Hotellet

What's the esseence of a hotel? How come hotel environments—lobbies, bars, halls and rooms with views—have such power of suggestion? Kristian Petri Detaljer, GFF 2013) asks these questions in their new essay film that elegantly tours from the world's oldest hotel in Japan (Petri finds it a disappointment) to Marcel Proust's favorite Grand Hotel Cabourg. Petri also speaks with people about what hotels have meant for their lives. Among others he meets Lars Norén, who grew up in the now closed-down hotel in Genarp, Sweden as well as Björn Andrésen, who at the glamorous Hotel Daniele played the boy Tadzio in Visconti's Death in Venice. The Hotel is a multifaceted and intelligent film that awakens the desire to travel away and check in. (Göteborg Film Festival)