10 hotel movies worth watching

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Hotel life through the lens of Stanley Kubrick, Wes Anderson and Sofia Coppola.

1. Shining

• USA, UK, 1980.
• Horror, mysticism, thriller.
• Duration: 144 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 4.

The writer Jack Torrance gets a job as a caretaker at the Overlook Hotel, which is closed for the winter. He moves there with his wife and son, but soon enough something terrible begins to happen in the hotel.

It is known that the author of the novel of the same name, Stephen King, was inspired by the image of the Stanley Hotel in Colorado, so he wanted to see it in the film adaptation. But Kubrick went against the will of the writer and shot most of the film in the pavilion, and the actual Timberline Lodge "played" the role of the facade. And only some interior scenes were filmed in a real hotel, but in another - Ahwahnee.

Because of this, King was offended by the director, and he disliked the finished picture. And in 1997, when they decided to film The Shining again, he made sure that this time the same Stanley was involved in the filming.

2. Four rooms

• USA, 1995.
• Black comedy.
• Duration: 96 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 8.

An elderly night porter at the Monsignor Hotel is about to retire and gives his successor, Ted, some helpful advice. However, the stupid guy manages to break all local rules overnight.

The idea of the film - to combine four novels about a hotel from different directors - belongs to Quentin Tarantino and his friend Robert Rodriguez. They shot the last two stories. It came out very cheerfully and cheerfully, and Tim Roth's stunning, bright play makes you fall in love at first sight.

3. Lost in translation

• USA, Japan, 2003.
• Drama, melodrama.
• Duration: 102 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 7.

Middle-aged actor Bob Harris is tired of life and relationships with his wife. In Tokyo, where he was invited to shoot an advertisement, he meets a student Charlotte - just like him, lost and lonely. Together they spend a short but happy and vibrant time.

The main events take place in the hotel for a reason. This is how the director Sofia Coppola conveys the confusion of the heroes who find themselves in a strange city, where everything is unfamiliar to them.

By the way, if you suddenly want to feel like a character in Lost in Translation, you can arrange it. After all, the Park Hyatt, where Charlotte and Bob spend their time, is absolutely real and is considered one of the best hotels in Tokyo.

4. 1408

• USA, 2007.
• Horror, mysticism, thriller.
• Duration: 104 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 8.

Writer Mike Enslin has made a name for himself with paranormal novels, but he himself doesn't believe in such devilry. Upon learning that one of the rooms of the Dolphin Hotel is notorious, the hero decides to spend the night there in order to gain inspiration for a new book. And from the very beginning he understands: there were rumors about a terrible number for a reason.

The case when even a short story by Stephen King can inspire a whole film. True, the writers had to try, because the plot had to be invented virtually from scratch.

The role of the Dolphin Hotel was played by the famous Roosevelt Hotel in New York. Many other films were also filmed there, including Wall Street (1987), Malcolm X (1992), Madam Maid (2002), Irishman (2019).

5. Somewhere

• USA, 2010.
• Drama, comedy.
• Duration: 99 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 3.

Popular actor Johnny Marco leads a mindless lifestyle. But one day, his ex-wife leaves his 11-year-old daughter in charge of him for a couple of weeks. And communication with a girl helps a man to better understand himself.

Another film by Coppola Jr., the protagonist of which prefers to be sad within the walls of a luxury hotel. Like the Park Hyatt, the Los Angeles Chateau Marmont is a real place. This hotel is considered a cult, because the first persons of Hollywood loved to live there: Howard Hughes, Roman Polanski and Quentin Tarantino.

6. Hotel "Marigold": The best of the exotic

• UK, USA, UAE, 2011.
• Drama, comedy.
• Duration: 124 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 3.

Seven British retirees, for various reasons, decide on an adventurous act: they move to live in the Marigold Hotel in India. Only now the hotel actually looks much worse than on advertising brochures.

Few know how to make a movie about old age in a way that is cute and funny - but director John Madden succeeded. And even better, the film does the charm of established artists: Maggie Smith, Judy Dench, Tom Wilkinson and Bill Nighy.

7. The Grand Budapest Hotel

• Germany, USA, 2014.
• Drama, comedy.
• Duration: 100 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 1.

An elderly Madame D. dies under mysterious circumstances and leaves an expensive painting to the chief concierge of the Grand Budapest Hotel. But the son of the deceased decides at all costs to remove the competitor who has come from nowhere. And that together with the young assistant corridor you have to take part in a crazy adventure in order to get a legal inheritance.

Baroque hotel interiors of "Grand Budapest" will not leave indifferent any esthete. It is not for nothing that three of the four Oscars were awarded to the film precisely for the visual component.

Those viewers who want to continue their journey through atmospheric hotels with Wes Anderson should watch his short film Hotel Chevalier. The director conceived it as a spin-off of his film The Train to Darjeeling, explaining the depressive state of one of the characters.

8. No matter what

• Germany, 2017.
• Drama, comedy.
• Duration: 111 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 1.

Since school, Sally dreamed of working in the hotel business, but due to retinal detachment, he almost completely lost his sight. However, this does not stop him. Pretending to be sighted, the hero gets an internship at an expensive hotel. There he finds friends who help him hide his illness from his superiors.

The dexterity with which the main character adapts to difficult conditions seems fantastic. But the script is based on the autobiographical book of the German Salia Kahawatte, who for years hid his blindness from those around him.

A distinctive feature of the film is that it shows the hotel through the eyes of an employee, not a guest. During the internship, the hero goes from janitor to bartender. Moreover, you have to constantly worry about him, because the most ordinary actions are given to Sally much more difficult than to sighted people.

9. Project "Florida"

• USA, 2017.
• Drama, comedy.
• Duration: 109 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 6.

Hayley and her little daughter Mooney live in a motel in Florida. The uncooperative mother tries to make ends meet, but ends up on the panel. True, Mooney, due to age, does not yet understand how hard their life is.

The film is shot in pastel colors, and even the motel where the heroines live is called in a fairy tale - “The Magic Castle”. But the picture still leaves a feeling of bitterness: the characters are unlikely to ever get out of poverty. At the same time, everything around reminds of "Disneyland", where poor children like Mooney and her friends will never get.

10. Nothing good at the El Royale hotel

• USA, 2018.
• Thriller, drama, crime, detective.
• Duration: 141 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 1.

In a small provincial hotel "El Royale" at one time there are seven unusual people at once. Almost all of them are not who they seem. In addition, the hotel has its own dark secrets.

Director Drew Goddard, author of the talented Cabin in the Woods, clearly paid tribute to Tarantino in his second film. With a clear division into chapters and a plot about several characters locked in a confined space, Hotel El Royale resembles both Pulp Fiction and The Hateful Eight.