Four Rooms

Four Rooms (1995) takes place in a hotel on New Year's Eve, with four directors each making a segment. Ted is the new bellhop. He is working alone and has to visit four different rooms across the night. He is the only thing connecting the parts. In Allison Anders's segment a group of witches gathers for a rite and asks Ted for the ingredient they are missing. In Alexandre Rockwell's a couple are playing a game in their room and Ted is caught in the middle. In Robert Rodriguez's a father leaves his two children in a room and Ted has to look after them. In Quentin Tarantino's a group of wealthy men make a bet, and the bet is about a lighter. Rodriguez's is usually counted the best; the children wreck the room and it gets out of hand. Tarantino's is built on an idea taken from an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents, and it says so openly. Tim Roth carries the whole film, playing in a register deliberately taken from silent comedy: exaggerated movement and panic. All four directors were prominent in independent cinema at the time and the project began as something between friends. It failed commercially and critics were harsh; the gap in quality between the segments was the main objection. It became a cult film later. It runs 98 minutes. Good for: portmanteau films, nineties independent cinema, and black comedy. Less good for: the segments are unequal and the first two are noticeably weaker.