Dead Mountaineer's Hotel (1979)

Waste of time

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

I have to say "Hotel of Dead Mountaineer" is ahead of its time. OK, script was pretty anachronistic in 1978, because the basic book was written 1970, after social turmoils and "revolutions" in USA and Europe and some moments weren't so obvious in late 70s anymore. But after 9/11 is pretty sure that questions like "terrorist or freedom-fighter?" isn't so stupid at all. So the idea of naive alien helping terrorists doesn't look weird anymore.Movie's special ultramodern design, cold style and dark atmosphere looked maybe a bit over the top in late 70s but became mainstream in 80s, especially in sci-fi and A- category horror movies. "The Hunger" for example has very similar visual style but was filmed 5 years later. The Grünberg's music isn't typical 70s movie soundtrack, the cold and synthesized soundscape became popular also in 80s and later. Theatralic, unnatural, openly strange acting became popular also years later. I like "HUH" ("HODM") because it works, it looks cool and timeless and the movie is overall unforgettable. Like its one its influence, "Zabriskie Point", "HUH" is panned by critics from premiere but has remained cult classic anyway.

When I was a kid, we had a TeeVee show called "The Outer Limits." It featured science fiction mysteries, done with mostly bad acting, competent writing and extremely cheap effects. It was an hour long, which really means 45 minutes. The speed at which the story was told was great, because these mystery scifi things draw from two constricting formulas, and unless you are particularly inventive, the shape of them is pretty set. Cram that into 45 minutes and it moves briskly and tickles. Stretch it out with ponderous inner thinking and even 8 minutes seems way too long. I came to this because it was represented as clever and also as the best Estonia has. But everything about it excepting the makeup of the women is amateurish to the extreme. If it were on that 60's TeeVee show for kids, it would be considered a bad show.I understand the book is much better in the way it fools you into thinking this is a normal mystery formula with a random collection of people cut off (avalanche) and with a detective as our designated on-screen viewer. The red herring here is not to confuse among suspects but among genres. Its supposedly successful in the book, But not here. No.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.

I like quite a lot the book which movie is based on, one of Strugatski's best (it's a bit too short tho). Strugatski's wrote also movie script, but it's much weaker. Some details are changed, some left out, and the changes just don't make much sense. Any way, even if I don't like movie much, most of the cast is good, and helps visualizing characters when reading the book. Maybe except Mrs. Moses... and du Barnstocre who simply isn't in movie. Glebsky also looks a bit fake at times, partly maybe because of dubbed voice. Also, was it that hard to make something that looks like alien robot power source, so they could actually show it? That and some other scenes look quite cheap...

Film is based on the novel by Strugatsky brothers. Police inspector is called to a mountain hotel, but there's no crime. When snow avalanche blocks hotel from the rest of the world, strange things start to happen.. Brilliant soundtrack from Sven Grünberg.