Stars:
Kevin Corrigan, Rosario Dawson, Vincent
D'Onofrio, Kris Kristofferson, Robert Sean Leonard, Natasha Richardson, Jimmy
Scott, Uma Thurman, Mark Webber, Tuesday Weld, Frank Whaley, and Steve Zahn
Writer:
Nicole Burdette
Based
on the Play "Chelsea Walls" by: Nicole Burdette
Director:
Ethan Hawke
Feature
length: 109 minutes
Extras:
Director’s Commentary, Interviews, Deleted Scenes
Languages:
English Dolby Digital 5.1
Subtitles:
English Captions and Spanish Subtitles
Packaging:
Keep Case
Chapter
Stops: 26
Sound:
Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound
Year
of DVD Release: 2002
Theatrical
Distributor: Lions Gate Entertainment
Home
Video Distributor: Lions Gate Home Entertainment
MPAA
Rating: R
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
The
Chelsea Hotel used to be grand, the place to live for New York City artists.
Mark Twain, Thomas Wolfe, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Bob Dylan, Jimi
Hendrix…they all passed through the hotel's halls. Still, even though the iron
façade has become rusty, new dreamers come every day, hoping to be inspired by
the ghosts of the past.
Grace
(Uma Thurman) and Audrey (Rosaria Dawson) are young poets, who constantly
struggle with issues of art and love. Never learning from experience, they
always seem to let the wrong men into their hearts. Grace should love Frank
(Vincent D'Onofrio), an artist who respects and understands her. But she still
responds to the siren call of the lover who went to Hollywood. Similarly, Audrey
lets impenetrable Val (Mark Webber) back into her life, knowing he will leave
again and maybe never return.
Down
the hall, Bud (Kris Kristofferson) is a writer who faces more endings than
beginnings. He pretends that his wife, Greta, (Tuesday Weld) and his mistress,
Mary, (Natasha Richardson) are his muses. But his novel is really fueled by an
endless supply of alcohol, memories, and unfulfilled dreams.
For
every worn out writer, there are two new musicians who come to town. Ross (Steve
Zahn) and Terry (Robert Sean Leonard) have just driven in from Minnesota, eager
to experience the sights and sounds of the Chelsea Hotel. These new hotel
residents, young and full of expectations, mingle with the old hotel ghosts and
guests, ultimately becoming interchangeable. They form a community, linked by
their dreams. The Chelsea Hotel never really leaves the people who live there,
nor do they ever really leave it.
I
remember once delivering a package to someone whose office/residence was within
the Chelsea Hotel. In fact I had no idea about the place’s history at the
time, which was about twelve years ago and so my immediate impression was that
it was a dive. There are many “Chelsea Hotels” throughout New York City so
to speak filled with aspiring writers, musicians, artists, and even producers
and agents. I suspect the same is true with every big American city, but some
places like Manhattan are unique in that you have the wealthiest of the world
living side by side with the poor of the poor figuratively speaking. You cannot
simply jump on the freeway and pass from Park Avenue or Riverside Drive and go
downtown to SoHo and not be touched in one way or another by the ocean of people
from varied backgrounds that live, work, visit, and dream to be in New York.
Being a native of the city, I can say that I have taken much of good and bad for
granted to a point where I do not notice certain things because I grew up seeing
them. New York has changed with a theme park and franchise run of Time Square
and the images of urban decay that were synonymous with many films from the
1970s thankfully no longer exist, but places like the Chelsea Hotel have endured
through the good and the bad perhaps because they are as much a part of the
landmark pop culture icons that make up the figurative American History Visual
Dictionary just like the “Hollywood” sign calls to mind images of palm
trees, movie stars, and glamour, but anyone who has been to Los Angeles would
agree that there’s a shadow that is ever-present by day as well as night and
you do not need to see it with your eyes to know with your heart that it exists.
Ethan
Hawke has emerged as a renaissance man for his generation. A successful actor,
filmmaker, and novelist, Hawke has taken more chances to explore his creative
artistry through a variety of high and low profile projects that very few people
at his level ever undertake. Granted it is easier to become filmmaker or a
novelist when you have already established yourself as an actor. However all the
agents and publicity spin doctors in the world cannot change the general
“horse sense” of the American soul that tells it when something has
substance regardless of what people say. Adapted from the play and shot on
Digital Video, “Chelsea Walls” is more of a mood piece than anything else.
The hotel emerges as the main character with the characters that occupy it more
or less the organisms in symbioses with their cells (rooms) that depend upon
each other for survival more than anything else.
Presented
in a (1.77:1) anamorphic widescreen aspect ratio, “Chelsea Walls” is a
gritty looking film with a lot of grain purposely their that adds to the
tapestry of the film. An English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Soundtrack is
included along with English Captions and Spanish Language Subtitles encoded on
to the DVD as options. Hawke provides a screen specific commentary and is very
articulate through out. Videotaped interviews with Ethan Hawke and Robert Sean
Leonard are included along with a direct digital transfer of an extended deleted
scene. Trailers for “Chelsea Walls,” “Frailty,” and “Liberty Stands
Still” wrap up the extra features included on this standard DVD release.
“Chelsea
Walls” is available on DVD-Video now from Lions Gate Home Entertainment.
©
Copyright 2002 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.