Hotel (2004)
A girl takes a job at a hotel deep in the Austrian Alps. Once there she discovers the girl she replaced left her job and vanished without a trace.
Hotel is one of those films you really have to be in the right frame of mind for. It's beautifully filmed and directed by the highly regarded Jessica Hausner but is so minimalistic in it's approach to drama that i can easily imagine some finding it nothing short of boring.
Long scenes go by without a word spoken, there is no incidental music, in fact the only music throughout comes from a stereo in the hotel staff room. The photography is precise and often static which creates a beautiful ambience and a slight feeling of unease especially when Hausner leaves her camera on the edge of the night time forest and we stare into the murky shadows, our eyes squinting for a flicker of movement in the blackness.
The story hints throughout that there may be a malevolent presence in the forest. That of a 'forest witch' and tales of hikers going missing, indeed it gives the biggest hint that the legend has much to do with the disappearance of the former employee but nothing is conclusive. The film's final scenes also hint at this yet the ending is so ambiguous that we have to make up our own minds. Hausner asks the questions but like David Lynch et al ,never gives us a definitive answer.
I'm typing this several days after the viewing and the film has stuck with me whereas many others don't, yet i'm not sure it's deliberately languid style could make me recommend it to anyone. Even though i thought it was terrific.
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