Hotel

This is my first review, but there's something about that movie that made me want to share my thoughts about it.

I've seen this movie a few times, and for me this movie is pure masochism, the joy of feeling uncomfortable. The Horror does not come from jumpscares but from the cold distance that comes from the colleagues. Maybe you really need to be an austrian to fully understand the feeling that Irene goes through.

When i was somewhere around the same age like Irene, i moved to eastern Austria close to the location this movie was filmed, at the same time when to movie was released. I also got a job in a kinda old fashioned Business that aimed the upper classes. The distance between colleagues themself and the bosses was huge and cold. Something i never experienced before. And this movie is so honest and good in portraying this distance, that i always can identify myself with Irene. I am the opposite of a shy person, but this tension at work makes you a shy mouse like Irene is. You're trying to create a friendshipy like relation to your colleagues, whom you see every day, but for an outsider it's nearly impossible to join the "inner circle". For an open minded person this is hard to accept, that it needs many months, if not years, to join the inner circle of the staff, that makes you feel welcome into the business you spend every day in. And theres no other movie, wich i saw so far, that is so good in transporting that feeling of cold Austrian distance between co-workers.

I especially want to mention the great work of Marlene Streeruwitz who did a brilliant job in acting one of the bosses, Frau Maschek. For me she is the austrian counterpart of Robert de Niro - An actor who loves to play the kind of person she hates like the most in real life. She keeps in all good manners, but lets you know that she doesn't trust you by the way she speaks to you in a bored and slightly annoyed way.

The work of the actors and how they are portrayed is brilliant and couldn't be performed better. The story itself has some weak parts, but in my opinion this movie isn't about the story, it's about what you feel while you're watching how Irene tries to become part of people who may be forced (?) to keep a distance but still sometimes show a little spark of sympathy that gives Irene the hope to become a real part of the team someday.

Allthough the story on itself isn't that thrilling i love the feelings that this movie is able to transport. If the story itself would be a bit more demanding this movie would get 10/10.

I saw "HOTEL" at the International Rotterdam Film Festival 2005. It's a minimalistic suspense story that is all about atmosphere and concealed fear. It reminded me of Michael Haneke's "TIME OF THE WOLF" and Nicholas Winding Refn's "FEAR X". Little happens, but there is a constant sense of dread. Tension is built with care and slowly becomes nightmarish as Hausner uses a Lynchian dream-logic.

I don't mind these kind of movies, although i prefer the more engaging type like Kiyoshi Kurosawa's "CURE". It's a matter of taste. Most of the audience sounded frustrated because nothing happened. "HOTEL" is also best suited for smaller theaters. I saw it in a reasonable large room which took away a part of the effect the movie should have.

6.5/10

The stuffy provincial atmosphere reminds me of "Requiem" or "Dogville", but the lighting is more like "2046" or "The Matrix". Irene (Franziska Weisz) is the new girl at the movie's eponymous hotel. She isn't the paranoid type, but soon feels slightly claustrophobic nevertheless. In fact, neither Irene nor the camera get to leave the hotel until 20 minutes into the movie. Although her colleagues' disposition ranges from grumpy to openly hostile, she can't be sure she'd be better off outside. We are led to believe the girl Irene is replacing went out and never came back. For there's a witch lurking in the forest. Or something. No matter where Irene goes, there are curtains everywhere to conceal the truth. The fact that there is no music other than from the creaky speaker in the elevator (and Irene's noisy next-door neighbors) adds to the eerie mood. There are obvious overtones of "Lost Highway", especially when Irene discovers she looks almost exactly like the missing girl. Of course, there is no living up to this promise. "Hotel" is probably a little too stylish for its own good, but it's a real pleasure to look at and leaves you feeling agreeably spooked.

Boring Austrian hotel requires boring receptionist to replace previous receptionist (probably also boring) who has disappeared, or been disappeared, into surrounding dark spooky forest; possibly gobbled up in the cave. By our Lady of the Woods. As boredom material.

Actually, I might have assumed too much there – imagined too much drama, or too much haunty horror. Which is no doubt what the director would like me to do: see all the strange goings on she's – deliberately – not been showing. And also reading into the narrative all the story she's not been developing, or even really providing. The new receptionist Irene never says very much; and the other characters don't say much to her either. Is something "funny" going to happen to her? Hopefully yes – otherwise watching this film will have felt like a waste of time.

Come the end something funny does happen to her. But it still felt like a waste of time. There's been too much concealed as opposed to revealed or released dramatic tension. The direction far too mutedly mannered. Far too withheld.

I saw that movie at a film festival in Januray 2005. On my personal record, it was the second best out of the 10 movies I had seen there. The film does polarize very much - either you like it or you hate it. Especially the end is very controversial.

"Hotel" is not a conventional horror movie and it is certainly not meant to be shown at the big block buster cinemas. It is much more a low budget, minimalist, purist version of a scary movie. The film has very subtitle, psychological horror! If you liked "Blair Witch Project", you will enjoy this movie too.

The Austrian accent of the most actors give the soundtrack a special note and make the already very reserved atmosphere between the characters even more chilly.

By the way: No one left the cinema or fell asleep during screening as reported in other comments on this site ... <: