Bad Times at the El Royale

BAD TIMES AT THE EL ROYALE: Mystiske forviklinger på 4K Ultra HD

11. marts 2019/i 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray /af Bjarke Friis Kristensen

4K Ultra HD: Velkommen til El Royale anno 1969 – et både stilfuldt, men også skummelt hotel fyldt med fortidens hemmeligheder beliggende på grænsen mellem Californien og Nevada. Her tjekker en gruppe fremmede ind en mørk aften, hvor de forskellige skæbner alle synes at have hver deres hemmelighed og agenda på menuen. Det bliver starten på en række forviklinger de forskellige indlogerende imellem, mens aften bliver til nat.

Således finder man blandt andet på hotellet præsten Flynn – spillet godmodigt af Jeff Bridges – videre til støvsugersælgeren Seymour – en plaprende Jon Hamm – samt en soulet sangerinde i skikkelse af en yndig Cynthia Erivo og en hemmelighedsfuld kvinde ved navn Emily portrætteret af en cool Dakota Johnson, der ikke giver en fuck for noget.

Således har instruktør og manuskriptforfatter Drew Goddard i ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ samlet en flok fine skuespillere i rollerne som vidt forskellige karakterer, hvis historier sirligt foldes ud en efter en, mens deres fortid og hemmeligheder lidt efter lidt ser dagens lys, hvor spændingerne på hotellet stiger i takt med den dramatiske intensitet tager til.

Det er i hvert fald, hvad der forsøges på. Og det lykkedes da også momentvis at stable fint sitrende spænding på benene karaktererne imellem, mens hemmelighederne bobler under overfladen. Men fortællingen bliver også lidt for tålmodig i forhold til at folde sit plot og sine karakterer ud, hvorfor filmen mister momentum og nærvær undervejs. Det er virkelig en skam, da kimen til en nervepirrende omgang hotel-thriller bestemt er på banen.

Selvom her altså er fint forløste scener – som blandt andet da sangerinden synger i takt med en anden karakters ugerninger, så lyd og ugerning går op i en højere enhed – bliver de medvirkende aldrig rigtigt dragende nok at følge til, at jeg er lige engageret i deres strabadser hele vejen. Der forsøges ellers med plotmæssige krumspring, der dog ikke helt lykkedes medrivende nok.

Men på trods af, at filmen ikke hele vejen er lige vellykket i sin udfoldelse af fortællingen samt iscenesættelsen af sine karakterer og deres hemmeligheder, så har ‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ lige nok elegant iscenesatte scener og plotdrejninger til at nå i mål – også selvom filmen med sine 2 timer og 20 minutter er lige lang nok for sit eget bedste.

4K Ultra HD og ekstramateriale: Udover, at spændingensfilmen udkommer på det billedoptimerede og lydmæssigt lækre 4K Ultra HD-format, så medfølger filmen også på Blu-ray. Hertil kommer en lille omgang ekstramateriale, hvor man således kan gå på opdagelse i ‘Making Bad Times at the El Royale’ samt et billedgalleri.

‘Bad Times at the El Royale’ udkommer på dvd, Blu-ray og 4K Ultra HD den 14. marts.

Interview med Drew Goddard – manden bag ‘Bad Times at The El Royale’

18. februar 2019/i Inteview /af Bjarke Friis Kristensen

INTERVIEW: Thrilleren ‘Bad Times at The El Royale’ udkommer nu på både dvd, Blu-ray og 4K her i landet den 14. marts. I den forbindelse bringer vi et interview med filmens instruktør, Drew Goddard.

Why choose to set this film in a location that straddles two places?

It all came out from writing. The movie started with characters, I knew I wanted a hotel but I didn’t have this idea that it would be a bi-state hotel until I started getting into the script. At the beginning the core idea was to show 7 people, from very different backgrounds, arriving to one hotel and probably trying to kill each other. The hotel happened organically. When I was thinking how I wanted to design the film and what were the emotions of the characters, there the theme of duality kept coming up, and very organically arrived the idea of the hotel reflecting that duality.

How important is the era in which this film is set?

I very much wanted to set this film in 1969 for a reason. The 60s were very much a time for turmoil and in rapid success, in just a five year period, Martin Luther King, John Kennedy and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated. Then Nixon signed in. So this movie takes place at the dawn of the Nixon years because I wanted to show the time when the great darkness started to descend after a time of great hope. I wanted to deal with that specific place and time.

We know that there was a certain mood in the 60s in California, but what was the mood in Nevada?

In a weird way those states were the opposite of what they are right now. Nevada in the 60s was very much about hope and opportunity: the idea that you can roll the dices and change your life. There was a swingin vibe, it was the era of the Rat Pack and Frank Sinatra. Whereas California was different. California was a darker place. You had the cults like the Charles Manson’s one coming out in the 60s, you had politicians like Richard Nixon coming out from California. There was a golden seduction of California that is very different from the California of today.

What do you feel audiences at home will take away from this film?

The film is designed to warrant close details. The thing I like when I watch a movie at home is that I can really study the movie, you can really get into the details and the meanings and the nuances by watching the movie in the intimacy of your home. I’m not a purist I love both the theatre and the home experience and I hope the movie does play well in both.

You directed Chris Hemsworth in his first non-heroic role. What was it about him that made him perfect for this role?

