These bold films confront viewers and dare to offend
Set during the Rwandan genocide of 1994, 'Hotel Rwanda' tells the real-life story of hotelier Paul Rusesabagina (Don Cheadle) and his wife Tatiana (Sophie Okonedo) and their efforts to save the lives of his family and more than 1,000 other refugees by providing them with shelter in the besieged Hôtel des Mille Collines in Kigali.
'California Suite' focuses on the dilemmas of guests staying in a suite in a luxury hotel, among them Diana Barrie (Maggie Smith) and Sidney Cochran (Michael Caine).
Monsieur Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes) is the renowned concierge of a mountainside resort who finds himself framed for the murder of a wealthy guest. The all-star cast includes Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, and Tilda Swinton.
This is the film in which Greta Garbo, who portrays Russian ballerina Grusinskaya, one of the guests staying at the Grand Hotel in Berlin, delivers the immortal line, "I want to be alone." Many critics and film historians have since associated Garbo's line with her general dissatisfaction of life in Hollywood, as reported in Smithsonian magazine.
Fading American movie star Bob Harris (Bill Murray) accepts an invitation to Tokyo, Japan to promote a local whisky brand. He's booked into a plush hotel where he meets a young college graduate played by Scarlett Johansson.
Maxine Faulk (Ava Gardener) runs a hotel the guests of which include the Reverend Dr. T. Lawrence Shannon (Richard Burton), Hannah Jelkes (Deborah Kerr), and 16-year-old Charlotte Goodall (Sue Lyon).
A notorious gangster, Johnny Rocco (Edward G. Robinson), checks into a hotel in Key Largo, Florida, as a storm rages outside. A tense standoff ensues between the crook and his cohorts and other hotel guests, including Frank McCloud (Humphrey Bogart) and Nora Temple (Lauren Bacall).
Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson) is hired as the winter caretaker at the remote Overlook Hotel. But the haunted property has a horrific past that catches up with Jack and his family.
Hitchcock, shower curtain, Bates Motel. The holy trinity of fear and evil. Staying overnight in a rundown accommodation would never be the same again.
Based on a real-life incident that took place during Detroit's 1967 12th Street Riot, this movie recalls the police raid on the Algiers Motel after shots were reportedly fired from a room window. What happened next became one of the darkest chapters in Detroit Police Department history.
'The Hangover' tells the story of four buddies who travel to Las Vegas for a bachelor party and check into a hotel suite in Caesars Palace. But boy, are they in for a surprise!
This hilarious romantic comedy follows two musicians, played by Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis, who dress in drag to escape the mob and end up joining a hotel band in Florida whose vocalist is one Sugar "Kane" Kowalczyk (Marilyn Monroe).
Danny Ocean (George Clooney) plans to simultaneously rob the Bellagio, the Mirage, and the MGM Grand hotel casinos in Las Vegas... with a little help from his friends.
In this, the original 'Ocean's 11,' Danny Ocean (Frank Sinatra) plans to simultaneously rob five Las Vegas casinos: the Sahara, Riviera, Desert Inn, Sands, and Flamingo... with a little help from his friends.
Several British retirees, including Evelyn Greenslade (Judi Dench) and Douglas Ainslie (Bill Nighy), travel to India to take up residence in what they believe is a newly restored hotel now operating as a exotic retirement home.
New York City playwright Barton Fink (John Turturro) ends up in the same run-down hotel as insurance salesman Charlie Meadows (John Goodman).
Anne Hathaway is the Grand High Witch who casts a spell over a young boy and his grandmother after they decide to stay in a hotel. Unfortunately for the unsuspecting pair, the witch is staying in the room below.
Two sisters rent a two-room-apartment in a once-grandiose central European hotel. While one suffers in her room, self-medicating with vodka and cigarettes and trying to work, the other explores the hotel's corridors, encountering guests along the way.
In this absurdist dystopian black comedy, David (Colin Farrell) and a nameless short-sighted woman (Rachel Weisz) attempt to form a relationship while staying in a hotel. The catch? Single people are given 45 days to find a romantic partner or otherwise be turned into animals.
The view in question is from the fictional Pensione Bertolini in Florence, and it's a city panorama that Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter), and her spinster cousin and chaperone, Charlotte Bartlett (Maggie Smith), desperately yearn for.
Marisa Ventura (Jennifer Lopez) works as a hotel maid at the fictional Beresford Hotel in the heart of Manhattan. There she meets a guest named Chris (Ralph Fiennes). But will her love for her new beau get in the way of her ambition to work in hotel management?
The entertainments hall at a upscale Catskills resort becomes the stage for a holiday romance between dance instructor Johnny (Patrick Swayze) and Frances "Baby" Houseman (Jennifer Grey). Things get dirtier, but it's all good, clean fun.
Well-known actor Johnny Marco (Stephen Dorff) is recuperating from a minor injury at the Chateau Marmont in Los Angeles. When his ex-wife suffers an unexplained breakdown, she leaves Cleo (Elle Fanning), their 11-year-old daughter, in his care before disappearing.
The fictional Sedgewick Hotel in New York City provides the setting for the Ghostbusters, and is where they capture their first ghost.
Count Dracula is the owner of a hotel called Hotel Transylvania where the world's monsters can take a rest from human civilization. This hilarious computer-animated comedy stars the voices of Adam Sandler, Selena Gomez, and Steve Buscemi, among other Hollywood favorites.
It's cheaper than a hotel, but would you want to end up staying in a place like this knowing what happens to guests shortly after they've checked in? Thought not.
Sources: (Guardian) (Smithsonian) (Detroit News)
See also: Have a quirky stay: the world's most unusual hotels.
Playwright Monsieur Feydeau (Peter Glenville) is staying in the fictional Parisian Hotel Paradiso but is suffering from writer's block. For inspiration, he decides to observe the habits and antics of his fellow guests, people that include Benedict Boniface (Alec Guinness) and Marcelle Cotte (Gina Lollobrigida), both pictured here in a rather compromising situation.
The night porter is Max, in fact Maximilian Theo Aldorfer, a former Nazi SS officer who's working at a Vienna hotel in the 1950s. There he meets Lucia Atherton (Charlotte Rampling), a Holocaust survivor whom he'd met previously during the Second World War.
The Marx Brothers cause predictable chaos in this 1938 comedy set in the fictional White Way Hotel. Skipping a large hotel bill is only the half of it.
Albert Nobbs (Glenn Close) is a butler at the fictional Morrison Hotel in late-19th-century Dublin. What nobody realizes, however, is that although biologically female, Albert has spent the last 30 years living as a man.
Sex worker Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) meets dashing Edward Lewis, a wealthy businessman who hires her to be his escort for several corporate social functions. The couple develop their relationship in the plush surroundings of the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Los Angeles.
Hotels and motels have featured widely in many movies. They've served as backdrops, and set the stage for plot lines. And some films are even named for the hotel they feature!
Click through the following gallery and check in to check out hotels and motels, fictional or otherwise, that have appeared in movies.
Movies set almost entirely in hotels or motels
Check in and check out these films featuring places to stay
MOVIES Hotel
Hotels and motels have featured widely in many movies. They've served as backdrops, and set the stage for plot lines. And some films are even named for the hotel they feature!
Click through the following gallery and check in to check out hotels and motels, fictional or otherwise, that have appeared in movies.