Published: Friday, October 30, 2009
‘Rocks’ proves Chelsea Hotel residents are wacky
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Wild Bunch
Grace Jones in “Chelsea on the Rocks”
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Linda Troeller/ Courtesy of Deerjen Films
Chelsea Hotel resident Ethan Hawke in “Chelsea On The Rocks.”
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Photo courtesy of Deerjen Films
Chelsea Hotel owner Stanley Bard and former hotel resident Milos Forman in “Chelsea On The Rocks.”
New York’s venerable Chelsea Hotel has a truly astonishing history of famous guests and colorful incidents in its 125 or so years of existence. A new documentary, “Chelsea on the Rocks,” gives an impressionistic look at this bohemian magnet.
Crafted by crazy-man director Abel Ferrara, himself a resident of the Chelsea, the film is not a dry history of the place. In fact, at times you wish for a little more background on the Chelsea, its ownership and its staggering past registry of artists, writers and rock stars.
The movie does allude to some of those folks: brief vintage clips of William S. Burroughs and Andy Warhol recall its place in the history of the Beats and Warhol’s Factory crowd, and the testimony of artists who exchanged canvases for rent is a reminder of the building’s connection with some of the 20th century’s greatest painters.
The Chelsea has had its share of seedy associations and drug-fueled activity, and death has haunted it: Dylan Thomas spent some of his last hours there, “Lost Weekend” author Charles Jackson committed suicide in his room and Nancy Spungen met her death while sharing space with Sid Vicious.
Ferrara does a bit of dramatic re-enactment of the Spungen-Vicious episode, as well as Janis Joplin’s stay. These don’t fit especially well with the documentary interviews that make up the rest of the film.
It becomes clear at some point that Ferrara’s reason for making the movie is a seismic shift in the Chelsea’s existence: Longtime manager/part owner Stanley Bard, who clearly has a long history of encouraging bohemians to stay at the place (sometimes without paying rent on their apartments for months at a time), is forced out of his management position and a new corporate regime is changing the character of the place.
So, in a way, Ferrara is conjuring up that Chelsea as it slips away. In that sense, the chaotic structure of the movie fits the Chelsea.
Good anecdotes abound. Ethan Hawke, a former resident, tells of his own experiences getting a room at the Chelsea when his marriage to Uma Thurman was disintegrating and shares a second-hand story about Marilyn Monroe showing up at the Chelsea demanding to know where her husband Arthur Miller was.
(He was hiding out, trying to get some writing done.)
Director Milos Forman tells a long, winding anecdote about a fire in the early 1970s, when he was staying in the building. Through this as through most of the interviews, Ferrara’s voice can be heard, profanely shouting his wonderment.
It’s that kind of movie — sloppy and meandering and completely enamored of its shabby-chic subject. It’s bracing, but it could use a chaser.
“Chelsea on the Rocks” ½
Crazy-man director Abel Ferrara is a resident of the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan, and his documentary portrait of the legendary bohemian enclave is just as sloppy as the building itself. But it has the same whiff of shabby-chic romance, and its anecdotes from past residents (shot during a time of corporate takeover of the place) create a mood, that’s for sure.
Rated: R for language, subject matter
Showing: Varsity
Crafted by crazy-man director Abel Ferrara, himself a resident of the Chelsea, the film is not a dry history of the place. In fact, at times you wish for a little more background on the Chelsea, its ownership and its staggering past registry of artists, writers and rock stars.
The movie does allude to some of those folks: brief vintage clips of William S. Burroughs and Andy Warhol recall its place in the history of the Beats and Warhol’s Factory crowd, and the testimony of artists who exchanged canvases for rent is a reminder of the building’s connection with some of the 20th century’s greatest painters.
The Chelsea has had its share of seedy associations and drug-fueled activity, and death has haunted it: Dylan Thomas spent some of his last hours there, “Lost Weekend” author Charles Jackson committed suicide in his room and Nancy Spungen met her death while sharing space with Sid Vicious.
Ferrara does a bit of dramatic re-enactment of the Spungen-Vicious episode, as well as Janis Joplin’s stay. These don’t fit especially well with the documentary interviews that make up the rest of the film.
It becomes clear at some point that Ferrara’s reason for making the movie is a seismic shift in the Chelsea’s existence: Longtime manager/part owner Stanley Bard, who clearly has a long history of encouraging bohemians to stay at the place (sometimes without paying rent on their apartments for months at a time), is forced out of his management position and a new corporate regime is changing the character of the place.
So, in a way, Ferrara is conjuring up that Chelsea as it slips away. In that sense, the chaotic structure of the movie fits the Chelsea.
Good anecdotes abound. Ethan Hawke, a former resident, tells of his own experiences getting a room at the Chelsea when his marriage to Uma Thurman was disintegrating and shares a second-hand story about Marilyn Monroe showing up at the Chelsea demanding to know where her husband Arthur Miller was.
(He was hiding out, trying to get some writing done.)
Director Milos Forman tells a long, winding anecdote about a fire in the early 1970s, when he was staying in the building. Through this as through most of the interviews, Ferrara’s voice can be heard, profanely shouting his wonderment.
It’s that kind of movie — sloppy and meandering and completely enamored of its shabby-chic subject. It’s bracing, but it could use a chaser.
“Chelsea on the Rocks” ½
Crazy-man director Abel Ferrara is a resident of the Chelsea Hotel in Manhattan, and his documentary portrait of the legendary bohemian enclave is just as sloppy as the building itself. But it has the same whiff of shabby-chic romance, and its anecdotes from past residents (shot during a time of corporate takeover of the place) create a mood, that’s for sure.
Rated: R for language, subject matter
Showing: Varsity
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