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A dramaturgical walk through Hotel Chevalier (Wes Anderson)

Watch the film on vimeo

„Only a fool tells all he knows. A wise man keeps his mouth shut.“

In this analysis, I will be the fool and Wes Anderson's short film Hotel Chevalier will be the wise man. I will be the one trying desperately to discern why Hotel Chevalier is so fascinating to me. And Hotel Chevalier will keep holding back some of its secrets, and will thereby – no matter how much I try to take it apart – not let itself be nailed down completely.

I will be taking you step by step through the reactions and expectations I have when watching the film. And I've watched it more than once. (The short film was released and screened as a prelude to Darjeeling Limited but I will take Hotel Chevalier completely on its own because – well, the film just works so perfectly well on its own).

So let's take a close look.


The very first scene is a simple figure shot of the reception: We're introduced to the setting – a nice looking cozy French hotel. The phone is ringing and the concierge takes his time to pick it up.

Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier Then we switch right into a very interesting shot: All we see of the caller (Mr. Whitman) are his feet and legs. A much larger portion of the frame is devoted to the cluttering mess Mr. Whitman has made of his hotel room. From this alone, we gather a bunch of information, which will later be confirmed: That he's living in this room on his own, that he's been living there for quite a while, that he doesn't have much to do outside of the hotel room etc. An even more startling detail is the TV-Set, which displays what looks like a black-and-white war documentary. The corpses framed here are covered with a blanket with their boots sticking out at the end. This mirrors Mr. Whitman's own two feet and quite possibly his own inner feeling.

Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier In the next shot we see Mr. Whitman for the first time. He has adapted quite well into the surroundings of his hotel room: the bathrobe he is wearing does not set itself apart from the color of the bedsheets. Our notion that he's living by himself is affirmed by the way he's laying in his bed on one side, while the other side is covered with books, a notebook, and a CD: these objects are laying around where normally, his partner / lover may be lying. He looks pretty lonely and unoccupied. What's even more telling is the way he's ordering his grilled cheese sandwich: He's trying to order in French – and has probably done so plenty of times – but struggles with the one word that may change from order to order. In short: He's working on adapting to his (French) surroundings, but cannot quite manage to hide his (American) origin.


Anyway, all this is – or has become – his normal mode of life. A mode which will be interrupted by the very next phone call. Expecting the concierge, Mr. Whitman picks up the phone in a relaxed way – but then he hears a female voice.

Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier We switch immediately into a close-up shot, showing his facial features – while still somehow relaxed and expressionless – freeze in place. We know that something is wrong. Mr. Whitman does not even answer to her “hello”, but apparently she knows him well enough or can tell from his heavy breathing that he's there. Everything we need to, at this point, know about the relationship between him and the female caller is condensed into the pause he makes before telling her his room number. From this we know that the relationship between the two must be an intimate but damaged one. Obviously, the woman wants to see him and he would rather not see her. But there must still be an intimate connection between the two, because he simply can't manage to tell her: no.


So at this point, already, I was pretty much hooked. I wanted to know who the mysterious woman was, of course, and what their relationship was like, and what the hell Mr. Whitman is doing in this hotel room. I was hooked because of all the open questions, all of which were basically laid bare by Mr. Whitmans strange reaction to the phone call. Hotel Chevalier, being no fool, does not tell us everything at once: it keeps handing us bits and pieces, exposes some secrets, and makes us long for what more is to come.

Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier This is why I think we pay so much close attention to the following things Mr. Whitman does in preparation for the woman's arrival. He picks up some of the clothes laying around. He starts filling up a bath with water. He takes a look in the mirror (and does not seem to excited about the face greeting him therein). He switches the lights off and back on – probably testing out which “light mood” would best fit the situation. He switches off the TV, of course.

Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier All of these are pretty normal preparations for when you're expecting a female guest. But Mr. Whitman even goes a little step further: He unwraps a little statuette and places it neatly on a drawer. Then he goes to his iPod station and prepares the exact song he wants to play while greeting her. Only then does he go back into the bathroom and takes of his bathrobe.

Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier Then there's a time jump. We see Mr. Whitman in much the same position of the first shot. Only now the frame has been moved up a notch – revealing less of the partner-less bed and instead framing one of those typical paintings that hang on the walls of low-upper class hotels. And the most important change of couse is the suit Mr. Whitman is now wearing, waiting patiently and still pretty much without the whiff of any certain facial expression.

Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier Finally, there's a knock on the door. Mr. Whitman moves out of frame to the door. The music starts playing and we know – even before the camera catches up with his movements, that he's turned on the song he prepared earlier. And then we see her. She's talking on her cell phone but then switches it off as soon as their eyes meet. She flashes a smirk at him, but then drops it because it probably was not answered by any comforting gesture of Mr. Whitman. Instead, she asks him about the music which she seems to find out of place. The way they hug once again confirm out earlier assumptions: she wants to kiss him – on the cheek, at least – but all he can manage is a long, possibly even cordial hug. He wants to know how she found him – confirming further that he has in some way run away from her.

Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier She evades any real answer and instead proceeds to examine his hotel room. At this point we realize that Mr. Whitman went to extremes to tidy everything up. We see the statuette from the scene before, but along with it several postcards, collectibles and even self-made paintings – all neatly put on display on desk and drawer. She smiles at him, sort of like saying, “I love this playful side of yours.” But at this crucial point, the viewer is ahead of her. He knows that the outer facade Mr. Whitman has erected within only half an hour does not represent his current life very well. Everything is designed to trick her into believing that he's leading a happy life without her. The song comments on this very directly (almost obtrusively) for the first time “I want to look inside your head, yes I do.”

