“Welcome to stay” is certainly one of the most radical films of the year. It is at least difficult to imagine that this is clearly topped by Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch and-above all-Franz Kafka inspired film mystery in his puzzling. It is also brave that you even dare to evaluate a cinema in this country, because such an honor is certainly not given to the second film by Tallulah Hazekamp Schwab (“Confetti Harvest”) in too many countries.
After all, the commercial prospects should not be too high. The surreal mixture of drama, comedy, absurd theater and a dash of science fiction, in which everything revolves around a magician (Crispin Glover) who no longer finds out of a hotel is certainly not for everyone. But if you find access, you will be all the more enthusiastic about it.
A hotel full of strangeness!
A magician, Mr. K, is looking for a disappointing appearance in front of a disinterested audience, a place to stay for one night and ends up in an old hotel that has fallen out of the time, in which reality quickly resolves: In his room, an old man lies under the bed, a maid rises from the closet and a brass band marches out of the walls. The magician tries to go out again, but the hotel turns out to be a labyrinth of corridors and corridors that do not lead him out, but keep leading them deeper into the strange universe of the hotel.
The employees and guests seem to have set up in this intermediate world. Mr. K, who is viewed as a “liberator” by the guests, meets Anton (Jan Gunnar Røise), a kitchen helper who has been waiting for ages to be promoted to the egg squirl. Mr. K even accepts different jobs in the hotel. Until one day he notices that the house shrinks – or not?
What is this about?
As strange as the table of contents, so the film so opaque: somehow it is told of class differences, the one up there, the down there. Somehow system criticism is practiced, because they don't want to shake the status quo down there as little as those up there. Everyone has set up in their lives, nobody wants to bring the system to collapse. Somehow tells “welcome to stay” but also of a lonely old man who tries for a short time as a worker and revolutionary in a capitalist system, but in the end – a kind of – redemption for himself.
Or may the director have nothing to say, but is trying to take us – like the protagonist to his audience? Schwab, who also wrote the script himself, does not put your finger on it anywhere, but keeps what is becoming increasingly impenetrable to the end with increasing runtime, which could be interpreted as self -in love with it. Especially since the effective staging of the lovingly equipped hotel, a building that is organically feels organically feels of the mischief, a kind of overlook 2.0 that practically acts as a second main actor takes up a lot of space.
The scene of “Welcome to stay” stirs up memories of the overlook hotel from Stephen Kings and Stanley Kubrick's “Shining”.
It is thanks to the first leading actor that the director does not slip her film: Crispin Glover (“Back to the Future”, “Williard”), notorious for his eccentricity and preference for strange roles, provides a withdrawal, almost Biederen, a bit of normality. In – in a idiosyncratic manner – it offers a possible starting point for the audience. However, it is only up to him whether this is willing to go along with the way.
Conclusion: “Welcome to stay” doesn't make it easy for you. The film by Tallulah Hasenkamp Schwab is a Kafkaeske confusion that, with increasing term, ensures more and more question marks and could therefore be more exhausting. However, it could also inspire with effective staging, loving equipment, extremely weird humor and a strong leading actor (although even a bit more speed would not have been bad even then). Either you find access or just don't.