O Hotel do Alpinista Morto

I like quite a lot the book which movie is based on, one of Strugatski's best (it's a bit too short tho). Strugatski's wrote also movie script, but it's much weaker. Some details are changed, some left out, and the changes just don't make much sense. Any way, even if I don't like movie much, most of the cast is good, and helps visualizing characters when reading the book. Maybe except Mrs. Moses... and du Barnstocre who simply isn't in movie. Glebsky also looks a bit fake at times, partly maybe because of dubbed voice. Also, was it that hard to make something that looks like alien robot power source, so they could actually show it? That and some other scenes look quite cheap...

The setting - a secluded mountain lodge high in the Alps - contributes a great deal to the appeal of this film. The nominal story centers around a police inspector called upon to investigate a murder and the diverse group of colorful characters he encounters during his stay. Apparently it's based on a novel by the authors of the book from which Andrei Tarkovsky's Stalker was adapted. Even as the plot becomes gradually more bizarre, there were a lot more positives than negatives in my opinion. The absurd tone of the movie reminded me a bit of Godard's Alphaville. Though it perhaps adds up to less than the sum of its parts, the film has a disarming quality about it which charmed me.

'Dead Mountaineer's Hotel' still remains basically only Estonian science fiction film in the truest sense. Police inspector arrives into remote mountain hotel to investigate anonymous tip where he discovers that it was false alarm. After the avalanche cuts the hotel, and all it's inhabitants from the outer world, the strange things start to occur. Doppelgangers, terrorists, aliens, androids, and flirtatious sultry women.

Wonderful cinematography of snowy mountains under bright sun against dark interior of the hotel that leaves feeling that it's as cold inside the hotel as it is outside, and intensifies the claustrophobic atmosphere of the hotel. Inspector Glebsky grows more and more desperate and paranoid when he tries to solve the crimes only relying on his common sense, logic and skepticism that lead to unfortunate tragic events leaving audience falter who was the real villain. The name of the hotel 'Dead Mountaineer' is explained briefly (and quite satisfactory), but it also leaves nice eerie mystery floating around - who was that enigmatic 'dead mountaineer' whose dog still sleeps under his bleak portrait hanging on the wall. Sven Grünberg's fantastic synthesizer score adds another layer of mystery and anticipation. The song 'Ball' has a lyrics, but they don't make sense because it's only gibberish - and when we see aliens dance to this song hypnotically it's almost like they understand it (although real reason why the song didn't had any proper words was the Soviet regulation of the time demanding the lyrics of the song to be translated into Russian when released in Russia - Grünberg didn't like the idea of translating his lyrics so he invented the gibberish for the song.).

Film is based on the novel by Strugatsky brothers. Police inspector is called to a mountain hotel, but there's no crime. When snow avalanche blocks hotel from the rest of the world, strange things start to happen.. Brilliant soundtrack from Sven Grünberg.

The Dead Mountaineer's Hotel is constructed like a classic murder mystery. You take an odd group of characters, confine them together in a remote location, one of them shows up dead, and then a detective must unravel what happened. I quite like the way it is presented visually. Somehow they manage to make this hotel feel large and spacious in one scene and then confined and claustrophobic in another. Not to mention the overall strange and other-worldly look of the place. They also did a great job of making it seem like there was someone watching our protagonist, around every single corner. There are a number of minutes where The Dead Mountaineer's Hotel is a tad slow, and I felt like the story wasn't progressing. However, I was always drawn back into the movie, because I was waiting to discover the identity of the murderer. Sadly, I think the ending was the worst part for me. It takes a turn that simply didn't work and left me scratching my head. I feel like the intent was to make a bit of social commentary with that ending, but it didn't work effectively based on how the film was set up. I wanted a more grounded and logical conclusion. I doubt I'll be seeking The Dead Mountaineer's Hotel for a second viewing, but it was at least intriguing enough to keep me engaged throughout its runtime.