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. The film itself makes several mentions of the Dogme 95 style of filmmaking, and has been described as a “Dogme film-within-a-film.”
Hotel is a 2001 experimental British-Italian comedy thriller film directed by Mike Figgis. It stars Max Beesley, Saffron Burrows, Rhys Ifans, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Andrea Di Stefano, Valentina Cervi, Valeria Golino, Salma Hayek and Nicola Farron.
Hotel (2003)
Directed by: Mike Figgis
Starring: Max Beesley, Saffron Burrows, Rhys Ifans, Fabrizio Bentivoglio, Andrea Di Stefano, Valentina Cervi, Valeria Golino, Salma Hayek, Nicola Farron
Screenplay by: Mike Figgis, Heathcote Williams
Production Design by: Franco Fumagalli
Cinematography by: Patrick Alexander Stewart
Costume Design by: Catherine Buyse Dian
Music by: Mike Figgis, Anthony Marinelli
MPAA Rating: R for strong sexual content, violence and language.
Distributed by: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Release Date: July 25, 2003
Visits: 104
