Hotel Noir (2012)

[Steve-O]

I wonder why I'm strangely attracted to this title?
http://collider.com/hotel-noir-image/160800/

Los Angeles, April 20, 2012: The highly sought after, Shangri-La Entertainment produced, HOTEL NOIR from writer/director Sebastián Gutiérrez (GOTHIKA, SNAKES ON A PLANE, GIRL WALKS INTO A BAR) has just been completed and will be shopped to international buyers in Cannes by Colleen Seldin of Locomotive Entertainment Group. The sexually charged crime film set in 1950’s Los Angeles tells the story of a detective holed up in a downtown hotel waiting for assassins to kill him. As one long night turns to day he meets various characters with haunted pasts of their own, and the truth of how he ended up in this nightmare situation is revealed.The ensemble cast includes major Hollywood stars Rufus Sewell, Danny DeVito, Carla Gugino, Rosario Dawson, Malin Akerman and Robert Forster. The film is produced by Shangri-La Entertainment’s Steve Bing & Zach Schwartz, whose most recent film is Kevin Macdonald’s MARLEY which will be released in the US and UK on April 20th, and Sebastián Gutiérrez.Sebastián Gutiérrez is an award-winning Venezuelan film director, screenwriter and producer. He won the Critics’ Award at the Festival du Film Policier de Cognac for his directorial debut JUDAS KISS (1998). He wrote and directed what is considered the first major motion picture made expressly for US domestic internet distribution, the ensemble crime comedy GIRL WALKS INTO A BAR (2011), starring Carla Gugino, Rosario Dawson, Zachary Quinto, Danny DeVito, Josh Hartnett and Alexis Bledel. As a screenwriter, he has written GOTHIKA (2003), SNAKES ON A PLANE (2006), THE EYE (2008) and THE BIG BOUNCE (2004). He has written and directed two independent female-driven ensemble comedies, WOMEN IN TROUBLE (2009) and ELEKTRA LUXX (2010), revolving around a group of Los Angeles women. The two movies are part of a trilogy with the third movie already announced, WOMEN IN ECSTASY.On making the announcement Sebastián Gutiérrez commented: “This film is a tribute to my favourite genre, film noir, with its doomed protagonists and resourceful femme fatales, the kind of movie Hollywood made so well in the ’40s and ’50s. I am extremely excited about bringing this project to a modern audience and I couldn’t wish for better partners in doing so than the Shangri-La and Locomotive teams.”

[noirguru]

It should be called, Hotel Neo-Noir!

[Nauga]

That sounds excellent, actually. I love ensemble films that center around very compact plot lines, if that makes any sense. Something like The Killing or, obviously, Reservoir Dogs... a sorta "here's the crime and here's how it went down" type of film. I like that it's shot B&W; I wonder if they did any location shooting...

And what a cast. Forster, Gugino, and Sewell! I'm sure I'm the only person whose been waiting for a Robert Forster renaissance

[Nighthawk]

Does anyone know if it was shot in black and white? Either way, it sounds great.

Also, if you like noir that takes place in hotels, make sure you watch the underrated Across the Hall (2009).

[angelicalee8]

Does anyone know if it was shot in black and white? Either way, it sounds great.

Also, if you like noir that takes place in hotels, make sure you watch the underrated Across the Hall (2009).

I just watched Across the Hall thanks to your recommendation, and I really enjoyed it. It looked like it was shot in one of the Hotels Lake Tahoe that I recently stayed at. I had never heard of it before, but I will definitely be recommending this film to others, especially because it reminds me of the Hotel Lake Tahoe I am so fond of. Thanks for the recommendation.

[jagopete]

OMG.... I saw "Across the hall" about a year ago and haven't heard of anyone else seeing it. It was one of my favorites! And YES, it was totally underated!!!!!!!

Does anyone know if it was shot in black and white? Either way, it sounds great.

Also, if you like noir that takes place in Family Hotel In Las Vegas (Las Vegas Hotels On The Strip), make sure you watch the underrated Across the Hall (2009).

[Film Noir Press - Noir news from the internet]

Sebastian Gutierrez is that rare director who can make a sleek-looking film while getting actors to say the strangest things in the most sincere ways. His work on*Women in Trouble and*Elektra Luxx proved as much, elevating B-movies into the A+ range, and now his ensemble sensibilities return with a 1958 detective story flair in*Hotel Noir. In the film, the detective (Rufus Sewell) hides away in a hotel waiting for killers to find him, and it looks like he has plenty to hold his attention. Malin Ackerman is dancing and taking showers; Carla Gugino is speaking easy and being smokey; and Mandy Moore is…seducing Danny DeVito.
Naturally.
Plus, genre legend Robert Forster gets a nice T-bone steak of a role to chew on. Not bad at all.
Check out the trailer for yourself:





Release dates for the film aren’t firm, but a recent Kickstarter campaign has ensured that it’ll be on more than a few screens. Hopefully one near you.


