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| June 2003 | SITE MAP SEARCH |
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Hotel cast: Rhys Ifans, David Schwimmer, Salma Hayek, Lucy Liu, and Burt Reynolds director: Mike Figgis 111 minutes (18) 2001 widescreen ratio 1.85:1 CDA DVD Region 2 retail RATING: 5/10 reviewed by Gary Couzens |
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Mike Figgis' previous film, Timecode, featured four 90-minute single digital-video takes running simultaneously. With Hotel he returns to shooting on DV. Apart from the scenes from The Duchess Of Malfi, Figgis had his very starry cast improvise their roles. Needless to say Hotel is very hit and miss, with a plot that barely makes sense. When it comes to devising a film via improvisation, this is further evidence that Mike Leigh can sleep easily at night; here, for every moment that's funny, or even striking, there are several that are tediously self-indulgent. You have to commend Figgis for taking risks that few directors of his standing would dare, but when they don't come off, the film falls flat on its face. It's a curiosity, worth a look, but hardly recommendable.
This DVD is a two-disc set. The first disc contains the film, an anamorphic transfer in the 1.85:1 ratio. However, for much of the time, Figgis masks off the top and bottom of the frame to produce a 2.35:1 shape. At other times, he splits the screen into four, as he did with Timecode. The soundtrack is Dolby digital 5.1 and disc extras include trailers, a 24-minute making-of documentary, 27 web shorts, and a stills gallery.
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