1 place 3 films: Fantômas & the French New Wave
My attempt (here) to identify all of the locations in Feuillade's Fantômas films (1913-14) began badly when I couldn't find the location for the 'Royal Palace Hotel', where Fantômas robs princess Danidoff:
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When I came across this same place in another film I was able to identify it as the Trianon Palace Hôtel in Versailles, which opened in 1910. Here is a postcard from that period:
In the war the hotel served as an English military hospital:
And in 1919 it was the location for the Versailles peace talks:
The other film in which I came across this location was Chabrol's contribution to the sketch film Les Plus Belles Escroqueries du monde (1964). In 'L'Homme qui vendit la Tour Eiffel', a German is duped into believing he has bought the Eiffel Tower at a meeting in this hotel:
Chabrol's film provides no more clues than Feuillade's as to where this hotel is, but its use by another New Wave director that same year enabled the identification to be made. In Truffaut's La Peau douce the protagonist goes to Reims to introduce a film, and he is supposed to be staying at the 'Grand Hôtel'. Truffaut uses the Trianon Palace Hôtel to represent that Reims hotel:
I don't suppose that either Truffaut or Chabrol knew that they were filming in the footsteps of Feuillade, though Chabrol - the more Feuilladian of the two - might have made the connection. By coincidence, at just this time it had been suggested that he might make a Fantômas film, though the project came to nothing and it was André Hunebelle who that year made Fantômas (followed the next year by Fantômas se déchaîne and in 1967 by Fantômas contre Scotland Yard).
[addition: 26.12.2015]
This post should have been headed 'One Place Five Films'. I have since found the Trianon Palace in two more films. In 1964 Jean-Louis Richard's film Mata Hari agent H21 (co-written by Truffaut) used the hotel:
This post should have been headed 'One Place Five Films'. I have since found the Trianon Palace in two more films. In 1964 Jean-Louis Richard's film Mata Hari agent H21 (co-written by Truffaut) used the hotel:
And Chabrol returned here in 1992, for Betty:
In 1980 Chabrol made two Fantômas films for television, L'Echafaud magique and Le Tramway fantôme. The first of these is a remake of Feuillade's first film, including the incident at the 'Royal Palace Hotel'. Chabrol does not return to Versailles for this location. This is the Hôtel Bristol, on the rue du faubourg Saint Honoré:
L'Echafaud magique (Claude Chabrol 1980)