ARTICLE TAGSMovie News, Movie Trailers, Carla Gugino, Hotel Noir, Malin Ackerman, Sebastian Gutierrez






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[Film Noir Press - Noir news from the internet]

A private screening room on the upper level of the Soho House proved the perfect spot for an exclusive screening of Sebastian Gutierrez's Hotel Noir. Bathed in red from floor to ceiling with plush chairs, carpet and small vintage tabletop lamps accenting the scene, the small screening room had a fitting throwback style to match that of the film.
Among the intimate event of about 50 at the West Hollywood location were stars from the film including Carla Gugino, Kevin Connolly, Robert Forster along with writer-director Gutierrez. Alexis Bledel, Jamie Chung and Jenna Malone, recently cast in the upcoming Hunger Games sequel, Catching Fire, also attended.

The black-and-white film noir takes place in Los Angeles circa 1958 and follows the intertwined story lines of occupants at a downtown hotel. On a shoestring budget of under $300,000, Gutierrez (whose other credits include penning Snakes on a Plane and writing and directing 2009's independent film, Women in Trouble) shot the picture in just 15 days.
"It had to be such a precise operation because we had no money and very little time," Gutierrez told The Hollywood Reporter at the screening's after-party. "It was very honed, and to get it done in that amount of time and still have fun with it, it was like a family and extremely personal but also a lot of work."
Gugino, the film's lead, is also the girlfriend of Gutierrez and has collaborated with him on projects in the past. The rest of the film's cast, which includes Danny DeVito, Malin Akerman and Mandy Moore, have worked with Gutierrez, as well, so the roles were written specifically for each actor in mind.
"Because we have made many movies together, there's a level of trust," Gugino says. "You can jump in and try different things."
Gugino, playing the part of a sultry night club singer, took inspiration from her favorite black-and-white film actresses growing up, like Betty Davis and Rosalind Russell. "If you put it this movie in a time capsule, you might not know if it's from now or then," she added.

After striking a deal with a video on demand company, Gutierrez created a Kickstarter campaign for the film to get it shown at screenings throughout New York and L.A. Most recently the film was shown at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on Tuesday with 500 attendees.
"Audiences love movies, and it's great to be able to watch this movie in a theater, even a small one, with an audience," Gutierrez said.
Hotel Noir is available through on demand services starting October 9.



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[Steve-O]

Interesting that they're premiering this ON Demand on 10/9. Of course, not on my cable provider. Come on, Uverse! I also see you can pledge money and get a DVD and even the soundtrack....

I may do that. I'd really like to get a copy for a NOTW piece.

[Steve-O]

Sad to say, but I got my hands on a copy of the film and watched it last night. Despite a fantastic cast and some stunning photography (sometimes) the film is clunky and a drag. Carla Gugino looks great but they actually managed to find some bad angles to shoot her from. She starts a kind of Gilda number early in the film only to have it fizzle out like they ran out of rehearsal time. Rufus Sewell and Gugino attempt a fast-paced Bogie and Bacall dialog moment early that falls flat. Rosario Dawson and Malin Akerman are nice eye candy. There must be at least three shots of Malin putting on stockings -- and I'm eternally grateful.

Watching it I could only think of other noirs these actors were in: Devivo (LA Confidential), Rosario Dawson (Sin City), Carla Gugino (Sin City, Judas Kiss), Robert Forster (Diamond Men, Jackie Brown, Mulholland Drive), and Rufus Sewell (who's British accent mysteriously comes back 1/2 way through the film) from Dark City. All are better modern noirs.

This one seems too self-conscious. It's like a student film where the trailer is made first...

[Film Noir Press - Noir news from the internet]

Sebastian Gutierrez (Elektra Luxx) returns behind the camera to bring us Hotel Noir, a 1950s-set black and white film noir, with an all-star cast.
With a little help from almost two thousand backers on kickstarter, the movie will be available exclusively through Cable, premiering in the US today, 9^th October.
And to give you a taste of what we have to look forward to, the first ten minutes have been released online, along with a little guide to help you with the film noir lingo.

“Los Angeles, 1958: A detective holes up in a downtown hotel waiting for killers to come and get him. As one long night turns to day he meets various characters with haunted pasts of their own, and the truth is revealed of how he ended up in this predicament.”

