Hôtel des Acacias

Heh, it was restored as part of a master’s degree?

I bought the second BFI Akerman box a while back, so I thought it was time I started watching it.

This is a (long) short, and the weird thing about it is how normal it is. I was expecting something along the lines of Hôtel Monterey — something experimental and contemplative.

But instead this is just a drama involving the people working at this hôtel (and the guests).

Was this originally made for Belgian TV or something?

Oh!

Hôtel des Acacias (1982) is a 43-minute Belgian film directed by students at the INSAS film school under the supervision of acclaimed director Chantal Akerman and Michèle Blondeel.

So it’s a student thing… so I guess it makes even more sense that it was restored by a student, too.

When I throw the die for movies, I usually go “is this good for what it is?” That is, if I were to die-throw on an “objective” scale, all super-hero movies would get a ⚀ since I gave a ⚂ to a bergman movie once, and even the worst Bergman movie is better than the best super-hero movie.

So I don’t do that, because that’d be boring, but then what to do with a student movie? Is this a good student movies as student movies go?

And… I don’t really think so? I’m pretty sure I’ve seen student movies that are much better than this.

It’s not that this is awful. I like the cinematography — plonking the camera somewhere and then getting some interesting angles. Most of the performances are bad, but there are a couple really good ones.

But the main problem is just that it’s not really interesting? It’s so normal, only not well done?

Hôtel des Acacias. Yves Hanchar/Pierre Charles Rochette/François Vanderveken/Isabelle Willems. 1982. ⚁