Hôtel du Nord

Hôtel du Nord is a 1938 French drama directed by Marcel Carné, written by Jean Aurenche and Henri Jeanson. Although billed as an adaptation of Eugène Dabit's 1929 novel, the film borrows almost nothing from the book beyond its setting: none of Dabit's characters appear on screen. The story unfolds in a small boarding house on the quai de Jemmapes, in a working-class corner of Paris. Two couples share the roof. Pierre and Renée, young lovers without steady work, attempt to end their lives together but survive. Alongside them live Raymonde, a prostitute, and Edmond, her pimp, a petty crook lying low because his old accomplices are after him. The fates of the two pairs become entangled. Counted among the defining works of poetic realism, sometimes described as an early form of film noir, the picture stars Annabella, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Louis Jouvet and Arletty, whose supporting turn won her extraordinary popular acclaim.