Hotel (2004 film)
- Franziska Weisz: Irene
- Birgit Minichmayr: Petra
- Marlene Streeruwitz: Woman Maschek
- Pink Waissnix: Woman Liebig
- Christopher Sharpening: Erik
- Peter Strauss: Mr. Kos
- Regina Fritsch: Karin
- Alfred Worel: Mr. Liebig
Hotel combines an Austrian film directed by Jessica Hausner in 2004, the elements of the horror film and psychological thriller.
Action
Irene, a reserved young woman takes her new job as a receptionist in the remote mountain Hotel Waldhaus. At the beginning you will be shown the basement floor, which will control part of their daily duties. The indication that the service entrance must be closed always ends with the postscript: " The Devil Never Sleeps ".
Irene learns that her predecessor Eva had mysteriously disappeared. In her apartment at the Hotel they found in a drawer a case with the inscription EVA S. and a red -framed glasses. Later, she realizes Eva basis of these glasses in the head office on a Belegschafts group photo. From the beginning, Irene a high degree of aloofness and coolness of their colleagues and superiors is exposed. One of the few moments in which Irene smiles and makes a satisfied impression count the phone calls with her mother.
In a nearby nightclub Irene Erik learns, with whom she is romantically involved soon thereafter. At a meeting he shows her in the forest a dark cave. The mounted next to the cave entrance panel explains the legend of the so-called forest woman, a herbalist, the 1591 was burned as a witch at the stake. 1962 to hikers who had built their camp near the cave, be gone. Irene and Erik go into the cave and kiss there. Shortly thereafter, Irene discovered near the cave entrance a tree on which apparently couples have immortalized with carvings, the last pair of names that she reads, is Eva and Dragan. On the way home she sees how police officers or detectives search a pond with rods.
When Irene after their evening swim in the hotel indoor pool their previously stored Necklace with Cross Pendant missing and their broken glasses will take place on the ground, they report the suspected theft of the hotel manager. This later confronted the assembled workforce, whereby the behavior of their colleagues distanced worse. The chain emerged some time later on, the boss explained only tersely that she had been found in the woods. Instead of her broken glasses Irene is now turning to the colored glasses of its predecessor. When Irene Mrs Liebig, the cleaning lady, responsive to the group photo and asks if she can tell her about Eva replied that only " Go away from here," and then mutters a short prayer.
Irene goes several times in the forest and enters the cave, which has shown her Erik. In a nightly walk in the woods, she stops suddenly seems somewhat surprising move toward from behind them. Irene turns around and lets out a scream, which is, however, drowned out by a high-pitched noise.
One night, Irene can not sleep due to loud music and complains to her colleagues who play darts in a room on the same floor, dance and get drunk. The complaint is ignored by colleagues, Irene remains in their rooms, huddles with resignation into a chair and falls asleep. When she wakes up, she is alone and finds the head of a forest woman doll in her lap she throws away in disgust.
In the hotel lobby to entertain two detectives, and then walk away with Mrs. Liebig. Petra, Irene's colleague at the reception, then says " Now they've found it ." Demand, who or what was found for is acknowledged with disinterested shrug. When eating together of the staff the courts of Mrs. Liebig and their busy man also on site are empty.
Irene concerned at an optician's new glasses. In the hotel she asks Petra to swap with their layers so they can go to their family home. Petra demands to be allowed to borrow Irene's Lucky Charm Necklace, including consents only reluctantly.
When Irene late in the evening, the hotel leaves in the course of their basement control passage through the delivery entrance to smoke, they have to say then that it is locked. She goes into the adjoining woods and slowly disappearing in the darkness between the trees. After some time, you can hear someone or something screech. The film ends with a young woman wearing a similar glasses as Irene and apparently will be her successor, a job interview in the hotel.
Stylistic devices
Jessica Hausner produced from the first minute to a constant feeling of unease. Cold, dark rooms, fluorescent lamps, central perspective centered courses which end is hidden in the shadows and a haunting acting forest produce an eerie, unsettling atmosphere. The individual sites, even within the hotel, are to each other without spatial reference, the viewer should share the oppressive feeling of the main character to be a stranger here, and surrounded by latent threats.
The plot reminds roughly by Stanley Kubrick Shining, too, the venue is a remote hotel where the predecessor of the main character was involved in terrible and mysterious happenings. In addition, an old group photo at a hotel wall comes to importance. It can also be seen references to the films of David Lynch, among other things, the red curtain, the ending in the dark Nothing translucent courses and the use of space noises as a stylistic device. In addition, the viewer is no " salvation " granted by a traditional end or a resolution, but the ever-present discomfort should remain after the open end. The legend of the witch of the woods and thus placed in the context disappearance of hikers in the woods again remember the Blair Witch Project. The sounds of the flickering neon light in the basement, the mention of the timer of the last light switch and the consequent threat, of unexpected darkness and the red panic buttons on the walls of the room can also similarities to Ole Bornedal Nightwatch - Nightwatch recognize.
Find out more
The film premiered in the Un Certain Regard at the official program of the International Film Festival of Cannes 2004.
Pink Waissnix, the actress wife of Liebig, is not a professional actress, but the owner of the place in which the film was shot.
In Austria and especially in Styria there are some legends about forest women. It usually is friendly, the people well-disposed beings, whereas in the film gives the impression that the forest woman symbolizing evil and frightening, which is amplified by the forest woman doll that is on display in a showcase at the hotel.
Reviews
" The atmospherically dense, multi-layered horror film uses conventions of the genre and reflects them, which he does not rely on shock, but to uncertainty and bewilderment. Stylistically, precisely composed, everyday images of a repressive society merge allusions to the mysterious atmosphere of a Grimm's fairy tale. "
" Hausner now manages a small, mean work that so effectively disturbance produced like no other German-speaking cinema for three decades. [ ... ] Similarly, the disturbing visions of Michael Haneke unfolds the fear of everything by a consistent non- compliance with any film convention, beginning at virtually wordless scenario where each of the extremely rare sets raises three to four new questions. "
"Without a doubt remarkable is this form of social nightmare as experienced in Jessica Hausner's film him the main character, which refers, as well as on the basic rules of the horror genre with ease on the conventions of the horror tale - a horror film, however, has with the strong intention of the obligatory scenes removed to look for what holds society itself to ordinary and primitive horror in itself. "
" The aisles in " Hotel " reminiscent of Kubrick's" Shining ", the swimming pool at Tourneur's " Cat People ", all vaguely reminiscent of something only what he himself wants, because the film can not remember sheer academic Dekonstruktionseifer. "
" Again and again, on genuine genre paintings, which seem to promise, which purports to contain the subject redeem. But the single action components persistently refuse to open into a thrilling, gruesome character study or the like. The fragmentation of the action space corresponds to the systematic destruction of meaning contexts. Jessica Hausner refuses to tell a story. "
Awards
- Large diagonal Prize 2005
- Thomas Pluch Screenplay Award 2005
- Leeds International Film Festival - Grand Prize of European Fantasy Film in Silver 2005
- Film Festival Max Ophüls Prize 2005 Max Ophüls Prize nomination