Hey folks, Harry here to introduce the RAVishing Rav, the belle of the ball(s) so to speak. He's just an absolute doll to watch movies with, what with the bevy of come hither looks and all... But I'll give him this, he's a movie maniac, I see him just about everywhere at everything, and as soon as he'd stop wearing the plastic miniskirts with longjohns... Well, I'd actually speak with him more, but... That stuff is just too hot. Here he is with a stake in the heart of WorldFest, which he apparently isn't a huge fan of.... And an absolute rave of Figgis' HOTEL. Here ya go...
hey harry,
I really haven't had much of an idea on what to expect out of Hotel, nordling called it a glorious mess, someone else told me it was amazing, and a review out of Rotterdam I read described the film as downright unwatchable. Going into it I had read multiple reviews and breakdowns, but still really had no clue what the fuck the film was really about, one tells me its about vampires while another says its a spoof on dogme 95 filmmaking and another just tells me its a complete mess. So having no clue in mind what I was about to be watching I traveled down to the worldfest film festival to watch the film, the notion that this film is without a distributor screening at shit-fest is not good at all.
WORLDFEST REALLY FUCKING SUCKS!
This festival sucks, but it has a monopoly on film festivals in Houston, Hunter has a motto that this is the only "truly independent film festival" it really would be great if it was true three years back he showcased "Love and Basketball" as a sneak preview two weeks pre-release along with two Showtime films, last year there was one Showtime film. Last year a clandestine group attempted to put up a anti-worldfest-film-festival over here claiming worldfest was racist, Hunter should take that as a complement as about only 45 people showed up for the BIG GRAND opening night gala. Apparently a better festival will be coming to Houston in July, so keep your ears to the ground at the angelica film center. Oh and to anyone thinking Dennis Hopper is coming to Easy Rider tomorrow, he will not be attending.....The festival seems to still hint that he's coming (as attendance is loooooooooooooooow).
Worldfest might suck, but it draws the occasional gem last year I loved See Jane Run (seems to be coming to theatres in December and Sarah Thorp has now gone on to write Blackout), this year I fell in love with a short film called Indefinitely directed by Mark Pivlinsky (keep your eyes on this guy). That short kicked me in my ass when I least expected it. Figgis was smart for not attending worldfest, if he had Hunter would probably have added him to the list of director's he's "discovered" over the years, the current list that he names off before every single screening includes, Lynch, Lucas, Spielberg, Coen bros., and Ang Lee, apparently they won their first prizes at worldfest.....WOOOHOOO! Every film seems to come off with a prize here, they've got more categories than the Oscar ceremony in Naked Gun 33 1/3rd but here there are three prizes for every category. Hunter obviously was paying attention during his Kindergarten class with Perry Ellis when the teacher taught them the lesson that everybody is a "winner"....somehow I don't think Ms. Mitchell intended this.
Okay my worldfest ranting is over; no really I promise it's ended.
HOTEL IS REALLY FUCKING GOOD!
Hotel starts off on a very high note, John Malkovich checks into a hotel and winds up locked in a cage where he begins to feed on human flesh with the hotel staff. With an introduction like that I thought I was in store for a very artsy version of Bloodfeast with a kick ass score and videography. Really it's just one of the many jabs Figgis hits you with throughout the film. The film follows a few film crews that have chosen the hotel for the filming location of their two movies, one a dogme 95 adaptation on the duchess of Malfi and the other a making-of documentary hosted by Salma Heyek, who's character seems like she was ripped right from the audience of MTV's TRL.....the doc is going more for a canned ham look at Lucky Numbers rather than Hearts of Darkness. Rhys Ifans plays the director of the dogme 95 film, the film seems to be dogme 95 as an excuse to film cheaply. Ifans is great, his director persona is so gleeful and in an odd way fun (I beg someone not to laugh during the pigeons scene), then he takes it to the manic-depressive artist side of the director getting into fights with his producer while begging his actor's to have raw animalistic sex. Max Beesly finally absolved himself for Glitter, in exactly the punishment that the prophecy's decreed, just wait and unless you watch Takashi Miike films you so won't be expecting it. Danny Huston and the rest of the hotel staff/evil creatures are so fucking creepy, these guys should be in every film made man every b/w scene with them sent chills down my spine.
The film's narrative can be very incoherent at times, but he never really wastes your time with meaningless shit. Here he brings back the split screen system he used in Time-code and uses it to its full advantage. In one box there might be something absolutely crucial that you should be watching, but two boxes over there's hot lesbian cannibal sex, this guy truly is a mad genius. At times the film can feel very surreal floating around in jumpy swishy video, but quickly Saffron Burrows gives birth to plastic babies or a Jerry Springer-esque bitch fight between Salma Hayek and Lucy Liu comes up rushing you back to reality, hehe. Someone pick this film up for distribution, so at least I can go pick up the edited score at Wal-Mart.
Sorry to cut this review a bit short there is much more I'd like to spill about Hotel, but I must get back to shit-fest now to watch this film called Unspeakable.
later,
Ravvy
