The Hotel New Hampshire (film)

The Hotel New Hampshire

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Tony Richardson
Produced by
Screenplay by Tony Richardson
Based on The Hotel New Hampshire 
by John Irving
Starring
Narrated by Rob Lowe
Music by
Cinematography David Watkin
Edited by Robert K. Lambert
Production
company
Distributed by Orion Pictures
Release dates
  • March 9, 1984 (1984-03-09)
Running time
 110 minutes[1]
Country
  • United Kingdom
  • Canada
  • United States
Language English
Budget $7.5 million[2]
Box office $5.1 million[3]

The Hotel New Hampshire is a 1984 comedy-drama film written and directed by Tony Richardson based on John Irving's 1981 novel of the same name. The film stars Jodie Foster, Beau Bridges, Rob Lowe, and Nastassja Kinski, and also features Wilford Brimley, Amanda Plummer, Matthew Modine, and a young Seth Green in a supporting role. The film is a co-production from the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States.

In an introductory foreword that he wrote for a later edition of the novel, author Irving stated that he was thrilled when Richardson informed him that he wanted to adapt the book to the screen. Irving wrote that he was very happy with the adaptation, complaining only that he felt Richardson tried to make the film too faithful to the book, noting the manner in which Richardson would often speed up the action in an attempt to include more material onscreen.

Plot

The Hotel New Hampshire is narrated by John Berry and opens in flashback to the time when his parents met and fell in love while working summer jobs at a New England hotel around World War II. They are brought together by Freud, a European refugee who travels with a performing bear.

In the 1950s, Win Berry and his wife have five children, John, Franny, Frank, Lilly, and Egg. The Berrys decide to open a hotel near the prep school that John, Franny, and Frank attend; they call it the Hotel New Hampshire. John loses his virginity to the hotel waitress. Frank comes out to Franny and John; Franny is raped by big man on campus Chip Dove and his buddies, and is rescued by Junior Jones and other black members of the school football team; John confesses that he's in love with Franny; the family dog, Sorrow, dies and Frank has him stuffed. Sorrow's reappearance at Christmas causes Berry grandfather Iowa Bob to suffer a fatal heart attack.

A letter arrives from Austria. It's Freud, inviting the Berrys to move to Vienna and run Freud's gasthaus. The family flies to Europe; tragically, the plane carrying Mrs. Berry and Egg explodes, killing them. In Vienna, the family moves into the gasthaus and renames it Hotel New Hampshire. An upper floor houses prostitutes and the basement is occupied by radicals of various political stripes. Assisting Freud, who has gone blind, is Susie the Bear, a young lesbian who lives her life almost completely in a bear costume. One of the radicals, Ernst, resembles Chipper Dove (and is also played by Modine) and Franny becomes infatuated with him. Susie and John, who are both in love with Franny, try to keep her away from him. Susie is initially successful in seducing Franny but soon she ends up with Ernst. Lilly, who is a dwarf, begins writing a novel called Trying to Grow. One of the radicals, Miss Miscarriage, grows very fond of the family, and especially of Lilly. She invites John to her flat and sleeps with him, then warns him to get the family out of Vienna. For her trouble, another of the radicals murders her. Back at the hotel, John and the rest of the family are caught up in the radicals' plan to blow up the Vienna State Opera with a car bomb. The blind Freud, to spare the family, volunteers to drive with one of the radicals. As he leaves, the Berrys attack the remaining radicals and Freud detonates the bomb right outside the hotel. Ernst is killed and Win is blinded in the explosion.

Hailed as heroes by the Austrians, the Berry family decides to return home. Lilly's novel is published and the interest in the Berry's story leads to a biopic, written by Lilly and starring Franny as herself. The Berrys are in New York City when John and Susie run into Chipper Dove on the streets. They lure him to their hotel suite and take their revenge upon him, including apparently having Susie sodomize him while she's in her bear costume, until Franny calls it off. Meanwhile, John's love for Franny has not abated. She finally calls him over to her room and, in hopes of getting him over it once and for all, has sex with him for almost a day. Franny's Hollywood career is beginning to take off, with Frank acting as her agent and with Junior Jones back in the picture, but Lilly's writing career has stalled. Her second novel is not well received and, depressed and suffering from writer's block, she takes her own life.

As the film draws to a close, John is staying with his father at the latest Hotel New Hampshire, which stands empty. Susie comes to stay with them and she and John become involved. Win heartily approves because, as he puts it, every hotel needs a bear.

Cast

Production

Many outdoor scenes were shot at the Hotel Tadoussac. Tadoussac is a village of 857 inhabitants (2005) in Quebec, Canada which was once an important seventeenth century French trading post.

Music

The rock band Queen was asked by producers to compose an entire soundtrack for the film, but later changed their minds in favour of classical music. Freddie Mercury had already composed the song "Keep Passing the Open Windows" and so it ended up on their 1984 album The Works.

"Keep passing the open windows"

This phrase recurs throughout the film as a catchphrase among the Berry family. It is drawn from a story that the Berry parents tell their children, about a street performer called "The King of Mice." Saying "keep passing the open windows" is the family's way of telling each other to persevere. Lilly kills herself by jumping, having failed to pass that open window.

Release

Box office

The Hotel New Hampshire opened on March 9, 1984, earning $1,075,800 in its opening weekend, ranking #11 at the United States box office.[4] By the end of its run, the film grossed $5,142,858 in the domestic box office.[3] Based on an estimated $7.5 million budget,[2] this can be considered a box office bomb.

Critical reception

The film holds a 77% 'fresh' rating on review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes.[5]

Home media

The film was released on Region 1 DVD on July 10, 2001.

References

  1. ↑ "THE HOTEL NEW HAMPSHIRE (18)". British Board of Film Classification. April 2, 1984. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
  2. 1 2 "The Hotel New Hampshire (1984) - Box office / business". Internet Movie Database. Amazon.com. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
  3. 1 2 "The Hotel New Hampshire (1984)". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
  4. ↑ "Weekend Box Office Results for March 9-11, 1984". Box Office Mojo. Internet Movie Database. Retrieved July 5, 2015.
  5. ↑ The Hotel New Hampshire at Rotten Tomatoes

External links

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