Abel Ferrara's New Rose Hotel

Author: Jeremiah Kipp
Published on: Oct 18, 2000

New Rose Hotel (1998) Directed by Abel Ferrara. Written by Abel Ferrara and Christ Zois. Based on a short story by William Gibson. Starring Christopher Walken, Willem Dafoe, Asia Argento, Yoshitaki Amano, Annabella Sciorra, John Lurie, Gretchen Mol. 92 minutes. Rated R.

* * 1/2 (out of 4)

The plot is either so Byzantine or opaque that I felt someone was having me on. Is this an elaborate prank from Abel Ferrara, the man who brought us the human condition in gregarious excess of filth and bile in Bad Lieutenant?

His latest film to be released on video, New Rose Hotel, is impenetrable but assured. It'll no doubt prove frustrating and annoying for most viewers, who will assuredly want to take the tape out of the VCR and smash it with a hammer. It's a story told through multiple layers of flashbacks as our hero, a William Gibson techno-spy with no name (Willem Dafoe) attempts to decipher precisely what happened in a cyberdeal gone wrong.

We're introduced to a futuristic city a few years from now. From what can be deciphered from the vague dialogue and terse situations taking place in Kubrickian office space, high ceilings hotel lobbies with revolving glass doors and glossy bars with overbearing red lights and nude girls on-stage, two spies are in the employ of a genetic research company to snatch a formula from a brilliant Japanese scientist.

Our spies are played by Willem Dafoe, who looks great in his shiny black leather jackets and long bangs, and the incomparable Christopher Walken. The Dafoe character isn't very bright, perhaps the muscle of the operation. Walken is the brains, for lack of a better word. He's lively, a song-and-dance man with a cane who walks around in white suits acting like, well, Christopher Walken on a good day. A very good day.

From the beginning, we see them discuss the "plan" in those mysterious bars and hotel rooms. It doesn't even really matter what they're discussing, since we can figure out it's important and involves espionage. This "discussion" footage is intercut with grainy spy camera video footage of the scientist and his wife going through their routine - walking down the street, socializing with men in black and beautiful women in scant clothing.

The use of repetition in this film is something astounding. We're constantly being jostled from one sterile location to a flashy and sexy pit of sin to shaky camera footage of businessmen in the distance involved in some obscure transaction. I couldn't follow what was going on for the life of me, but soon became intoxicated in the rhythm of the film, the seeming all-importance of their mysterious business. Perhaps the fact that I didn't get it but the characters seemed to piqued my curiosity and kept me watching.

This being an Abel Ferrara film, Walken cooks up a scheme to get the "McGuffin" from our scientist by using the beauty and feminine wiles of Sandii (Asia Argento, daughter of Dario the Italian master of horror). She will trick the scientist into handing over the formula - at least, I think that's what Walken has in mind. There are a few delightful scenes where Christopher Walken does his little song and tap dance encouraging her to perform for the scientist, as though it's all an elaborate magic trick.

William Gibson's brand of cyberpunk is incredibly difficult to translate onscreen. Much like the writing of Philip K. Dick, it's all computer jargon and visual information acting as a barrier for the protagonist, whose journey is largely internal - sifting through the ashes of memory and sensory overload to get to the truth. It's fitting that New Rose Hotel is a science fiction film without the element of the fantastic, a virtual reality film which never goes into the Matrix. The virtual reality in New Rose Hotel is the very fabric of the film itself as Abel Ferrara cuts back and forth from scene to scene, then repeats moments over and over again aimlessly. It's fitting that the film never really comes up with a conclusion, but it feels as though that's not the point.

The final half hour of the film involves Willem Dafoe sitting on the floor in a gray, tiny little room as images from the first half hour are repeated from different camera angles, or we hear dialogue from the first section of the film over the repeated images of video footage or the sustained relationship between Dafoe and Asia Argento - that "never fall in love" cliché familiar to the spy genre which seems to be the cause for all apparent disasters (which include the chillingly unmotivated death of a major character which is never explained or reasoned through.)

It's an Abel Ferrara film, so he doesn't skimp on the raunch. There are plenty of strip club scenes, including one elaborate bedroom encounter where Christopher Walken (wearing a pointed party hat) seems to be ringmaster, followed a few scenes later by a sweaty f*ck scene between Willem Dafoe and Asia Argento. Indeed, Dafoe and Argento are seen in lazy hotel room mornings, swimming pool kisses and hallway smooches seemingly every couple of minutes for the duration of the movie. It's oddly unsettling to keep returning to sex even as the other scenes convey that everything in the deal is spiraling out of control.

Who could imagine that a plotless film which is more about characters in confined spaces discussing larger than life obstacles would come closer to the spirit of William Gibson's cyberpunk novels (Neuromancer comes to mind) than the successful smash hit, The Matrix? (In fact, New Rose Hotel is based on a Gibson short story.)

The anonymous characters, the paranoid fear of having private moments become recorded by high-tech spies and the isolation of not knowing where you are all combine to make New Rose Hotel a unique and engaging visual tapestry. Granted, I didn't know what was happening around me, and I'm not even sure I liked it, but it sure was sexy, sinister and strange.

POSTSCRIPT: This film was co-produced by stars Christopher Walken and Willem Dafoe. It marks the third collaboration between Walken and Ferrara, and it seems their work brings out the very best in this wonderfully strange character actor. In this film, he shows a giddy humor and animation which keeps the film watchable, even as you shrug your shoulders as if to say, "I don't f*cking get it at all. I'll go with it because Walken is a stinking hoot! I love that guy!"