Forum:
FILM - Chelsea on the Rocks
"The infamous Chelsea Hotel in New York City could not have asked for a better chronicler of her raunchy, lugubrious past than Abel Ferrara. It's a match made in filmmaking heaven."The Chelsea Hotel is commanding, and Ferrara remains a sick god, the ingenious hunchback of Notre Dame du Cinéma."--Cahiers du cinéma".
A grand old dame of the once dirty and dangerous city, The Chelsea was home to artists, musicians and other assorted types who couldn't make their rent, or who paid it with the art that distinguished the Chelsea's gloriously funky lobby. Presided over by longtime manager and part-owner Stanley Bard, himself an eccentric of the first order, the list of people who lived, worked and sometimes died at the Chelsea is a virtual who's-who of American culture, including Nancy Spungen and Sid Vicious, Dennis Hopper, Ethan Hawke, Grace Jones, Milos Forman, Patti Smith, Bob Dylan, Tennessee Williams, Charles Bukowski, Stanley Kubrick, Arthur Miller, Joni Mitchell, Dee Dee Ramone, Larry Rivers, Dylan Thomas, Mark Twain, Janis Joplin, Andy Warhol, Leonard Cohen, Robert Mapplethorpe, Tom Waits, Courtney Love, Jasper Johns, Jimi Hendrix and countless others. Despite its landmark status, there are plans to convert the Chelsea into a boutique hotel, its scabrous, glorious history just another fading memory from America gone by. But before that happens, Ferrara sings the Chelsea a swan song. In typical Ferrara fashion, there are few rules observed here; the director has the bad habit of interrupting the people he's supposed to be interviewing, even wandering occasionally into the frame. But that only adds to the rough and rude feeling of the film that kicks apart the usual documentary politesse. Producer will be in attendance.
Screening Times:
Sat. Sep 27, 9:30pm, Granville 7
Fri. Oct 3, 9:45pm, Ridge
Sun. Oct 5, 2:30pm, Granville 7