edges and a touch of romantic fatalism. A low-rent hotel on a barge canal is the gathering point for a cross-section of quasi- undesirables. Scandals and crimes aside, they’re a touching, human bunch, as performed to perfection by Louis Jouvet, Annabella, Arletty, Jane Marken, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Paulette Dubost and Bernard Blier. Marcel Carné’s show is also a beautiful production, with Alexandre Trauner designs that recreate ‘reality’ on an enormous scale.
Hôtel du Nord
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1139
1938 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 96 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 23, 2022 / 39.95
Starring: Annabella, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Louis Jouvet, Arletty, Paulette Dubost, Andrex, André Brunot, Henri Bosc, Marcel André, Bernard Blier, Jane Marken, François Périer, Dora Doll, Raymone.
Cinematography: Louis Née, Armand Thirard
Production Designer and Art Director: Alexandre Trauner
Film Editor: Marthe Gottie
Original Music: Maurice Jaubert
Written by Henri Jeanson,...
Hôtel du Nord
Blu-ray
The Criterion Collection 1139
1938 / B&w / 1:37 Academy / 96 min. / available through The Criterion Collection / Street Date August 23, 2022 / 39.95
Starring: Annabella, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Louis Jouvet, Arletty, Paulette Dubost, Andrex, André Brunot, Henri Bosc, Marcel André, Bernard Blier, Jane Marken, François Périer, Dora Doll, Raymone.
Cinematography: Louis Née, Armand Thirard
Production Designer and Art Director: Alexandre Trauner
Film Editor: Marthe Gottie
Original Music: Maurice Jaubert
Written by Henri Jeanson,...
- 8/23/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Paris is arguably the most romanticized city in the world, and no wonder, given the music, the wine, the food, and the stereotype of all of these things being enjoyed by all citizens all the time. Much of early 20th century cinema also tended to romanticize the working classes, and while there is some reasonable criticism that could be leveled at that portrayal, it's hard not to be lulled into it with films such as Marcel Carné's Hotel du Nord. This is not to suggest that Carné was being unrealistic in his portrayal of the world in which the labourers moved; more that, there is a reason this type of film is called 'poetic realism'. Set on the banks of...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 8/9/2022
- Screen Anarchy
Following one of their better months of late, Criterion ring in the second half of 2022 (I know) with a pendulum swing between recent cult favorites and pre-war noir, with a Sidney Poitier western in-between for good measure. A little “oh wow” escaped me seeing they’ll release Ronald Bronstein’s Frownland, a new entry in the feel-bad canon and fine companion to Josh and Benny Safdie’s Daddy Longlegs; at least both have fittingly off-putting cover art.
Sidney Poitier’s Buck and the Preacher gets a well-stocked disc to nicely boost a film I rarely (probably for no good reason) hear word of, while last year’s Faya dayi gets its own canonization with a disc emphasizing director Jessica Beshir’s career to date. And Marcel Carné’s Hôtel du Nord? Unseen by me, but come on—look at that cover. Of course I’m going to love it.
See...
Sidney Poitier’s Buck and the Preacher gets a well-stocked disc to nicely boost a film I rarely (probably for no good reason) hear word of, while last year’s Faya dayi gets its own canonization with a disc emphasizing director Jessica Beshir’s career to date. And Marcel Carné’s Hôtel du Nord? Unseen by me, but come on—look at that cover. Of course I’m going to love it.
See...
- 5/16/2022
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Section to also include celebrations of Ingrid Bergman and Orson Welles as well as screenings of The Terminator and Jurassic Park 3D.
Costa-Gavras has been named guest of honour at this year’s Cannes Classics section of the Cannes Film Festival (May 13-24).
The Greek-French film director and producer won the Palme d’or with Missing in 1982, was member of the jury in 1976 that crowned Taxi Driver and picked up the award for best director with Section spéciale in 1975.
The filmmaker will be present for a screening of Z, which won the jury prize in 1969, and has had the original negative scanned in 4k and restored frame by frame in 2K, supervised by Costa-Gavras.
Orson Welles
Marking 100 years since the birth of Orson Welles, Cannes will screen restorations of films from the legendary Us actor, director, writer and producer, who died in 1985.
The titles include his staggering debut Citizen Kane (1941), which has received a 4k restoration completed...
Costa-Gavras has been named guest of honour at this year’s Cannes Classics section of the Cannes Film Festival (May 13-24).
The Greek-French film director and producer won the Palme d’or with Missing in 1982, was member of the jury in 1976 that crowned Taxi Driver and picked up the award for best director with Section spéciale in 1975.
The filmmaker will be present for a screening of Z, which won the jury prize in 1969, and has had the original negative scanned in 4k and restored frame by frame in 2K, supervised by Costa-Gavras.
Orson Welles
Marking 100 years since the birth of Orson Welles, Cannes will screen restorations of films from the legendary Us actor, director, writer and producer, who died in 1985.
The titles include his staggering debut Citizen Kane (1941), which has received a 4k restoration completed...
