:
Rhys Ifans,
Rhys Ifans,
Saffron Burrows,
more...
:
Mike Figgis,
Mike Figgis
see all cast/crew...
: 
: MGM
: Drama, Foreign, Italy, British Drama, UK
: 111 min.
: English
: English, Spanish, French
see additional details...
|
|
Following up on his innovative work Timecode, which featured four stories being told in real time simultaneously, Mike Figgis returns to a modified form of his technique in this film about the tourists, the prostitutes, the tour guides, a killer, and a film crew who frequent the Hungarian Palace Hotel in Venice, Italy. A corrupt Eastern European politician and his moll are visiting the city to complete a shady business deal while Sophie is a high-priced call girl who makes an office in one of the hotel's suites. The film crew is attempting to shoot a Dogma 95-style adaptation of John Webster's The Duchess of Malfi only to run into one problem after another. Magic is a professional assassin with a very odd kink -- he must have sex immediately after completing a job. Quintus, who abandoned his attempts to get fame and fortune as an actor, is a tour guide with an unusual secret. And then there is maid who not only has the skeleton key to the hotel, but also a habit of snooping. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
|
| Hotel Hell
by talltale
July 25, 2005 - 5:14 PM PDT
|
|
|
2 out of 2 members found this review helpful
|
Made in 2001 but just now turning up on DVD, Mike Figgis' HOTEL is like few other (perhaps no other?) movies. That alone ought to recommend it to film buffs. But, although it leaps from the starting gate in full swing--fascinating, creepy, funny and fun--as with so much of Figgis' work, your interest may lessen well before the final credits roll due to this director's concentration on odd touches and bizarre visuals rather than on his narrative focus and drive.
Still, with a fabulous international cast of very game actors, all doing their best, there is a lot to watch--including some pleasantly perverse sex and nice full-frontal. The CGI-ed location shots of Venice make the title hotel look like an interesting optical illusion, and Figgis' split screen effects are used less often (and consequently more interestingly) than in "Timecode." Nonetheless, by film's end you may find, as did I, that the rendition used here of "The Duchess of Malfi" is just a bit more interesting than the modern-day story (including the movie crew) that surrounds it. |
|
|
GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 5.17)
12 Votes
add to list 
|
|
|
Your cart
© 2006 All Media Guide, LLC. Portions of content provided by All Movie Guide®,
a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC.