Hôtel du Nord

Hôtel du Nord

Year: 1938

Runtime: 97 mins

Language: French

Director: Marcel Carné

RomanceDrama

A young couple’s suicide pact goes awry, leaving the woman to face her survival with a new admirer while pining for her lost love.

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Timeline & Setting – Hôtel du Nord (1938)

Explore the full timeline and setting of Hôtel du Nord (1938). Follow every major event in chronological order and see how the environment shapes the story, characters, and dramatic tension.

Time period

Location

Hôtel du Nord, Paris

Hôtel du Nord is a busy, affordable lodging in a working-class district of Paris. The hotel acts as a crossroads where locals, travelers and vagrants cross paths, reflecting the social tensions of the city. Its rooms and corridors host the drama of love, crime, and escape that unfolds in the story.

🏙️ Urban 🎭 Drama 💰 Poverty

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 17:16

Main Characters – Hôtel du Nord (1938)

Meet the key characters of Hôtel du Nord (1938), with detailed profiles, motivations, and roles in the plot. Understand their emotional journeys and what they reveal about the film’s deeper themes.

Raymonde (Arletty)

A sex worker who shares a room at the Hôtel du Nord and becomes entangled with Edmond. Resourceful and wary, she navigates the hotel’s social web while trying to protect her livelihood and future.

👗 Protagonist 🕊️ Survivor 🧭 Complex

Edmond (Louis Jouvet)

A pimp with a criminal past who uses the hotel as a base. He oscillates between self-preservation and a dangerous romance with Renée, plotting an escape while grappling with his history.

💼 Pimp 🕵️‍♂️ Cunning 🧭 Dangerous

Renée (Annabella)

A young woman rescued from a suicide pact who becomes involved with Edmond. She embodies resilience, hope, and a desire for a safer life, while the tabloids complicate her prospects.

💖 Hope 🕊️ Survivor 💬 Love

Pierre (Jean-Pierre Aumont)

Renée’s partner in a doomed suicide plan, whose fate drives the plot. He is impulsive and passionate, ending up in custody and shaping the moral outcomes of the case.

💔 Lover 🔫 Impulsive 🧭 Fateful

Le commissaire (Armand Lurville)

The police figure investigating the case and determining the fate of the central characters. He embodies authority and skepticism as the truth unfolds.

👮 Authority 🕵️ Investigation 🧭 Skeptical

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 17:16

Major Themes – Hôtel du Nord (1938)

Explore the central themes of Hôtel du Nord (1938), from psychological, social, and emotional dimensions to philosophical messages. Understand what the film is really saying beneath the surface.

💔 Poverty & Desperation

The film centers on characters constrained by financial hardship, pushing them toward drastic choices. The suicide pact between Renée and Pierre exposes how poverty forces people to gamble with life and love. The hotel setting amplifies the social pressures that drive desperate acts.

🎭 Past & Consequence

Edmond's criminal history haunts him as he seeks to escape Paris and his old life. The narrative shows how past actions in a close-knit street community shape present decisions. The tension between secrecy and exposure drives the drama.

🏨 Community & Survival

The Hôtel du Nord functions as a micro-society where strangers become provisional allies. In a city full of noise, the hotel offers shelter and complicity, allowing relationships to form and unravel.

Last Updated: October 04, 2025 at 17:16

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Movies about fated love in working-class worlds like Hôtel du Nord

Stories of desperate love and quiet tragedy amidst the grit of urban life.Explore more movies like Hôtel du Nord, featuring romantic dramas set in vibrant but gritty urban environments. These similar stories often involve desperate characters, moral choices, and a melancholic tone, capturing the bittersweet nature of love and survival in a specific, atmospheric locale.

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Narrative Summary

Narratives often begin with a desperate act or an impossible love within a confined social setting. The story unfolds steadily, weaving together character arcs and subplots that highlight the tension between personal desire and harsh reality, typically culminating in a loss or a bittersweet resolution that underscores a sense of fate.

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These films are grouped together for their shared focus on a melancholic, atmospheric mood, their setting within a bustling, working-class microcosm, and their exploration of love and survival against a backdrop of grim reality and moral ambiguity.

Movies about survival and bittersweet new beginnings like Hôtel du Nord

Characters survive a dark pact or tragedy, only to face a complicated new reality.If you liked the story of survival and complicated new love after a suicide pact in Hôtel du Nord, you'll find similar movies here. These dramas explore themes of second chances, emotional scars, and fragile hope following a life-altering crisis or tragic event.

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Narrative Summary

The narrative pattern hinges on a pivotal, dark event that tests the bonds between characters. The story then follows the aftermath, exploring the psychological and emotional repercussions for those who survive. The journey is one of grappling with guilt, loss, and the possibility of new connections, culminating in an ending that acknowledges the pain of the past while tentatively embracing the future.

Why These Movies?

These films share a specific narrative arc that begins with a profound crisis of hope, explores the heavy emotional aftermath, and concludes with a resolution that is neither fully happy nor entirely tragic, but authentically bittersweet.

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Hôtel du Nord Summary

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Hôtel du Nord Summary

Hôtel du Nord Timeline

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Hôtel du Nord Timeline

Hôtel du Nord Spoiler-Free Summary

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Hôtel du Nord Spoiler-Free Summary

More About Hôtel du Nord

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