That’s good to hear. Yes, I hope that’s true! I’ve known Chris now for like a decade, when we worked on ‘Cabin In The Woods’ it was before he got the role on ‘Thor’, so I’ve seen him evolve as a performer and I know how talented he is and how much range he has. He doesn’t get the chance to do that all the time. Because he’s so busy saving the world you know…

What was the process of creating that long scene of Jon Hamm discovering the secret passage and looking at every guest behind glass? What steps did you take and what were the challenges of that shot?

That shot was the most complicated shot I’ve ever tackled in my career. It took us 8 months of planning, because we had to build the entire set around the shot. Everything that you see happening in that shot is in the set.. You even see outdoors, you see into the parking lot, so we had to build all that as well. We did not use visual effects for all the things you’re seeing, the only visual effects is the wall behind Jon Hamm because that’s where the camera track goes. And we had to hide it. Other than that we’re just doing everything for real, because we wanted the audience to feel that they’re in that moment with Jon Hamm, experiencing the movie.

With every twist and turn of the film, viewers learn more and more about each character. What was your process in creating characters with such depth and history?

All the story starts from the Jeff Bridges’ priest. He was the first character I thought of, there was something about the idea of a priest who is lying that was sitting right with the drama for me. And so he was the first piece to fall into place, the second was the singer. The movie is much about the two of them: the false spirituality of the priest and the false spirituality of the artist.

‘Bad Times at The El Royale’ udkommer på dvd, Blu-ray og 4K d. 14/3.

Interview med Cailee Spaeny fra ‘Bad Times at The El Royale’

18. februar 2019/i Inteview /af Bjarke Friis Kristensen

INTERVIEW: Thrilleren ‘Bad Times at The El Royale’ udkommer nu på både dvd, Blu-ray og 4K her i landet den 14. marts. I den forbindelse bringer vi et interview med Cailee Spaeny fra filmen.

Would you say that Rose is a byproduct of the California culture of that era, in what way?

I think the cool part about the script is that each character is a chunk of that era. For example: music is a characteristic of that era and that’s what Cynthia Erivo’s character shows. Miles, the bellboy, he was in the vietnam war. So each character kind of represents a different aspect of that time.

You did a great job embodying the 60s/Manson-esque cult mentality, did you do any research or reading into that era to inform how you were going to play Rose?

Yes, I did lots of research. I think Chris Hemsworth’s character doesn’t really represent the Manson cult as he has different qualities. He plays a different version of that, but I did research all of the different cults among which there was the Manson’s one. It’s not a super happy thing to spend your time with, still, Drew sent me a list of documentaries that I saw: Children Of God, Jonestown… those kind of things. Almost every night I was researching cults, which is not that nice, but I got to learn a lot of things. I’ve started this movie thinking: “Why would anyone join a cult? How do you get your mind to that point?”.

The saying ‘not everything is as it seems’ rings true for Rose and the audience is quickly proven wrong on their initial assumption of your character. What was it like to evolve in to the Rose we see in the final scenes?

I just tried to stay in the moment as the character. I tried not to get into my head too much, thinking what the audience is thinking. Some actors can do this but for me if I go to work I’m just thinking about what the character has in mind, I don’t think: “Oh this is too much for the audience

Which scene was the biggest challenge to shoot?

The final killing. We wanted something slower than the other deaths. It doesn’t happen as fast as most of the other killings, because that is one of the big final deaths. We’ve fallen in love with Miles and his character and we wanted that to be very brutal, I mean in the way I twist the knife across the stomach. It is very hard to watch even for me, still it got a little silly while filming because me and Lewis Pullman were just: “This is so crazy! What is this scene?.”

Was it always you on the chandelier or a double?

We did have doubles on set but it was me swinging on the chandelier, it was very cool. One covered from my bucket list.

Were there a memorable behind the scenes moment?

So many memorable moments! Because it is such an intense script, it’s an ensemble cast and there aren’t that many people in the movie (except for the 7 main characters), therefore we all got pretty close. There were so many great moments. A lot of times Jeff Bridges would have his panoramic camera on him and right before there the rolling call he would pop into the different rooms and just take pictures of us. That was so fun!

Do these moments help?

Yes for sure, I think it’s just nice to know we’re all there to help each other, we’re all in to make a fun movie, we all had each others backs and knew how delicate for the actors the scenes were and how emotional they were. And so i think the cast, crew and Drew were all having each others back trying to make everyone’s job easier.

The majority of your scenes were shot with Dakota Johnson and Chris Hemsworth. How was it working with them?

For Dakota, thankfully we had a bond offset so the bond was there also during the scenes, there wasn’t too much of work, or acting or even pretending. We were sisters and I felt we already were when we started working, so that was nice.

Every actor learns something new with each movie they star in. What did you learn from this movie?

I just had such a lucky experience working with incredible actors, getting to see their work ethics, their different techniques… Jeff Bridges is such a legend! Getting to watch him and see how he worked was a blessing. Something i really like that he did, was that he never came on set like “Yeah yeah I got this, can we please roll? I’ve been doing this for years!”. Every time we got on set he was always asking questions, there was never anything he already knew, he always wanted to learn more.

‘Bad Times at The El Royale’ udkommer på dvd, Blu-ray og 4K d. 14/3.