Hotel Monterey is a 1973[2][need quotation to verify] American silent documentary film directed by Chantal Akerman.[3] It is Akerman's first feature film.

Hotel Monterey
Directed byChantal Akerman
Written byChantal Akerman
Produced byChantal Akerman
CinematographyBabette Mangolte
Edited byGeneviève Luciani
Release date
  • 11 June 1989 (1989-06-11) (USA)
[1]
Running time
62 minutes
CountriesBelgium
USA
LanguageSilent

In 2013, Akerman introduced Hotel Monterey, along with two other films, La Chambre and News from Home at the 11th annual "Save and Project" film series at the New York Museum of Modern Art.

Synopsis

edit

The film consists of a series of silent long takes shot in a hotel in New York City. Shots are meticulously staged to create visual patterns and optical illusions as the film slowly explores several different parts of the hotel, ranging from austere and claustrophobic basement corridors to hotel rooms—some occupied, some not—to skylines of neighboring building roofs and water towers shot from the rooftop.

Location

edit

The hotel, located at 215 West 94th Street in Manhattan, opened in 1914 as the Hotel Apthorp. In 1916, the name changed to Hotel Monterey, the name it retained until 1976. By 2008, it had become Days Hotel, part of the Days Inn/Quality Inn chain.[4]

Release

edit

The Criterion Collection released it through their Eclipse series in 2010, as part of a set titled Chantal Akerman in the Seventies that included four feature films Akerman directed in the 1970s as well as a number of short films,[5] and again in 2024 as part of the set Chantal Akerman Masterpieces, 1968–1978.[6]

References

edit
  1. ^ "Hôtel Monterey (1973) - IMDb". IMDb.
  2. ^ Cinéma, n° 180, septembre–octobre 1973; La Revue du Cinéma/Image et Son, n° 275, septembre 1973.
  3. ^ "Hotel Monterey".
  4. ^ Grutchfield, Walter (2010). "Monterey Hotel / Newton Hotel". Walter Grutchfield Signs. Retrieved April 16, 2021.
  5. ^ Kehr, Dave (2010-01-31). "The Evolving Vision of a Belgian Auteur". The New York Times.
  6. ^ Jake Cole, Blu-ray Review: Chantal Akerman Masterpieces, 1968–1978 on the Criterion Collection, Slant Magazine January 26, 2024.
edit