With a cast led by Malin Åkerman (Watchmen), Kevin Connolly (Entourage), Rosario Dawson (Sin City), Danny DeVito (L.A. Confidential), Robert Forster (Jackie Brown), Carla Gugino (Watchmen), Mandy Moore (Tangled), Cameron Richardson (Rise), and Rufus Sewell (Dark City), this is definitely one not to be missed.
Guiterrez is once more directing from his own script, making the film independently, and creating what looks to be a real labour of love.
Hotel Noir is available today, 9^th October, on demand through Cable – you can click here to find out how to watch it in the US. Here in the UK, we’ll likely have to wait for the DVD/Blu-ray, but it certainly looks well worth the wait. If it lives up to its promise, this could be the best film noir in recent memory. Here are the first ten minutes to get you hooked its debut. Enjoy.
And if you’d rather wait to watch the first ten minutes with the full film, but would still like a little taste of what it’s all about, then you can watch the trailer below.



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[Film Noir Press - Noir news from the internet]

I’m all for refurbishing film noir and all the private eyes in trench coats, redheads in silk dressing gowns, sweaty weirdos chain-smoking unfiltered Camels and revolvers with silencers that go with it. But Hotel Noir, written and directed by Sebastian Gutierrez, is too stylistically derivative of Robert Siodmak, Fritz Lang, Jean-Pierre Melville and Paramount B-movie hacks on the studio’s payroll (like George Marshall and Frank Tuttle) to smack of anything fresh and original, and too pokey and pedantic to keep you awake. It was filmed entirely inside the old Biltmore Hotel in downtown Los Angeles in 15 days for less than $300,000, so such luxuries as period cars, exotic locations and noirish Art Deco sets were out of the question—and it looks it. Neither a fogbound Alan Ladd crime picture nor a clever parody like Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid, it lurks somewhere in the shadows in between. They aimed for Raymond Chandler and ended up with Mickey Spillane.
Still, the cast is worth watching, and it’s clear that Mr. Gutierrez loves the genre. A lonely loser named Eugene who installs shower doors and paints portraits of pet animals checks into the hotel, sets up a typewriter and starts to write a crime story. This would be Danny DeVito. Stand him on his bald head, hold him by his stubby ankles, push his beer belly forward and walk him across the floor, and you’d mistake him for a rickshaw. The cantilevered story he makes up may or may not be happening in actual time (the whole thing takes place on one dark, rainy night in 1958) and involves a labyrinthine cast of characters: a tired, washed-up British detective named Felix (Rufus Sewell) with a dark and sinister secret motive for being in the hotel (think Robert Mitchum); a nightclub singer named Hanna Click (Carla Gugino) who writhes around on top of a piano singing only one tune per night (think Lizabeth Scott); a gangster’s moll named Swedish Mary (Malin Akerman) who is really an Italian with a terrible accent (make that two terrible accents); the hotel chambermaid (Rosario Dawson) who spends the night trying on sexy lingerie; a cheap crook who plays jazz guitar named Vance (Kevin Connolly); a lesbian tennis champion named Maureen (Cameron Richardson) who seduces Hanna Click into some obligatory girl-girl action, and is who the wife of a magician who performs an act with a coffin; and Felix’s square American partner Jim (Robert Forster). As they waft through the rooms of the Biltmore, they take turns narrating their stories in clumsy voice-overs that drag on forever, with no beginning, middle or end in sight. (Think Terrence Malick remaking The Big Sleep.)
The action (I thought you’d never ask) involves some gangsters who are planning to rob a steel factory payroll, stash the money away and claim it the next morning when the coast is clear. “All I had to do,” says the dick, “was wait—and walk out rich.” Everyone wants the money, including the characters you least expect. Nobody is who they pretend to be, including Felix’s straight-shooting family-man partner who discovers betrayal and likes it. “Plans do what they always do,” goes the narration. “They go wrong.” The point, as the saying goes, is “it’s all fun and games until someone pokes an eye out.” I’d like to say I wouldn’t want to ruin the fun of finding out whose eyes get poked, except that there isn’t much fun. If you wait until the end you’ll finally find out what Danny DeVito is writing and how so many disparate characters connect. Opinions will vary as to whether it’s worth the effort. As hard as they try, the actors look like they cannot camouflage the fact that they’re working for car fare.
Some of them work into the film noir conceit better than others, saying campy one-liners like “I need you to ravage me—even if I don’t look like I’m enjoying myself” and “Maybe it was the heat—or the ceviche that went to my head—but somehow I had 19 orgasms.” Best of all is Carla Gugino, whose diverse talents are as ample as her measurements (she transitions from B movies to prestigious stage productions by Eugene O’Neill and Arthur Miller with the greatest ease, most recently on Broadway opposite Rosemary Harris in an Athol Fugard play, proving her range). Nobody can say a line like “I never go to church—kneeling bags my nylons” like Carla Gugino. The film’s weakest link is Rufus Sewell’s rumpled gumshoe, inarticulate and mumbling to the point of madness. Barely audible, he seems to have been plunged into a state of narcolepsy. What really works is the use of ’50s jazz combo music (think Johnny Mandel’s neurotic jazz tempo throughout I Want to Live! and the swinging drive of Elmer Bernstein’s intense score in Alexander Mackendrick’s iconic Sweet Smell of Success)and the wonderful black-and-white camera work that provides plenty of opportunities for sinister overhead lighting effects. Hotel Noir looks and sounds right, but Mildred Pierce it’s not.
rreed@observer.com
HOTEL NOIR
Running Time 97 minutes
Directed by Sebastian Gutierrez
Starring Malin Akerman, Aaron Behr and Kevin Connolly
2/4
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[Film Noir Press - Noir news from the internet]

