Hôtel du Paradis

Joseph (Rey) is an aging actor whose film career has been marked by a string of villain roles in Bond films. During a work-related vacation in Paris, he tries in vain to stage Camus’s play The Fall, and his path crosses with other, variously estranged hotel guests: Frédérique (Bonvoisin), a photographer on the run from her ex-boyfriend; Arthur (Luchini), a budding filmmaker; and Maurice (Quester), a theater owner whose revenues are plummeting. Jana Boková’s film is a melancholic portrait of exile that threatens to slip into sentimentality. However, her conviction that seemingly trivial events often embody the most significant episodes of human communication, and her resolute refusal to disrupt the atmosphere by forcing the story forward, constantly elevate her work above such banality.