Review of Hotel Chevalier (2007) by Kelvin L — 22 Oct 2007

The real hotel in this film is the Hotel Raphael in Paris. Their rack rate is an insane 500 something euros for a standard room, but you can get a room for more like $372 on SideStep. All of the yellow accessories in the scene were probably added by the production designer as Jason Schwartzman's character seems to have a theme of yellow associated with him (though I haven't seen Darjeeling Ltd so I wouldn't know for sure). The clothes are done by Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton, and it's always funny to me when an entire cast's wardrobe and costumes are done by the same company or person. It creates an immediate sense of the 'stage' when the set is overdone, and 'Hotel Chevalier' has a theatrical quality with Jason Schwartzman's oddly precise movements, gestures, speech, and the monochromatic environment. I tend to associate a more immersive environment with film. The stage surrounds you.

Natalie Portman is the same way, but her expressions seem more natural and relaxed. Schwartzman seems to be trying really hard to fit a specific character profile with all these oddly defined movements like when he sets the ipod it's almost like the director is telling him he needs to do it from the side so the camera can frame things in the scene just the right away.

Hotel Chevalier encapsulates many of the qualities that define Wes Anderson's recent movies: futura font, a highly coordinated set and wardrobe, the use of distinctive props and colors to define characters, and an emotional restraint in the characters that makes them hard to figure out.

It's hard to say whether Wes Anderson's hyper-controlling style is a bad thing. J-P Melville, J-P Jeunet, Fellini... all these guys Anderson probably admires, and as he continues to mature he'll inevitably produce some less than stellar work. Hotel Chevalier isn't really good and isn't bad, and it's interesting in many ways, and as a marketing promo it's been fairly successful and a bit innovative. After this we'll probably find someone on the internet buying a Louis Vuitton case like the one in the movie and drawing those same animals on it just to be cool.

Curiously, part of the Louis Vuitton Spring-Summer 2008 collection for men looks like it was inspired by the Life Aquatic with a lot of ocean blue. The women's collection has a few similar pieces, but isn't so nautically themed.