25. Dreaming Walls - Inside The Chelsea Hotel; movie review

 

DREAMING WALLS - INSIDE THE CHELSEA HOTEL

Cert 15

77 mins

BBFC advice: Contains sexualised nudity

If I wanted to book a room at the Chelsea Hotel tonight it would cost £259 for what booking.com calls a 'petite king'.

Yep, one of the most famous hotels in America, known for being as cheap as chips to its artistic residents, ain't what it was.

This was the home of writers including Mark Twain and Dylan Thomas, film industry luminaries such as Stanley Kubrick and Jane Fonda and musicians ranging from Jim Morrison to Sid Vicious.

There have been endless painters, sculptors, fashion designers who have lived and worked there.

But it has undergone an 11-year renovation and has become a sleek boutique hotel demanding high Manhattan prices.

Meanwhile, some of the hotel’s 50 permanent residents remain and are generally dismayed by the move away from its unique position as headquarters of America's bohemians.

They are to the fore in Maya Duverdier and Amelie van Elmbt's documentary which concentrates on the present rather than the past.

Thus, it is a platform for elderly artists to air their gripes about the hotel's changes without giving the side of management who are presumably trying to preserve this iconic building and recoup their $80m outlay.

Worse still, it doesn't delve much into its illustrious and occasionally infamous past.

The film is only 77 minutes long and, in my opinion, is too short...because it lacks the context which could have made it much more interesting.

Instead, the warblings of disenchanted old folk amid noisy construction work make for mundane viewing and a missed opportunity.

Reasons to watch: A living landmark slipping into history

Reasons to avoid: Not as interesting as it could be

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: Yes

Overall rating: 5/10

Did you know? Arthur C. Clarke wrote 2001: A Space Odyssey while staying at the Chelsea

The final word. Amélie van Elmbt: "We never approached the hotel or its residents with the idea of documenting them. It was really an encounter with the place, with the history of the place, and with the people that gave us the will to make this film." Digital Trends

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