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.
Review of Hotel du Nord
