Hotel Chevalier

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Hotel Chevalier

The iTunes Store poster for Hotel Chevalier
Directed by Wes Anderson
Produced by John Runkle
Written by Wes Anderson
Starring Jason Schwartzman
Natalie Portman
Cinematography Robert Yeoman
Editing by Vincent Marchand
Running time 13 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Followed by The Darjeeling Limited
Official website
IMDb profile

Hotel Chevalier is a short film by director Wes Anderson, released in 2007. Starring Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman, the film acts as a prologue to Anderson's 2007 feature The Darjeeling Limited. The 13-minute short takes place in the eponymous hotel some time before Schwartzman's character, Jack, meets his two older brothers in India. The film was screened out of competition alongside The Darjeeling Limited at the 64th Annual Venice Film Festival. It was shown in North American and British theaters attached to the beginning of The Darjeeling Limited.

The film was shot at the Hotel Raphael in Paris, France. The song "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)" by Peter Sarstedt, from the 1969 album of the same name, is featured prominently in the short.

Hotel Chevalier attracted some attention for containing Natalie Portman's first nude scene,[1] despite her previous insistence that she would never shoot one.[2]

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

The film takes place in Room 403 of the Hotel Chevalier, located in Paris, France. It begins as Jack (Jason Schwartzman) orders onion soup, a glass of chocolate milk, and a grilled cheese sandwich from room service. He receives a call from a woman he knows, who in The Darjeeling Limited is revealed to be his ex-girlfriend (Natalie Portman). She informs him that she has just arrived in Paris, and will meet him at his hotel room in half an hour. Jack hurriedly attempts to tidy his room, changing out of his yellow bathrobe into a suit.

When the woman arrives, it is revealed in conversation that Jack has been living in the hotel room for "more than a month". The woman voices her intention to leave the next morning. After Jack's room service arrives, the two kiss and Jack begins to undress the woman. As he does, he notices bruises on her arm, but she does not comment on them. She tells Jack that she hopes that they will remain friends, and says that she loves him. Jack responds that they can never be friends, no matter what. She continues to undress and they embrace until Jack offers to show her his view of Paris.

The film ends as Jack dresses the woman in the yellow bathrobe and they step out on the balcony together, viewing the scenery for a few seconds before stepping back inside.

[edit] Release

The short was first made available in the United States as a free download from the iTunes Store on September 26, 2007. On October 26, 2007, the short was removed from iTunes and distributed in theaters as the prologue to The Darjeeling Limited.[3] Before being removed from iTunes, it was downloaded nearly 500,000 times and received wide acclaim.[3]

A Fox Searchlight representative told The New York Times that the theatrical release was the first step in a planned Oscar campaign for the short, even though current Oscar qualification rules disqualify short films that are distributed online before meeting the Academy's theatrical exhibition requirements.[4]

Wes Anderson's screenplay for the film was published in the Winter 2007 issue of Zoetrope: All-Story.

Hotel Chevalier is included on the 2008 DVD release of The Darjeeling Limited.

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[edit] External links