The Bottom Line

A first-rate cast and stunning black-and-white visuals aren't enough to make this homage to classic film noir successful.

Director/screenwriter

Sebastian Gutierrez
Cast

Malin Akerman, Kevin Connolly, Rosario Dawson, Danny DeVito, Robert Forster, Carla Gugino, Mandy Moore, Rufus Sewell.


It takes more than shooting a film in black and white to make it a worthy entry in the film noir genre, as demonstrated by Sebastian Gutierrez’ Hotel Noir. Not quite able to make up its mind whether it’s a parody or homage, this tired exercise wastes both its gorgeous visuals and a first-rate cast.
The derivative screenplay makes sure to include the standard archetypes, including a hard-boiled detective and a gorgeous femme-fatale, played by Rufus Sewell and Carla Gugino respectively. Their characters become involved in a plot that--true to so many vintage noir films, such as the infamous The Big Sleep—is barely comprehensible. Suffice it to say that it involves a robbery, a briefcase full of loot, and more shady characters than Dashiell Hammett could have dreamed of.
There’s also a bizarre comic framing device, involving Danny DeVito as a shower door salesman who somehow finds himself in sexual situations with gorgeous women, including a hotel chambermaid (Rosario Dawson) with a penchant for wearing both sexy lingerie and superhero outfits, and who may or may not be writing the story unfolding on the screen.
Add to the mix a beautiful dancer named Swedish Mary (Malin Akerman) who not-so-convincingly pretends to be Italian; a jealous boyfriend (Kevin Connolly); a lesbian tennis player (Cameron Richardson); a crooked cop (Robert Forster) and confusingly shifting narrators, and it becomes obvious that the writer/director clearly lost his bearings somewhere along the way.
The purposefully anachronistic dialogue, often delivered at top speed, is more tiresome than witty, making one wonder why Mel Brooks never tried his hand at a private-eye spoof. The performers alternately attempt to play the material straight and push for laughs, the result being a jarring tonal inconsistency from which the film never recovers.
Still, Hotel Noir at least gets the look right. The stunning Gugino looks like she stepped out of the 1940s, and Sewall, despite his character’s being inexplicably British, is a worthy successor to Bogart and Mitchum. The film was shot almost exclusively at Los Angeles’ vintage Biltmore Hotel, which effortlessly results in perfect period atmosphere. Too bad, then, that the film itself feels all dressed up with nowhere to go.
Opens Oct. 12 (Shangri-La Entertainment)
Production: Gato Negro Films
Cast: Malin Akerman, Kevin Connolly, Rosario Dawson, Danny DeVito, Robert Forster, Carla Gugino, Mandy Moore, Rufus Sewell
Director/screenwriter: Sebastian Gutierrez
Producers: Steve Bing, Sebastian Gutierrez, Zach Schwartz
Director of photography: Cale Finot
Editors: Lisa Bromwell, John Wesley Whitton
Production designer: Jeffrey Macintyre
Costume designer: Betsy Heimann
Composers: Robin Hannibal, Mathieu Schreyer
Not rated, 97 min.*



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[Film Noir Press - Noir news from the internet]

