Hotel Room

Review by Amos Lassen for Hotel Room
Rating:
“Hotel Room”

Behind Closed Doors

Amos Lassen and Cinema Pride

Somewhere in New York City there is a seedy hotel that has hosted some seedy activities. Director Cesc Gay who won acclaim with Nico and Dani” also directed and co-wrote this film which s shot badly in black and white. It is one of those films which had more imagination than money and it shows. But even with that, “Hotel Room” is an interesting film. We see the director had promise and he showed it to us in his later films. From an intriguing idea comes a film that is not as intriguing as it could have been. This is because of the five vignettes we see in the hotel room; none of them manage to hold our interest very long.

The first vignette is about a pair of newlyweds on their honeymoon. The second is about a magician who seems to know quite a lot about the prostitute that comes to his room and this is followed by the third in which a photographer is obsessed by a woman sitting on a bench across the street and outside of his window. Then there are two gays, one of whom seems to be gay, Finally there is a man, a cross-dresser, who attempts to commit suicide when he is visited by an agent of a firm that assists in death who aggress to help die for a ridiculous price. Suddenly we return to the newly weds but this time their tale ends differently.

The first time we meet the newlyweds, their story ends with the bride ending up dead and being put into a closet and there it says as others come into room 426 of the hotel. All of the characters in 426 seem to be charmed by fate as they wait for their lives to move onto the next plateau. The only thing they all have in common is the hotel maid and the dead bride in the closet.

The images are stunning and there is a story in what we see. I am just not real sure what it is. It is interesting to watch this movie as a precursor to the directors “In the City” and “Nico and Dani”. It is in this film that the seeds for his later genius are planted.