The Hotel Chelsea's grand ghosts: a review of 'Chelsea on the Rocks'
Back when the Underground was in the foreground of film discussion, Andy Warhol made a picture called The Chelsea Girls. It was shot in the celebrated Hotel Chelsea in New York, but it had much less to do with its setting than with Warhol’s attempts to reshape film form. Nonetheless, he felt a need to mention the place in his title.
Now, however, comes a concentration on the place--Chelsea on the Rocks, a documentary meant as memorial. The hotel has had a century-old reputation as a rather free-and-easy, convivial roost for all kinds of artists: it has now changed ownership, and this film was made as tribute to a landmark that may be changing. The director is Abel Ferrara, who made such numbers as Bad Lieutenant and King of New York, and is not especially known for sentiment. But he was drawn to this subject and has handled it with all the appropriate mist and chuckle.
The Chelsea, which has 250 rooms, was built on West 23rd Street in Manhattan in the late nineteenth century. It was first an apartment house, but was soon converted into a hotel. During the last century it was the owners’ pride that the atmosphere of the place did not change and that its business dealings with residents remained easy. It was determinedly impervious to all that was racing along in the city around it and stayed as late Victorian as it could. The lobby was festooned with the work of resident artists who were up-to-the-minute, but they, too, were glad that the place retained its quasi-historical air...
Read entire article at The New Republic
Now, however, comes a concentration on the place--Chelsea on the Rocks, a documentary meant as memorial. The hotel has had a century-old reputation as a rather free-and-easy, convivial roost for all kinds of artists: it has now changed ownership, and this film was made as tribute to a landmark that may be changing. The director is Abel Ferrara, who made such numbers as Bad Lieutenant and King of New York, and is not especially known for sentiment. But he was drawn to this subject and has handled it with all the appropriate mist and chuckle.
The Chelsea, which has 250 rooms, was built on West 23rd Street in Manhattan in the late nineteenth century. It was first an apartment house, but was soon converted into a hotel. During the last century it was the owners’ pride that the atmosphere of the place did not change and that its business dealings with residents remained easy. It was determinedly impervious to all that was racing along in the city around it and stayed as late Victorian as it could. The lobby was festooned with the work of resident artists who were up-to-the-minute, but they, too, were glad that the place retained its quasi-historical air...