HOTEL PARADISO

UK, 1966, 98 minutes, Colour.
Alec Guinness, Robert Morley, Gina Lollobrigida, Peggy Mount, Derek Fowlds, Leonard Rossiter, Akim Tamiroff.
Directed by Peter Glenville.

Hotel Paradiso is based on a play by French satirist Georges Feydeau. Other versions of his films include A Flea In Her Ear.

Peter Glenville, actor-turned-director, appears as Feydeau himself, observing the farcical bedroom shenanigans of people in the Hotel Paradiso. They are to be the basis for his play. Alec Guinness and Gina Lollobrigida work well and Robert Morley is his usual self.

Peter Glenville had directed Alec Guinness in The Prisoner in 1955 and was to direct him again the following year with Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in Graham Greene’s The Comedians.

This is a British interpretation and staging of French farce – which Glenville had done successfully on stage.

1. An enjoyable film? Why? As a comedy, satire, farce?

2. The attractiveness of the colour, sets, decor? The personalities of the actors? Did these all add up to a success? Why?

3. What is the response to French farce? Nineteenth century atmosphere, the rich, marriages and infidelities, hotels and assignations, the sexual overtones, the coincidences, the frantic atmosphere? How well portrayed were these conventions in this film? why do people enjoy them? The suspense and mystery?

3. Are such films moral or amoral in their purpose? Their presentation of manners? Their observation of society? Their exposure of hypocrisies? The issue of hypocrisy in the audiences? And this a highlight of the ending for the film? The moral purpose of such farce?

4. The technique of having the author look at the characters and write his play? His role at the start and his observations? Did he obtrude during the film? The irony ? and cruelty? ? of the ending of the film? The author and hypocrisy?

5. The use of improbable situations in such films? How well were they used here? How humorously? Getting out of houses, police raids, identifications etc.?

6. How important was style for this film - to tide over improbabilities? The use of Paris and its atmosphere also for style?

7. How interesting were the persons concerned, what did they stand for? What moral attitudes? All as hypocrites? Boniface as hero? His attraction for Madame Comte? Madame Comte and her infidelity? Monsieur Comte and his preoccupation with his work? The maid? Mr Martin and his daughters? The manager of the hotel? The police and the assistant? The Turk in the hotel? How humorous were all these characters? Were they real persons or did they stand for attitudes?

8. Predictability is essential for this kind of film? How was this illustrated in the screenplay and in audience response?

9. How humorous were the details of the film? Which sequences and situations illustrated this best?

10. The ending - how important was it for its comment on the behaviour of the characters? For modern audiences to understand French farce and this moral tone to it? Was the ending necessary?

ll. Do modern audiences like this kind of film?

12. How successful are such films for audiences outside France? Why?