This week, the Weekend Magazine features a luxury staycation at Auckland's The Langham. Hotels are fertile ground for storytelling and horrors do especially well. Here are five great films featuring hotels, that you might also like.
The Shining, 1980.
Here's Johnny! All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy! Redrum, Redrum! Jack Nicholson is anything but dull. He's a stupendously good psycho. Shelley Duvall is also brilliant. Lock the door, shut the blinds, dress up as ghosts, prepare red-themed snacks and prepare, also, to freak out.
The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2014.
A film with great heart about the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge from a hotel that doesn't actually exist, possibly somewhere in Eastern Europe, some time between World War I and II. He becomes a friend and mentor to the lobby boy. A glorious treat in every way.
Lost in Translation, 2003.
Set in the mind-bending brilliance and chaos of Tokyo, it's poignant without being schmalzy and it's funny. An ageing actor (Bill Murray), is in town to promote whiskey and he meets the bored and discarded wife (Scarlett Johansson) of a celebrity photographer. Sofia Coppola wrote the screenplay, too, and won an Oscar for that.
Somewhere, 2010.
We chose this because it's another Sofia Coppola creation and because it is completely brilliant. Set in the Chateau Marmont, a Hollywood actor, played by Stephen Dorff, reflects on life. Featuring Elle Fanning, who also has a starring role in Coppola's The Beguiled.
