Hôtel Paradis

I saw this movie a couple of months ago on SBS on Erotic Tales and fortunately saw all of it. I had been searching for this movie and luckily saw it advertised on the day. When I watched it I realized I had seen part of it before but that was before I was a Vincent D'Onofrio fan. I read what the movie was about and was intrigued as he was playing the naked stranger. This movie was made in 1995 and he looked a lot different then. A must for fanatical female Vincent / Criminal Intent fans. Theresa Russell plays the bride to be - a real pain. D'Onofrio makes the most of this short movie; only 28 minutes. He is very expressive and a touch overacting but the movie is full of dialog.

I've seen a lot of films but this is easily the one with the all-time worst dialogue. Also proof positive that Theresa Russell = horrendous film every time. It's not even possible to imagine how bad this film is -- it defies description. Ever worse -- I saw it at a film fest billed as one of the "Best of Erotic Shorts." If this was the best -- god help us, what was the worst?

I didn't get a chance to watch the whole thing, as I had missed the beginning when it was being shown on SBS. However, the parts that I did see, I was quite impressed with.

The most striking aspect, was that it seemed like a poem which had been adapted to the screen. I got this impression from the strongly rhythmic nature of the dialog. Also, the dialog did not exactly match the scenario - it was more of an expression of feelings, and of unravelling a story. The scenes of the wedding party looking for the bride seemed incidental to the dialog, and was more of a device to indicate the passing of time and to give more of an urgency for the dialog to unravel.

I found it very intriguing and couldn't stop watching. And it was not just because it was an "EROTIC TALE"!