L'Hôtel du libre échange
by Georges Feydeau, Maurice Desvallièresliterary work
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L'Hôtel du libre échange (French for Free-Exchange Hotel) is a comedy written by the French playwrights Georges Feydeau and Maurice Desvallières in 1894. The play takes place in 19th-century Paris and follows two Parisian households and their friends over the course of two days. The play has three acts: the first and final acts are set in Monsieur Pinglet's office, while the second act is set in a small Parisian hotel. The play has been translated into several other languages. The vaudeville was first performed at the Théâtre des Nouveautés, Paris, on 5 December 1894. The Annales du Théâtre et de la Musique, noting that the laughter reverberated inside and out of the auditorium, said that a reviewer could only laugh and applaud rather than criticise.
Adaptations (1)
L'Hôtel du libre échange was adapted into a 1966 film.
Hotel Paradiso1966 · film · 98 min · dir. Peter Glenville · IMDb ↗IMDb6.1Monsieur Feydeau has writer's block and he needs a new play, so he takes an opportunity to observe his upper class neighbors of 1900 Paris. There is Monsieur Boniface with hard domineering wife Angelique; also, Monsieur Cotte with beautiful but neglected wife Marcelle. Henri Cotte traces architectural anomalies (mostly "ghost" sounds in the drain pipes) and plans a night at the Hotel Paradiso, which happens to be the chosen romantic rendezvous spot of Marcelle and Monsieur Boniface. One wife, two husbands, a nephew, and the perky Boniface maid, all at this 'by the hour' hotel and consummation of the affair is, to say the least, severely compromised (not the least by a police raid). All of this is under Feydeau's eye, and his play is the 'success fou' of the next season.
