HOTEL DES AMERIQUES

France, 1982, 95 minutes, Colour.
Patrick Dewaere, Catherine Deneuve, Sabine Haudepin, Josiane Balasco.
Directed by Andre Techine.

Hotel des Ameriques is a psychological drama from Andre Techine. Techine began directing films in 1970 and was still making films in the first decade of the 21st century. He has built up quite a canon of psychological dramas, including The Wild Reeds, Alice and Martin, Strayed.

Patrick Dewaere is the hero of the film – an ambiguous hero, living with his mother, running a small hotel in Biarritz. Involved in a car accident with Helene, an anaesthetist, he begins a relationship with her, difficult to tell whether it is passionate or she is a mother figure. He is also in a relationship with Bernard, a self-absorbed singer who is in trouble with the police.

The film’s strength is in Patrick Dewaere’s performances as well as the presence of Catherine Deneuve as the anaesthetist. In all Techine’s films, there is not so much an emphasis on psychological analysis but rather a portrayal of the characters in their strange relationships with each other.

1. An entertaining and interesting film? A French melancholic romance? The Gallic touch?

2. The impact of the stars and their styles? The importance of style and mood for the film? The background of Biarritz? The sea, the buildings, Le Salamandre? The atmosphere of the house? The credits and the past? The hotels, the hospitals? The use of Panavision colour photography? The atmosphere of the score?

3. A film of the '70s and '80s: a French love story, relationships, inadequacy and pain, depression and loss?

4. Patrick Dewaere and his style and presence as Gilles? The setting of Biarritz in contrast with other French cities e.g. Paris? Its not being Paris? His background, being hit by Helene, wandering? The infatuation? His sleeping in the cafe? Following her, the date? Their communicating, talk, his hurt, the meaning of his own life? The friendship and relationship with Bernard? Sensitivity? Elise and her family? His falling in love? The floor, the painting, his changing? His going to Paris? The support from Bernard? The reality of the Salamandre? Decay and depression? Wandering? London? The beach? The further depression? The week passing? Hotel, prison? Collette and the night? His breaking out and lost opportunities? His pursuit? The portrait of an offbeat French character?

5. Catherine Deneuve's beauty and presence as Helene? The introduction to her, her being tied? Her year in Biarritz? Hospital work? Loneliness? The date, the puzzle? Her melancholic style compared with that of Gilles? Her being changed by the experience with him? Her 'mothering'? Living with him, her love for him? The Salamandre? The past? Rudel etc.? The change in her? The visit to Paris and immersing herself in things Parisienne? Coping, the pain, leaving?

6. How well did the film show the interaction between two different characters? Love, depression, forgetting each other, change?

7. The contrast with Bernard, New York, songs, dates, women, the trip, his being kicked out, the homosexual aspects, prison, release, leaving?

8. Elise and the family? The gentleness, the bonds. the help?
9. The background of the homosexuals and the pick-ups? Bernard. Collette?

10. The sketch of the character of Rundle? Influence?

11. Biarritz and its atmosphere? Tourists? The contrast between the view of tourists and those who lived in the city?

12. The title of the film? The hotel? The changes? The hotel as a character and influencing the central characters?

13. The film as a mood piece? A sketch of characters? An experience of emotional intensity?