- 4/29/2015
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
Translators introduction: This article by Mireille Latil Le Dantec, the second of two parts, was originally published in issue 40 of Cinématographe, September 1978. The previous issue of the magazine had included a dossier on "La qualité française" and a book of a never-shot script by Jean Grémillon (Le Printemps de la Liberté or The Spring of Freedom) had recently been published. The time was ripe for a re-evaluation of Grémillon's films and a resuscitation of his undervalued career. As this re-evaluation appears to still be happening nearly 40 years later—Grémillon's films have only recently seen DVD releases and a 35mm retrospective begins this week at Museum of the Moving Image in Queens—this article and its follow-up gives us an important view of a French perspective on Grémillon's work by a very perceptive critic doing the initial heavy-lifting in bringing the proper attention to the filmmaker's work.
Passion...
Passion...
- 12/11/2014
- by Ted Fendt
- MUBI
Translators introduction: This article by Mireille Latil Le Dantec, the first of two parts, was originally published in issue 40 of Cinématographe, September 1978. The previous issue of the magazine had included a dossier on "La qualité française" and a book of a never-shot script by Jean Grémillon (Le Printemps de la Liberté or The Spring of Freedom) had recently been published. The time was ripe for a re-evaluation of Grémillon's films and a resuscitation of his undervalued career. As this re-evaluation appears to still be happening nearly 40 years later—Grémillon's films have only recently seen DVD releases and a 35mm retrospective begins this week at Museum of the Moving Image in Queens—this article and its follow-up gives us an important view of a French perspective on Grémillon's work by a very perceptive critic doing the initial heavy-lifting in bringing the proper attention to the filmmaker's work.
Filmmaker maudit?...
Filmmaker maudit?...
- 11/30/2014
- by Ted Fendt
- MUBI
Omar Sy, François Cluzet, The Intouchables Among the three dozen or so films screening at the City of Lights / City of Angels (Colcoa) French film festival currently being held in Los Angeles, you'll find a couple of restored classics, several César nominees, and one of the biggest box-office hits in French history. Georges Méliès' 1902 short Le voyage dans la lune / A Trip to the Moon, inspired by Jules Verne's novel, is one of the restored classics to be screened at Colcoa. Méliès' short will be accompanied by Serge Bromberg and Eric Lange's Le Voyage extraordinaire / The Extraordinary Voyage, about the making and the restoration of A Trip to the Moon. The festival's other classic presentation is Marcel Carné's 1938 drama Hôtel du Nord, with Arletty, Louis Jouvet, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Tyrone Power's future wife Annabella, the recently deceased Paulette Dubost, and Bernard Blier. Those ignorant about the...
- 4/17/2012
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
French actor best known for her role in Jean Renoir's 1939 masterpiece The Rules of the Game
Although Paulette Dubost, who has died aged 100, appeared in far more films than the number of years she lived, most cinemagoers know her best as Lisette, the coquettish chambermaid in Jean Renoir's La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game, 1939), one of cinema's masterpieces. Lisette, who attends the Marquis de la Chesnaye during a lavish weekend party at a country chateau, flirts dangerously with a poacher turned servant (Julian Carette), while her overly jealous gamekeeper husband (Gaston Modot) tries to catch them at it.
Dubost and Carette play a deliciously sly and comic cat-and-mouse game with the absurdly rigid Modot, especially during the after-dinner entertainment, a breathtaking sequence, described by the critic Richard Roud as something from "a Marx brothers film scripted by a Feydeau who suddenly acquired a tragic sense...
Although Paulette Dubost, who has died aged 100, appeared in far more films than the number of years she lived, most cinemagoers know her best as Lisette, the coquettish chambermaid in Jean Renoir's La Règle du Jeu (The Rules of the Game, 1939), one of cinema's masterpieces. Lisette, who attends the Marquis de la Chesnaye during a lavish weekend party at a country chateau, flirts dangerously with a poacher turned servant (Julian Carette), while her overly jealous gamekeeper husband (Gaston Modot) tries to catch them at it.
Dubost and Carette play a deliciously sly and comic cat-and-mouse game with the absurdly rigid Modot, especially during the after-dinner entertainment, a breathtaking sequence, described by the critic Richard Roud as something from "a Marx brothers film scripted by a Feydeau who suddenly acquired a tragic sense...
- 9/30/2011
- by Ronald Bergan
- The Guardian - Film News
Paulette Dubost, known as the "Dean of French Cinema," and an actress in films directed by Jean Renoir, Marcel L'Herbier, Jacques Tourneur, Julien Duvivier, Max Ophüls, Preston Sturges, François Truffaut, Louis Malle, and Marcel Carné, died of "natural causes" on Sept. 21 in the Parisian suburb of Longjumeau. The Paris-born Dubost had turned 100 years old on October 8, 2010. Dubost's show business career began at the age of seven, performing various duties at the Paris Opera. Following some stage training, her film debut took place in 1931 in Wilhelm Thiele's Le bal, which also marked the film debut of Danielle Darrieux (who's still around and still active). Ultimately, Dubost's film career was to span more than seven decades, during which time she was featured in over 140 movies. She is probably best remembered as the adulterous chambermaid Lisette in Jean Renoir's 1939 comedy-drama La règle du jeu / The Rules of the Game, considered by...
