Above: Anna Massey as Edith Hope in HOTEL DU LAC
{Having a late-Summer re-read of this charming - and moving - book by Amanda Brookner, and watching the movie yet again.}
HOTEL DU LAC is a 1986 jewel of a film which I watch every summer. As far as I know, it's never been released on DVD, but I have my old VHS copy. Though I have watched it a dozen times, it still touches me, in part because it deals with romance/sex among people of a certain age.
The central character, Edith Hope, is a successful middle-aged writer of romance novels. After many years of leading a seemingly contented solitary life, she accepts a marriage proposal only to leave her prospective groom standing on the church steps when she has a sudden change of heart on her wedding day. Her friends are outraged, and she flees London for a bit of peace at an off-season hotel on Lake Lucerne: the Hotel Du Lac. Here she meets - and nearly marries - Philip Neville, a successful businessman who makes her a surprising offer.
The other guests at the hotel provide comic relief though all are, in their own way, sad and lonely people. Edith's London set also provide for some interesting personality studies.
Two of my very favorite actors, Anna Massey and Denholm Elliott (above), are so perfectly cast as Edith and Philip. Both these remarkable thespians have since passed away; it makes me feel blue to think we'll not be seeing their faces and hearing their memorable voices in future films. The rest of the cast are excellent.
And you know me: always an eye for the handsome face. A very young Jean-Marc Barr (above, photographed a few years further on) plays Alain, a waiter at the Hotel Du Lac who loses his job when blamed for something he didn't do. Msser. Barr went on to appear in many films, including EUROPA, BREAKING THE WAVES, and DOGVILLE. As Alain, he's deliciously naive and sincere.
Anna Massey, by the way, was the daughter of actor Raymond Massey. She passed away in 2011.