Any kind of hardboiled film noir confection, released in 2012 with a straight face, is going to be something of a put on. Especially if its filmed digitally, which robs black-and-white (the favored presentation of film noir) of its velveteen lushness, instead replacing it with a flat, artificial haze. Still, "Hotel Noir," the latest film from writer/director*Sebastian Gutierrez*(who is also*Carla Gugino's boyfriend, which might be his mightiest accomplishment), is a surprisingly effective, enjoyable romp. It's pretty earnest (almost*too earnest) attempt at a straightforward film noir, with minor, wink-wink-nudge-nudge deviations and an impressively game cast. If given the opportunity, it might not be a bad idea to check into "Hotel Noir."Shot in 15 days on a shoestring budget of $300,000, "Hotel Noir" primarily concerns a shadowy private detective figure named Felix (played by*Rufus Sewell, channeling his gravely "Dark City" persona), hiding out from assorted underworld characters in a Hollywood hotel, waiting for one or all of them to find him and gun him down. In the course of the movie's running time, though, are a number of satellite stories and characters, who eventually interlock in ways that aren't entirely clear (the details remain fuzzy). For such a small budget, too, Gutierrez has managed to assemble quite the cast of hotel inhabitants. There's*Danny DeVito*as a shower door repairman who also works on portraits of peoples' pets;*Rosario Dawson*as a hotel maid who dresses like a superhero (she gets some of the movie's biggest laughs, particularly in a speech about how hotel management misconstrue her narcolepsy for thievery);*Malin Akerman*as a showgirl with the appropriately femme fatale name of Swedish Mary;*Carla Gugino*as a nightclub performer;*Robert Forster*as another dubious detective type; and*Kevin Connolly*as a villainous gangster.

The back story for the various characters, and their connections to each other, is slowly revealed throughout the course of the film, with the narrative spinning backwards and forwards, frequently borrowing from*Stanley Kubrick's "The Killing" (towards the end it also starts lifting shots from it wholesale) and other influential film noirs of the period. The movie also sometimes pauses to comment on itself, as in the moment when Akerman, in voiceover film noir mode, asks herself (and, by extension, the audience), "Is everyone as bad a narrator as me?" But for the most part "Hotel Noir" plays it completely straight, with men in fedoras pacing around sparsely furnished rooms (hey, $300,000 only goes so far), taking stock and making note of all of the classics of the noir genre, both in literature and film, while forging ahead with a mostly new story concocted from those bits.For the most part it works, in large part due to the commitment of the actors, particularly Sewell, who does most of the legwork by having the most weighty backstory and for carrying the story forward by interviewing the other characters in the hotel (he also has to do a fair amount of husky-voiced narration). With the exception of Connolly, who looks like a little kid playing dress up in his dad's old-fashioned suit (is his mustache actually eyeliner?), the actors do a great job of playing it straight while letting the audience know that they're in on the gag. To their credit (particularly Akerman and Gugino), they are able to provide the characters with a certain amount of emotional depth, so that you're not left watching two-dimensional cartoons but rather living, breathing people.

Gutierrez has had an interesting career, starting off writing and directing a small crime film called "Judas Kiss" before moving on to big budget genre studio assignments like "Gothika," "The Eye," "Snakes on A Plane," and "Disturbia." In the last few years, though, he's gone back to writing and directing, mostly low budget doodles like "Women in Trouble," "Elektra Luxxx," and the bizarre "internet movie" "Girl Walks Into a Bar." These movies were interesting but not entirely coherent, instead dwelling on a particular obsession of the filmmaker (in the case of "Women in Trouble" and "Elektra Luxxx," the same cheapo seventies genre movies that Quentin Tarantino adores), but largely at the cost of narrative coherence or riveting storytelling. What makes "Hotel Noir" so refreshing is that, while it's very clear that Gutierrez is being indulgent and obsessive, it never acts to distance the viewer from the material. Whether or not you've steeped in film noir lore, "Hotel Noir" still plays like an enjoyable little thriller. To his credit, Gutierrez knows how to make the most out of his tiny budget, and shoots sequences of two people talking as snappily as he stages several musical numbers, which might have been this reviewer's favorite parts of the movie. Even with minimal choreography, these musical sequences sparkle. It's enough to wish he had incorporated more, although they do dangerously tip the entire enterprise towards out-and-out pastiche. But hey, maybe the danger is part of the fun.If "Hotel Noir" has a problem, it's that its screenplay, which is more twisted up and tangled than a shopping mall pretzel, fails to make much logical sense after a certain point. Twist after twist, flashback within flashback, newly revealed character relationships; it all piles up pretty quick and pretty clumsily. At a certain point, towards the end, subtlety leaves the building altogether and then there's the ending that's suitably grim for the genre but maybe a little too bleak for the film. Happy endings aren't handed out easily in film noir, and once you check into the "Hotel Noir," it's hard to check out. [B]



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