- 9/25/2011
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
According to a title card at the end of Laissez-Passer, Bertrand Tavernier's fact-based drama of the French film industry in wartime, Maurice Tourneur hated the scripts of the few movies he made post-wwii. So there's that.
But his last film, Impasse des Deux Anges (1948), fascinates. If the script has a flaw, it's that it takes a very simple, predictable story (actress runs away from groom the night before her marriage, with an old lover who's also a jewel thief—pursued through the night by gangsters, they conclude their relationship so she can move on) and attempts to reinvigorate it at regular intervals with dizzying tonal shifts, implausible new characters and sub-plots, and ghostly, somnambular flashbacks. But the flaw is also a strength, since it makes the film jazzy, offbeat and strange.
As the "two angels" (though the title really refers to a dead-end street where they made love in...
But his last film, Impasse des Deux Anges (1948), fascinates. If the script has a flaw, it's that it takes a very simple, predictable story (actress runs away from groom the night before her marriage, with an old lover who's also a jewel thief—pursued through the night by gangsters, they conclude their relationship so she can move on) and attempts to reinvigorate it at regular intervals with dizzying tonal shifts, implausible new characters and sub-plots, and ghostly, somnambular flashbacks. But the flaw is also a strength, since it makes the film jazzy, offbeat and strange.
As the "two angels" (though the title really refers to a dead-end street where they made love in...
- 7/14/2011
- MUBI
David Cairns
The Forgotten: Red Tape
The Forgotten: Socko!
The Forgotten: 1001 Nights at the Cinema
The Forgotten: An Empty Room and the Right Kind of People
Fernando F. Croce
Office Spaces: "Babnik" (Alejandro Adams, 2010)
Adrian Curry
Movie Poster of the Week: The Films of Masahiro Shinoda
Movie Poster of the Week: "Despair"
Movie Poster of the Week: The 54th BFI London Film Festival
Movie Posters of the Week: "Black Swan" and "Black Cat"
Movie Poster of the Week: "For Colored Girls"
Michael Guillen
Cinema Is Dead / Long Live Cinema: A Conversation with Federico Veiroj
Meditating On Meteorites: A Conversation with Patricio Guzmán
Daniel Kasman
David Fincher and The Sad Facts
A Listen Back: Music Discovered at Tiff 2010
Nyff 2010. Doppelgangers and Masterworks
Tailor Made (On "Hereafter" and "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger")
Images of the Day: Missing Images from "Eyes Wide Shut"
Video of the Day. "Goddamn Dracula-black":...
The Forgotten: Red Tape
The Forgotten: Socko!
The Forgotten: 1001 Nights at the Cinema
The Forgotten: An Empty Room and the Right Kind of People
Fernando F. Croce
Office Spaces: "Babnik" (Alejandro Adams, 2010)
Adrian Curry
Movie Poster of the Week: The Films of Masahiro Shinoda
Movie Poster of the Week: "Despair"
Movie Poster of the Week: The 54th BFI London Film Festival
Movie Posters of the Week: "Black Swan" and "Black Cat"
Movie Poster of the Week: "For Colored Girls"
Michael Guillen
Cinema Is Dead / Long Live Cinema: A Conversation with Federico Veiroj
Meditating On Meteorites: A Conversation with Patricio Guzmán
Daniel Kasman
David Fincher and The Sad Facts
A Listen Back: Music Discovered at Tiff 2010
Nyff 2010. Doppelgangers and Masterworks
Tailor Made (On "Hereafter" and "You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger")
Images of the Day: Missing Images from "Eyes Wide Shut"
Video of the Day. "Goddamn Dracula-black":...
- 11/3/2010
- MUBI
Above: Alexandre Trauner's sketch for Canal Saint-Martin and Hotel (second building from right).
Besides classical Hollywood, one of the other periods of film history in which studio production design has been so highly noted is the French poetic realist cinema of the 1930s. That period was the peak of creativity and influence of set designers in French film industry since the magical two-dimensional background paintings of Georges Méliès. The achievements of the era saw the making and consolidation of the reputations of designers in France, and growing critical and public interest in the nature of film design. Collaborations between director René Clair and art director Lazare Meerson had been widely seen in Europe and in even North America, where factory’s sets from À nous la liberté (1931) became a source of inspiration for Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936).
Among the architects of poetic realist cinema, one of the most skillful,...
Besides classical Hollywood, one of the other periods of film history in which studio production design has been so highly noted is the French poetic realist cinema of the 1930s. That period was the peak of creativity and influence of set designers in French film industry since the magical two-dimensional background paintings of Georges Méliès. The achievements of the era saw the making and consolidation of the reputations of designers in France, and growing critical and public interest in the nature of film design. Collaborations between director René Clair and art director Lazare Meerson had been widely seen in Europe and in even North America, where factory’s sets from À nous la liberté (1931) became a source of inspiration for Chaplin’s Modern Times (1936).
Among the architects of poetic realist cinema, one of the most skillful,...
- 10/10/2010
- MUBI
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