Hotel Chevalier (2007)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Absolutely brilliant

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Jack Whitman (Jason Schwartzman) is alone in a comfortable European hotel room. He gets a call from a woman (Natalie Portman) who insists on joining him. She tells him that she doesn't want to lose his friendship but he tells her that he will never be her friend. They make love and afterward, they go out on the balcony.Director Wes Anderson makes this short as a prologue to 'The Darjeeling Limited'. I love Wes Anderson but Darjeeling is not one of my favorites. This short definitely has the Wes Anderson touch. Schwartzman and Portman are fine. They're not doing anything really deep but there are snippets of interesting insights into their relationship. The one thing I love above it all is the song 'Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)'. It's classic Wes Anderson.

Wes Anderson released this short film in 2007 as a prelude to his full-length film THE DARJEELING LIMITED, which depicted three brothers trying to reknit frayed ties on a train journey through India. In this short, Jack (Jason Schwartzman), one of the brothers, has been hiding away in a Paris hotel room for months. He is suddenly visited by a former lover (Nathalie Portman), with whom he appears to have had a troubled relationship, and whom he has not seen in a long time. The rekindling of their passion is played out almost in real time in front of the camera.The short is in fact important as back story for the longer film, as Jack's relationship with this girl is alluded to, and objects from the hotel (such as a bathrobe) appear among his luggage in India. However, both the short and THE DARJEELING LIMITED suffer from the same flaw, namely that Wes Anderson had enormous eye for visual detail, but his attempt to depict a human drama comes off as cold and unmoving. Thus here one will enjoy the painstaking design of Jack's hotel room, full of all kinds of delightful bric-à-brac. However, the acting that Anderson brings out of Schwartzman and Portman is hammy and unconvincing.With that visual richness but lame human drama, I cannot really recommend this short to a general audience, but it may be worthwhile for Anderson fans who have come to like his aesthetic from another film of his.

I saw The Darjeeling Limited on the big screen (during the 49 Muestra International de Cine back in 2007) and certainly I saw this short film, now that I added to my collection the DVD of the film I saw Hotel Chevalier for the second time. In The Darjeeling Limited the great Bill Murray has a very little appearance, is a great very first scene of the film with Murray but there's nothing that will connect Murray's character with our three main characters that are played by Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman (just that he tried to take the train that our main characters took). Natalie Portman appears less than Murray in Wes Anderson's latest film to date (his next project, Fantastic Mr. Fox, is going to be released on 6 November 2009 in the US), actually she only appears in one sequence for some seconds, she has no dialog, during the whole film, during the time in India she is not present, but only physically. Here there's nothing very clear, well the reasons are certainly not clear but of cure the actions upon those things that happened are more than clear. Jason Schwartzman is great as Jack Whitman but well I guess those complements would be better in my comment for the feature film. Here is all quite strange once Portman's character arrives to the hotel Chevalier, "what the f*** is going on?" she asks, and the song "Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)" (completely unknown by me until I saw this short film, now I carry the soundtrack of The Darjeeling Limited in my iPod) stops just before the first kiss after at least more than a month happens. 10 out of 10

This is the best short film I have even seen. Not that I've seen that many, but I've seen a few.The direction, the acting and the writing (or, perhaps -no, definitely- the UNDERSTATEMENT in the writing and the acting) is absolutely flawless. Jason Schwarzmann (sp?) displays an unexpected ability to play a role that is perhaps a little different than you would imagine for him. But of course, the immortal Natalie Portman can do anything and she plays this part in such a way that you think about it for a long while afterward.The Darjeeling Limited was a decent movie (and I emphasize decent) but The Hotel Chevalier was absolutely great. Worth the price of admission even if you leave before the actual movie starts.