Hotel Chevalier

Hotel Chevalier is a beautiful short film directed by Wes Anderson starring Natalie Portman and Jason Schwartzman, and is a prequel to one of his films 'The Darjeeling Limited', looking further into the relationship of Jack and his ex-girlfriend. 

The film is very simple in its dialogue, but is honest and beautiful, and a lot is told through visual imagery as in true Wes Anderson style. He stays true to his own way of filming, making use of his iconic tracking shots, slow-motion long shots, high angle shots and whip-pans. The colour palette is also similar to his other work, warm orange tones in an intricately designed set.

The opening establishing shot is the only shot that is not inside the hotel room, other than the final shot on the balcony. We are introduced to Jack by showing his hotel room- clearly has been here for a long time and it very settled. There are key examples of symmetry in the cinematography of the first couple of shots which is again another feature Anderson frequently uses. 

When his ex girlfriend arrives she is not obviously eager to see him, and does not hang up
 the phone as he opens the door; she stays composed, trying to hide the guilt that she feels for hurting him, which she says she feels later in the film. Jack puts on a piece of music as soon as she rings on the doorbell that he has picked especially for her entrance, and is played throughout most of the film until they start to kiss. The images below are all from one shot, the camera whip pans to Portman looking back at Schwartzman. She is in control of the scene, she controls the dialogue and even the the camera follows her movements. In a following shot it tracks along the apartment behind her head as she walks into the bathroom, again showing her control of the situation and of the relationship. 

Portman remains in the centre of the shot while she brushes her teeth, the focus never steers from her while Jack stands in the background. This reflects the role he plays in the relationship, he is more submissive to her. In the shots below you can see how they talk to each other for the first time properly, addressing why they have been apart and what Jack has been doing in Paris. They are both positioned far from the camera in shots by themselves, the other character is not in the frame with them, showing how distance has been created between them after the time they have spent apart. They both seem very out of place due to their accents and their dark clothing against the warm colours of the room.

When they lie on the bed they are suddenly in equilibrium as they are both equally placed within the frame. He finally gains more control, as despite her questions he shows that he has been able to stay away from her for months. He doesn't show any signs of wanting to go 'home' as she suggests. Though they have a lot of history together which is shown in their dialogue, there is no intimacy even when they lie on the bed. Compared to a short film like Memory 2.0, the shots show them to be distant, each composed meticulously with a still camera, which reflects the state of their relationship, awkward, stagnant and all for show. 

After they begin to get intimate, he notices that she has bruises on her skin, implying that she may have been physically abused, but nothing is said about it. I really like in the dialogue how they both ask each other whether they have slept with anyone else: the pauses after they each ask the questions shows they could be lying, or trying to show that they have truly moved on. Portman's character pauses for the longest, showing that she may not want to tell him the truth in case she hurts him again. I would love to develop these subtleties and use them in my own script for the short film. As she begins to apologise for how she didn't mean to hurt him off camera, the camera holds on a close-up of Jack, staring at her unemotionally. He has clearly been hurt by her but still is under her control shown by his minimal replies and that she is lying on top of him so he cannot move. His obsession with his ex-girlfriend is developed in Anderson's film 'The Darjeeling Limited', and despite the fact that she is the reason the relationship ended, he still has feelings for her and feels little resentment towards her.

The penultimate shot is the iconic Wes Anderson slow motion tracking shot, seen in his other feature films. The music 'Where Do You Go To (My Lovely) that was played at the beginning, and she puts on his dressing down from earlier. 

I love this ending long-shot, it again shows a lot about their relationship without having any dialogue. The orange dressing down she wears stands out against the cool toned landscape and Jack's grey suit, and shows that in the end she does not belong here, and does not belong with Jack.