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hotels

Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot [Monsieur Hulot's Holiday] (Jacques Tati, 1953)

Jul

7

Les vacances de Monsieur Hulot (1953)

Mr Hulot's view from his hotel room. DPs: Jacques Mercanton & Jean Mousselle.

A film with people at, or taking place in, a hotel*

“Mr. Hulot is off for a week by the sea. Take a seat behind his camera, and you can spend it with him. Don't look for a plot, for a holiday is meant purely for fun, and if you look for it, you will find more fun in ordinary life than in fiction.”

– opening lines

Located in the real-world Hôtel de la Plage in Saint-Marc-sur-Mer, Mr Hulot lovingly bumbles his way into your heart.

 

Anayurt Oteli [Motherland Hotel] (Ömer Kavur, 1987)

May

14

Receptionist Day

Anayurt Oteli (1987)

Receptionist Zebercet. DP: Orhan Oğuz.

A receptionist or secretary for Receptionist Day

 

The proprietor and receptionist of a small hotel welcomes a new guest. The woman, her name she doesn't tell, stays for only one night with the promise to return the following week. The receptionist waits.

Hotel of the Stars (Jon Bang Carlsen, 1981)

Apr

21

Heartbreak Hotel

Hotel of the Stars (1981)

The setting for a dramatic reenactment, watched over by the King. DP: Alexander Gruszynski.

A film set in a hotel, or involving Elvis Presley, on the date Heartbreak Hotel topped the charts in 1956.

“I love to see myself in Technicolor.”

Once home to the stars, Hollywood's crumbling Montecito Hotel is now populated by drug dealers, prostitutes and the Tinseltown hopeful — extras hoping for that big break. They play the bit parts of their own re-enacted lives and dreams – some imagined, some real – whatever that may mean in Hollywood.

Le temps d'une chasse [The Time of a Hunt / Once Upon a Hunt] (Francis Mankiewicz, 1972)

Sep

1

National Hotel Employee Day

Le temps d'une chasse (1972)

One of the men following Monique, one of the hotel employees (Luce Guilbeault, simply credited as “La Rousse”, “the redhead”) down the corridor. The young waitress (Frédérique Collin) can be seen in the door opening at the end of the hallway. DP: Michel Brault.

Le temps d'une chasse is the definition of unease. It starts at dawn, when two old friends pick up their buddy Richard (Marcel Sabourin) from the home he shares with his wife and son. The son, the wife insists, comes along. The men have planned a #hunting trip, in a cabin far away from #Montréal, far away from everything, with a beer-filled cooler at hand. The last they need is an underage kid towing along. But the boy comes along, she insists. With a trunk full of Dutch courage and a mouthful of boasting, the men find themselves at a hotel instead of the expected cabins.

“Tomorrow morning we'll get up early.”

Hotel days are short and its nights long and booze-filled, commanding their own temptation and regret.

Le temps d'une chasse [Once Upon a Hunt / The Time of a Hunt] (Francis Mankiewicz, 1972)

Jul

17

after hours coffee

Le temps d'une chasse (1972)

A Hopperesque glimpse through a corridor reveals a young woman (Frédérique Collin) sitting at a mostly empty dinner table. There are two coffee cups and a fruit bowl, and a bare bulb hanging from the ceiling. DP: Michel Brault.