Hotel

This film is about filming a film within the film and, as if that isn’t enough, the film crew is also filmed by a television reporting team. In the characteristically Venetian Hungaria Hotel, a film crew and cast (including many cameos) has settled in to work on a film version of the seventeenthcentury play The Duchess of Malfi by John Webster. Led by the demanding director, the film in the film has to be made according to the principles of Dogma.The film itself is also shot on digital video and many scenes were made through improvisations. Alongside the tumultuous developments on and off the set, Figgis also added several other storylines. In the hotel, a questionable East European politician and a mysterious murderer put in an appearance while the staff also have plenty to hide. What goes on in the cellars sometimes gives the film the air of a vampire movie.The style of the film is also unusual. The experiment with a screen split into several smaller screens that Figgis started strikingly with Time Code, is pursued here no less radically. Hotel is a complex film that has a lot to say about contemporary filmmaking. Directly, by satirising the pampered habits of the film world and its interaction with the media; indirectly, by adjusting the use of images to this digital age.