Hotel du Nord / Hôtel du Nord (1938) [The Criterion Collection]

Director: Marcel Carné
Writers: Eugène Dabit (novel "Hôtel du Nord"), Henri Jeanson (dialogue), Jean Aurenche (adaptation)
Stars: Annabella, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Louis Jouvet

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—Hôtel du Nord is a jewel of a film and a sublime exemplar of Carné’s celebrated poetics, imbuing working-class lives and dramas with a touching nobility.

Extras:
- New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
- New conversation between filmmaker Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amélie) and journalist Philippe Morisson
- Television program from 1972 on the making of the film
- Documentary from 1994 on the life and career of director Marcel Carné
- Trailer
- New English subtitle translation