1. To Be Titled Richard Burt

2. “Will this Movie Ever Come Out?” The Aesthetics of Cinematic Abortion in Mike Figgis’s Hotel

3. “Disgusting, Although Not Repulsive”: Stamping Out, Pounding Out, and Slicing Up the Post-National European Art film in Hotel

4. Fast Food McWebster in Hotel, An Acquired Taste-lessness

5. Hotel “Fast Food McWebster”: Digital Film and the End of European Art Cinema

6. Being John Webster: The Living Death of the Director and the Frustrated Pleasures of Hotel

7. Overview of my talk: Consider four historical determinations of Hotel

8. First, Mike Figgis’s career.

9. Second, the emergence of Post- National European Art Film after 1989 and the Dogme 95 Film Movement as Independent Cinema.

10. Third, the introduction of Digital Cameras in mid-1990s in Independent Cinema and the Return of the Split Screen.

11. Fourth, the turn away from linear narrative in art and mainstream films narrative cinema sincethe mid-1990s.

12. After discussing these four historical determinations, I will make some formalist comments on the film Hotel itself..

13. 1.Mike Figgis as Auteur: From Narrative Cinema To Experimental Film

14. 2. Post-National European Cinema, Dogme 95, and Independent Cinema.

15. Filming must be done on location. Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found). The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs within the scene being filmed, i.e., diegetic). The camera must be a hand-held camera. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. (The film must not take place where the camera is standing; filming must take place where the action takes place.) The film must be in colour. Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera). Optical work and filters are forbidden. The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.) Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.) Genre movies are not acceptable. The final picture must be transferred to the Academy 35mm film, with an aspect ratio of 4:3, that is, not widescreen. (Originally, the requirement was that the film had to be filmed on Academy 35mm film, but the rule was relaxed to allow low- budget productions.) The director must not be credited.Propsdiegetic Genre movies35mm filmaspect ratiowidescreendirector

16. 3. The introduction of digital film both for aesthetic and economic reasons and the return of the split screen.

17. 4. The turn away from linear narrative and the introduction of multiple, nearly discrete plots that gradually intersect in art and mainstream narative cinema c. 2000.