And this is, to me, the central theme of Hotel Chevalier: The possibility of looking inside somebody else's head. The woman wants to know what Mr. Whitman's life has been like since they parted. So the first thing she does is examine his surroundings very closely. The way she tests the paint of the still life on the drawer (while the song comments: “the painting you stole from Picasso”) seems to show that she's skeptical about this display, but can't quite put her finger on what's wrong with it.

Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier In the bathroom, the probing goes even further. She uses his toothbrush – sort of like they were still a couple where one can share such things. She asks him about his haircut, which has apparently changed since they last saw each other. His answer Barbara in the lobby cut it reveals a further clue that he does not leave his hotel much, not even to get a hair cut. There's a short irritation about the bath: We saw him fill it up more than half an hour ago, expecting himself to take a bath – but now he states that he prepared it for her. This raises some eyebrows but is not resolved within the film plot.

So even though only a couple of words have been spoken between him and her, we, as viewers, know just as much as we need to know about their relationship: we know that there's been hurt in the past, that he's run away from the situation, that he has put up a facade (possibly to take away her chances of hurting him even more?) and she's beginning to look through it. And we've discovered the main theme of ts film, so now we're excited to see whether the two will get a chance to look inside each other's heads or not.

Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier

Finally, she simply asks “what the fuck is going on?”. She's not buying into all this crap. As we already know, Mr. Whitman is not one for simple questions and answers, though. Instead of saying anything, he simply sits down on his bed. She sits down in the chair in the other room – so now there is a maximum distance between the two – and tries another question. He's very vague on how long he's been staying in the hotel room, and once again succeeds in distracting from the questions at hand by making her laugh. Up to this point, his defensive armor seems air-tight. When she discloses that she's planning on leaving tomorrow morning, he does nothing more than take out a one-bite piece of hotel chocolate. No matter how directly she asks him questions (“are you running away from me”), he finds a way of evading it ironically (“I thought I already did”).

Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier Despite all this, we keep sensing that there is a level of deep longing, maybe even deep understanding, for each other. Maybe they're both sorry for what has happened in the past but both don't know how to undo the fatal knot that's been tied. I'm not quite sure why this feeling seems steadily present. Maybe it has to do with the way she keeps smirking at him, or maybe the way she behaves like him (standing in front of the mirror like him when he was alone), and quite probably the way they both let their bodies glide to the mattress just before the waiter arrives with lunch.

Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier It's due to this feeling of compassion between the two that makes their rushed and intense kiss – right after the waiter has left – surprising but nonetheless consistent. Or maybe we've just been hoping all along that they'll drop their standard routines and get down to some action.

Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier The ensuing undressing on the bed is all the more telling. They switch places like they know this choreography very well. While he does not even loosen a single button of his suit – his protective armor – he undresses her completely, revealing bruises on her leg and arm. This is the first glimpse he seems to be getting behind her solid facade. When he first sees them (“you've got bruises on you body”) is, to me, the first time he reveals any true emotion at all. So while she is exposed, he himself tries to keep up his tough shell a little longer. There's the wonderfully ambivalent “I promise, I will never be your friend, no matter what – ever” which just makes you stop and wonder: is this a promise the be her lover again (i.e. not “just” a friend) or a reiteration of his previous stance: i.e. “I will not let you into my life again”). Even when she goes on to say that she loves him and never hurt him on purpose, his reply (“I don't care”) can once again be taken as an utterance of forgiveness or of scorn.

So does the film resolve these issues or not? Will the two get back together or not? My personal interpretation is that the film intentionally remains open about this. It does something much more beautiful than to give easy answers: it opens our minds to the tiny nuances, the complexities, and the contradictions of human relationships.

Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier We don't learn specifically what caused the woman's bruises. We never find out what exactly she did to hurt him. We will never now whether they'll get back together or not. Those were not, in retrospect, the questions the movie really set out to answer in the first place. The theme of the film is not whether a loving couple will manage to resolve all the conflicts between them. The theme of the film is whether they will get a chance to look inside each other's head. And this question, at least, is answered with a definite “yes”. She lets him see her bruises. And he, in return, does a very simple thing. He asks her if she wants to see his view of Paris. In this startling moment, he drops all pretensions and simply invites her to see what his life is really like. And it's certainly no coincidence that as he says this, her head disappears behind his head and it looks for a moment like she is “wearing” his head instead of her own!

Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier He dresses her in the very bathrobe he himself was wearing when he was alone in the hotel and simply takes her out onto the balcony. All this takes place in slow motion – and as we take time to focus on their small gestures, witness his head turning to take one final glimpse at the hotel room that has been imprisoning him, and once again pay close attention to the lines of the song (“You live in a fancy appartment […] But where do you go to my lovely, when you're alone in your bed? Tell me the parts that surround you, I want to look inside your head”)

Wes Anderson - Hotel Chevalier

What she now sees, and what we see with her, is not a romantic setting of the Parisian skyline. It is, simply, a hotel wall. And by what we've come to know about Mr. Whitman, there can be no doubt that this, at last, truly is what it's like inside his head: He's in the middle of the city of love, but he's completely void of love. As void of love as the completely banal outer facade of a hotel room.



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