Mark Reviews Movies: DREAMING WALLS

Dreaming Walls, Magnolia Pictures

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Review by Mark Dujsik | July 7, 2022

Whether one calls it the Hotel Chelsea or the Chelsea Hotel, that Manhattan building served as an oasis for creatives and creativity, as well as a hub for seedier activities and more tragic events, for more than century. When filmmakers Maya Duverdier and Amélie van Elmbt arrived at the famous building, it was being renovated—a process that, at the time, had been going on for about six years or so. A few long-term residents still remain at the hotel in Dreaming Walls, which can't quite decide if it's about those people or the building itself.

The movie certainly communicates the equally haunting and romantic nature of the Chelsea, even with the mechanical whirring and pounding of construction filling its spaces, workers occupying the halls and passing by windows, and the sight of the room Janis Joplin called home for a bit gutted beyond recognition. The number of famous people who stayed or lived at the Chelsea is too large to list here, but their stories remain, while the directors project images of some of those faces on the walls.

We get some of those stories, from both several residents, whom Duverdier and van Elmbt follow around, and archival footage of a guided tour from former manager Stanley Bard. Upon the filmmakers' arrival, Bard had been ousted, and now, the building is going to serve exclusively as a short-term hotel—no more new residents, while the current ones, protected by the law, suspect that, no matter what happens, this place isn't going to be the home they have known for decades.

A more comprehensive history of this building would be fascinating, as would a more detailed account of the lives and legal struggles of these tenants. They remain in a place in a state of chaos and disorder in an attempt to cling to some way of life that has passed within the culture and, in some ways, for themselves personally.

There's inherently some of the latter, just by way of how much access the residents grant to the filmmakers. We watch them live and try to work amidst the constant disruption, as some of them—like retired professional dancer/choreographer Merle Lister—carry on in good spirits and others—like wire sculptor Skye Ferrante—worry even more about their art being a means of paying the rent. In certain moments, Duverdier and van Elmbt film the contemporary scenes with older film stock (or a digital replication thereof), and it's a subtle way of communicating how these last residents of the Chelsea are and will remain a part of the building's history—just as much as those more famous tenants and guests.

Dreaming Walls captures the ending of an era (Since filming, the Chelsea has re-opened with little fanfare). In its attempts to give us a sense of both romantic history and a melancholy present, the documentary never quite solidifies its focus.

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