Hotel Room
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"The book from which Diane (Mariska Hargitay) reads "The Harpies are servants of the Furies. They are “the Snatchers” (from harpazo, “snatch”), airborne pirates, befouling men with their droppings" is Sexual Personae by Camille Paglia."--Sholem Stein |
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Hotel Room (also called David Lynch's Hotel Room) is an American drama anthology series that aired for three half-hour episodes on HBO on January 8, 1993, with a repeat the next night. Created by Monty Montgomery and David Lynch (who directed two episodes), each drama stars a different cast and takes place in hotel room number 603 of the New York City-based "Railroad Hotel", in the years 1969, 1992, and 1936, respectively. The three episodes were created to be shown together in the form of a feature-length pilot, with the hope that if they were well received, a series of episodes following the same stand-alone half-hour format would be produced later.
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Cast
Guest
- Episode 1
- Glenne Headly as Darlene
- Freddie Jones as Louis "Lou" Holchak
- Harry Dean Stanton as Moe Boca
- Episode 2
- Griffin Dunne as Robert
- Deborah Unger as Sasha
- Mariska Hargitay as Tina
- Chelsea Field as Diane
- Episode 3
- Crispin Glover as Danny
- Alicia Witt as Diane
Recurring
- Clark Heathcliff Brolly as Sean the Bellboy
- Camilla Overbye Roos as Maid
Episodes
1
September 1969. Moe arrives at the Railroad Hotel where he and a hooker named Darlene are shown to the hotel room 603. Before Moe can act, a man from his past named Lou arrives at the room and takes control of the situation, to the detriment of Moe. The two converse as Darlene smokes marijuana and tells them she used to be a cheerleader. Lou insists she perform a routine for them, she obliges with a very seductive dance and falls to the floor due to lightheadedness. Lou picks Darlene up, undresses her and despite Moe's protest, proceeds to have sex with her. Some time later, Moe and Lou accuse Darlene of murdering her husband, which she denies before screaming for help and leaving the room. Lou assures Moe that everything will be all right. Later that night, the police show up at room 603, find Lou's wallet in Moe's pocket, and tell Moe that he is under arrest for the murder of Phylicia. Moe becomes hysterical and protests as the screen cuts to black.
2
June 1992. Sasha arrives in room 603, and soon her friends, Tina and Diane, join her. After Sasha angrily berates the maid for accidentally hitting her in the head with a champagne cork, the three friends discuss Sasha's relationship with her future husband, Robert. Sasha intends to tell Robert that she is breaking up with him as they "don't talk enough", although in reality she is aware of his adulterous behavior. When Robert arrives, although initially attentive to Sasha, he begins openly flirting with both women and openly kisses Tina when she leaves. Before Sasha has a chance to break things off with Robert, he takes the opportunity to break up with her, saying she is not a nice person. Sasha becomes upset and tries to assure him that she can change. As Robert attempts to leave, Sasha hits him over the head with a brass fireplace poker. The maid enters the room to see Sasha trying to hide a semiconscious Robert, who is bleeding from the head. After calling the doctor, the two promise not to fight anymore. They tell the maid to leave and share a kiss on the hotel room floor as the screen fades to black.
3
April 1936. A significant power failure occurs in New York; a man (Danny) enters his room with food and finds his wife on the settee in the darkness with a hand on her eyes. Danny tells Diane about his day and tells her he will take her to the doctor tomorrow. Diane appears to have psychological problems, as she soon forgets the bellboy was ever in the room and believes Danny has been talking to her in Chinese. The couple alludes to something that happened to both of them "17 years ago". Diane begins talking nonsense: discussing Danny's time in the Navy (despite the fact that he was never in the Navy), then of a giant fish that tells her stories of her six children, of which she claims Danny is one. Danny assures his wife that they no longer have any children - their son drowned in a lake at the age of two. Diane at first seems not to remember, then to believe their child is still alive, then finally remembers that he is dead. Danny tells Diane a story about his old friend "Famine", to which she does not really pay attention. As Danny watches the rain outside, Diane picks up a lit candle and begins hauntingly following it around the room before collapsing. After Diane recovers, she claims she was not drunk when their son drowned and that Danny was away, which he protests that he was not. Diane asks that when they see the doctor tomorrow, they not mention the death of their son. Suddenly, the hotel phone rings, and the person calling asks to speak to Diane. Diane converses with the man whom she reveals was the doctor they are seeing tomorrow. As Diane lies on the sofa, the two seem to come to terms with the death of their son, they share a kiss as the lights of the hotel finally come back on. They go over to the window to see the view, when a blinding white light engulfs the whole room as the episode ends.
Production
Barry Gifford wrote and Lynch directed the first and third episodes; Lynch had previously adapted Gifford's Wild at Heart novel to film. Jay McInerney wrote and James Signorelli directed the second. The series was produced by Deepak Nayar, who had worked with Lynch on Wild at Heart, Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and On the Air, and executive produced by Monty Montgomery and Lynch. This was Peter Deming's second collaboration as cinematographer with Lynch after On the Air. The music was composed, conducted and orchestrated by frequent Lynch collaborator Angelo Badalamenti, while Lynch was responsible for the sound design.
According to Gifford, HBO were trying to emulate the success of the anthology series Tales from the Crypt, but "they wanted sexier or comedic pieces, not serious sex and not satire exactly, but something else."
Gifford wrote five scripts, of which HBO produced two. He retained the rights to all five of them, and has turned them into plays that have been performed in several states of the U.S. The teleplays for "Tricks" and "Blackout", along with the unproduced "Mrs. Kashfi", which was deemed too controversial by the network, have been published in a book by the University Press of Mississippi. "Blackout" was written in just two days, to replace a script by David Mamet that Montgomery wasn't satisfied with. Gifford's script was only 17 pages long, but Lynch's cut of it came in at 47 minutes, by far the longest of the three episodes. HBO aired a truncated version of it, but the VHS release contains the longer, and director's preferred, version.
See also
