Drama
Hotel Harabati – Brice Cauvin
Hotel Harabati (2006)
While waiting to catch a train from Paris to Venice, French couple Philippe and Marion pick up a bag left behind by a polite, vaguely Middle Eastern man. Inside, they find neatly bound bundles of foreign currency; on the tag, it reads ‘Hotel Harabati.’ At the last moment, they decide not to go to Venice (though they tell their families and friends they did); but when Marion collects her film from the developer’s, the reel is inexplicably filled with shots of canals, vaporetti, crowded piazzas … and suddenly, terrifyingly, their whole world seems to have turned upside-down.
As reality blurs, the couple start to grow apart. Marion leaves Paris with the children and Philippe takes refuge with a young man that he meets. Until eventually he is compelled to try and find Hotel Harabati…
Check out our Hotel Harabati competition to win one of three copies of the DVD.
Author: MarBelle
MarBelle has a strange compulsion to watch as many films as he can get his hands on and find jobs that give him a legitimate excuse to drill filmmakers about their work. Directors Notes is the latest incarnation of this disorder and so much cheaper than film school. Twitter: @MarBelle
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Without providing straightforward explanations, Cauvin roots his elliptical story in a recognizably everyday world of child-care arrangements, DIY tasks and visits to swimming baths. His preference for long shots allows us time to ponder the perplexing events we’re shown, and to consider what’s happening within the imaginations of the characters, not least the dream-like passage in Syria in search of the elusive hotel from which the film takes its name.