Hotel du Nord Blu-ray

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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r

(aka "Hôtel du Nord" or "North Hotel" or "Hotel of the North")

Directed by Marcel Carné
France 1938

Anguished young lovers, fallen women, wanted criminals, and all manner of social castoffs: these are the disreputable denizens of the Hôtel du Nord, an atmospherically seedy boardinghouse on the bustling banks of the Canal Saint-Martin in Paris, whose lives collide in Marcel Carné’s bittersweet rhapsody of romance, betrayal, revelry, and violence.

Featuring evocative production design by the famed Alexandre Trauner and a colorful ensemble cast of some of classical French cinema’s most illustrious stars—including Annabella, Louis Jouvet, and a divinely dissolute Arletty in one of her most iconic roles—poetic-realist jewel Hôtel du Nord is a sublime exemplar of Carné’s celebrated poetic realism, imbuing working-class lives and dramas with a touching nobility.

***

A young couple, Renee and Pierre, take one night a room at the Hotel du Nord, in Paris, near the canal Saint-Martin. They want to die together, but having shot at Renee, Pierre lacked the courage to finish the job and fled. Another customer, Monsieur Edmond, a procurer, rescues her. When Renee goes out of the hospital, she is hired as a waitress at the hotel. Monsieur Edmond falls in love with her, but Renee is still thinking of Pierre...

Posters

Theatrical Release: December 10th, 1938

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Review: Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray

Thanks to David Hare for the DVD screen captures!

Box Cover		CLICK to order from: Bonus Captures:
Distribution	Criterion Spine #1139 - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
Runtime	1:37:06.904
Video	1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 47,799,734,918 bytes Feature: 28,953,987,072 bytes Video Bitrate: 35.62 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
	NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes.
Bitrate Blu-ray:
Audio	LPCM Audio French 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit
Subtitles	English, None
Features	Release Information: Studio: Criterion 1.37:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-ray Disc Size: 47,799,734,918 bytes Feature: 28,953,987,072 bytes Video Bitrate: 35.62 Mbps Codec: MPEG-4 AVC Video Edition Details: • New conversation between filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) and journalist Philippe Morisson (18:32) • Program on the making of the film (33:14) • Documentary about Carné’s life and career (30:15) • Trailer (4:28) Blu-ray Release Date: August 23rd, 2022 Transparent Blu-ray Case Chapters 17

Comments:

NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray (August 2022): Criterion have transferred Marcel Carné's Hôtel du Nord to Blu-ray. It is cited as being from a "New 2K digital restoration". Arrow released Hôtel du Nord on Blu-ray in 2020, HERE. We don't have a 1080P copy to compare, but we do have some captures of the 2006 Soda Pictures PAL DVD (Thanks David Hare) and have compared them below. The DVD was not bad in its day but the higher resolution improves in the anticipated areas; texture, better balanced contrast (the DVD had some untoward brightness in a few scenes) and it shows a sliver more information in the frame - mostly the right edge. It is also marginally sharper and the DVD may be vertically stretched. We endorse the HD presentation.

NOTE: We have added 54 more large resolution Blu-ray captures (in lossless PNG format) for DVDBeaver Patrons HERE

On their Blu-ray, Criterion use a linear PCM mono track (16-bit) in the original French language. Hôtel du Nord has gunshots and carnival sounds, fireworks etc. that come through with authentically flat. The score is by Maurice Jaubert (Le Jour Se Leve, L'Atalante, Drole de Drame, Port of Shadows, Truffaut's The Green Room) and some may recognize Viva la conga played at the Carnival celebrations. The audio is fairly consistent without discernable flaws in the uncompressed transfer. Criterion offer optional English subtitles on their Region 'A' Blu-ray.

Included on the Blu-ray is a new, 18.5-minute, conversation recorded by Criterion in Paris in spring 2022, with filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet and journalist Philippe Morisson discussing director Marcel Carne's contributions to French cinema and the role Hotel du Nord played in the development of poetic realism. There is also a 1/2 hour program, aired by Au cinema ce soir and directed by Solange Peter, made to present Hotel du Nord to audiences when that film shown on French television on April 7th, 1972. It is entitled "Making Hôtel du Nord" and features interviews with director Marcel Carne, screenwriter Henri Jeanson, and actors Arletty and Jean-Pierre Aumont, as well as a newsreel on the state of the country during the film's 1938 production. There is also a 30-minute 1994 documentary by Jean-Denis Bonan, Carne, You Said Carne, offering a primer on director Marcel Carne's career through interviews with critics and close creative collaborators. Lastly, is a lengthy trailer and the package has liner notes with an essay by film and theater scholar Edward Baron Turk.

Marcel Carné's Hôtel du Nord is a lesser discussed effort from the director of Children of Paradise. Although it does have one of the most famous lines in French cinema history, as said by Arletty, who plays a prostitute; "Atmosphère ! Atmosphère ! Est-ce que j'ai une gueule d'atmosphère?" ("Atmosphere! Atmosphere! Do I look like an atmosphere?") Annabella was cast with Jean-Pierre Aumont as the romantic pair considering a lovers’ suicide. They had previously played star-crossed lovers in Anatole Litvak's 1935 film L'Equipage. It is frequently cited as a work of poetic realism, sometimes regarded as "recreated realism" - stylized and usually studio-set produced. I enjoyed Hôtel du Nord on Criterion's Blu-ray and it was a pleasure to indulge in the supplements discussing the lauded director and the film. Certainly recommended!