Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #23143 in DVD
• Released on: 1999-12-07
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, Letterboxed, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 93 minutes

Amazon.com
Abel Ferrara's adaptation of William Gibson's cyberpunk story (from the short-story collection Burning Chrome) is quite faithful to the source, which may explain why it bypassed cinemas almost completely to emerge on video. Gibson's story takes place entirely in flashback as its hero shuffles through the events that brought him to the tiny shoebox of a room in the New Rose Hotel, on the run and out of ideas. Ferrara winds up in the same place, but first plays out his story for us to see... sort of. Industrial headhunters Christopher Walken, limping through the movie with a cane and a rumpled white suit like an emaciated Sydney Greenstreet, and Willem Dafoe, his jaded, tired partner, hatch a plan to lure a genetic-sciences genius from one corporation to another for a $100 million payoff. The key to their plan is seductive bar girl and part-time prostitute Asia Argento, a flirting chanteuse with whom Dafoe falls in love. Set in a grimy technological future of generic cosmopolitan cities, the characters wander fluorescent mazes of bland malls, murky bars, and faceless hotels, a Blade Runner future without the spectacle. Apart from brief, blurry video-camera surveillance, the entire operation occurs offscreen, reported through conversations and phone calls, and even Ferrara fans may find the murky, dawdling narrative and cerebral conclusion disappointing. But the tech-noir conspiracy gives way to Ferrara's real story, the collision of the dreamers and the shadowy world they live in. --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Abel meets his match in Asia Argento
New Rose Hotel is a flawed and often times confusing film from Abel Ferrara that won't leave you sure of much. One thing that you will be certain of though is how Abel could have fallen for leading lady Asia Argento. Not only does she look incredibly sexy in this one but her acting is very strong throughout. She is easily the best character and most entertaining to watch in a film that also stars Christopher Walken and Willem DeFoe. Those guys do well also but Asia's character has the best arc and changes the most. The time is the future and corporations are trying to steal the top scientists away from rival firms. Two such hunters are Fox and X played by Walken and DeFoe. They devise a scheme to hire a struggling prostitue named Sandii (Argento) to seduce a Japanese scientist and get him to leave his current corporation as well as family to come work for their corporation . In the process the lifelong friends will pocket a few million bucks that they are willing to cut Sandii in on. Of course along the way one of them falls for her and the two begin a steamy love affair that threatens to jeopardize the deal and their friendship. Even though the story often doesn't make sense it follows a basic film noir plot. Two friends need to steal or get information on some mysterious guy and figuring that an attractive woman can get the information better they hire her often while the more sensitive of the men falls in love with her and double crosses ensue. For the first hour or so of the film things are left unanswered as if Abel is only showing us a portion of the scene. Indeed he is as we learn in the film's best act the last twenty minutes when we find out what really has been going on. I found this part of the film to be the most exciting and involving even though what preceded it was often times not that great. Anyway Walken does a good job of playing the old thief who fears that his young accomplice is going to leave him and their life of crime to take up with their beautiful new partner. His performance was very good I thought and him and DeFoe have a very humorous scene together that starts off scripted and then veers into improv and ends with the both of them laughing hysterically. This scene was a nice Abel touch just throwing anything into his uneven film. Many of the people who worked on Ferrara's The Funeral are in this one including brief roles from Annabella Sciorra and Gretchen Mol. This film also benefits from a great Schooly D score. So of interest for Abel fans but mainly recommended for Asia Argento fans since she looks absolutely amazing and her acting is just as good.

Interesting premise and fine performances by Walken, DeFoe & Argento, but ultimately unfulfilling
Sometimes making a feature length film from a short story can work, as the director can elaborate and add texture to the story. Most of the time, short stories make bad movies, and New Rose Hotel exemplifies why. About half-way through this interesting (but ultimately empty) film, the story noticeably looses steam and goes into "filler" mode, where we get a bunch of flash-backs on things we've already seen. But I've jumped ahead. Here's the story.

Christopher Walken and Willem DeFoe are free-lancers in a sort of dystopia of corporate rule, emotional distance, and meaningless sex. They basically "turn" high-level corporate employees, getting paid for facilitating the "defection" of these "stars" from one company to another - the right people can mean billions to a company's bottom line. Like many movies, we join our "heroes" at a critical point, where they are this/close to either the motherload score or a body bag.

Enter the off-beat, talented and unconventionally gorgeous Asia Argento as the hooker with the heart of gold (or maybe stone), who they task to "turn" a big-time scientist-type genius dud. Needless to say, things start off one way, then twists happen that spin the story in a different direction, all complicated by DeFoe falling for the sexy Argento.

Walken is excellent here, as he's allowed to really go with it, spouting lines only he can deliver, making those faces and even doing a little song and dance. DeFoe is...DeFoe - always solid, but given a character that is not completely realized, and a story that is a little transparent. But Argento is the show - sexy, tattooed and hard-to-take-your-eyes-off in a fairly explicit role (the Euros are so comfortable with their bodies...). Also "stars" Gretchen Mol in what is nothing more than a glorified cameo (I'm guessing some scenes wound up on the cutting room floor). See "much more" of her in the Bettie Page flick inwhich she stars.

Unfortunately, as mentioned, the story runs out of steam, gets very "noire"-ishly conventional, and wraps itself up quickly and unfulfillingly, as if its double-parked. It seems as if its making a statement early on (greed, nations ruled by corporations, etc...), then loses its way.

Would have given this 2 stars if not for the luscious Argento, who brings a raw sexuality to her performance. She makes the first half of this as interesting as the second half (w/o much of her) is as uninspired.

Horrid mess
An unbelievable mess, this incredibly confusing movie makes Ferrara previous "The Blackout" a model of narrative clarity. This shoddy movie is one of the reasons that Ferrara has become more and more a marginal figure (his films are now barely released in the US). The reason why actors of the caliber of Dafoe and Walken starred and produced this movie is beyond me. The only thing that makes this movie worth a look are a few nude scenes from the beautiful Asia Argento.