Select Hôtel

Sélect Hôtel is the terminus for those who cannot afford to live anywhere else. They live here on the seamy side of society, away from our gaze. Amongst the guests is Nathalie and her brother Tof, the film's principal characters. They are in the centre of Paris, but yet live a completely secluded life, without a direction in life whilst waiting for the inevitable end. Their tender relationship is their only bright spot in their lost fight in a society where they are continually used and degraded. The hotel's cramped rooms visualize the world they live in, confined to their life as outsiders. The film begins in a documentary style with people connected to the hotel describing their existence. First we meet Abdil who works there. During his narrative we get to see the cramped, inhospitable and deserted spaces, the stairway with its cage-like wallpaper and the narrow corridors. Abdil says that he was initially shocked and frightened by the hotel's darkness. It was like entering another world where ''everything was larger than life''. The introductory documentary style leaves its stamp on the story which follows, which has the character of poetic realism, as found in Jacques Prevert and Marcel Carne. The film keeps its documentary credibility thanks to images which are neither spectacular nor affected, without over-explicitness and sentimentality. The realistic tone is given extra force as a result of Julie Gayet's brilliant interpretation of Nathalie. She gives a simple portrait of a lonely and vulnerable young woman whose defenselessness against her surroundings is reinforced by extreme close ups and her frequent physical nudity. In the introduction, Nathalie tells about the drugs which she doesn't see as a problem, but rather the thing which enables her to continue living and endure walking the streets. She walks around in this drugged and misty world, without plans for the future or any hope of change. The film ends with a quotation from the gospel according to St. Luke: ''I tell you, if my disciples are silent, tile stones will shout aloud.'' The main characters in Sélect Hôtel are not usually heard, they live in silence and remain silent at the lowest stratum of society. Laurent Bouhnik gives them a voice in his feature film debut. He made the film to open our eyes and hearts: to make visible what is in front of us. It is a powerful depiction, making the abundance of films in recent years which have dealt with suburban social problems pale by comparison. MD

Premiärstatus
Skandinavisk premiär: Medverkande
Julie Gayet, Jean-Michel Fete, Serge Blumental: Producent
Laurent Bouhnik: Manus
Laurent Bouhnik: Foto
Gilles Henry: Musik
Jerôme Coullet: Talat språk
French