Nightshift

Robina Rose's 1981 British film takes place at the night desk of a small hotel. The receptionist carries out her routine tasks; as the night advances the guests who arrive grow steadily stranger. The film builds no plot. The camera stays fixed at the reception desk while the guests enter and leave the frame; the narrative does not explain them and keeps the woman's lack of reaction intact. Around Rose were figures from the London art and music scene of the period, and Pamela Rooke in the lead was known from punk. The use of colour and light is markedly formalist. The film went unseen for a long time and returned to circulation after restoration. Who it's for: those who like British experimental cinema and slow atmospheric films. Who it's not for: viewers expecting narrative; the film is built almost entirely on repetition and waiting.