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Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel

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Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel

Released Jul 8, 2022

1h 20m

Documentary

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

69%

Tomatometer

42 Reviews

42%

Popcornmeter

Fewer than 50 Ratings

The legendary Chelsea Hotel, an icon of 1960s counterculture and a haven for famous artists and intellectuals including Patti Smith, Janis Joplin and the superstars of Warhol's Factory, has recently reopened after extensive renovations, which are now almost complete. Dozens of long-term residents, many in their later years, have lived amidst the scaffolding and constant construction for close to a decade. Against this chaotic backdrop, DREAMING WALLS takes us through the hotel's storied halls, exploring its living body and the bohemian origins that contributed to its mythical stature. Its residents and the walls themselves now face a turning point in their common history.

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Critics Consensus

Although it may disappoint viewers seeking a more straightforward documentary, Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel casts its own poetic spell.

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Peter Bradshaw

Guardian

It’s a melancholy, dreamy study.

Rated: 3/5

Jan 20, 2023

Full Review

Tara Brady

Irish Times

The Belgian co-directors are more interested in preserving a sense of space than in rehearsing arguments about capitalist greed, the commodification of art and gentrification.

Rated: 3/5

Jan 20, 2023

Full Review

Danny Leigh

Financial Times

The sense of a ghost story is self-evident. Like many examples of the form, the film sticks in the mind longer than you might expect.

Rated: 3/5

Jan 19, 2023

Full Review

Edward Porter

Sunday Times (UK)

It’s an exercise in hazy, wistful nostalgia — short on details and revelations, but an easy watch if you like New York stories.

Rated: 3/5

Mar 2, 2023

Full Review

Sebastian Scotney

The Arts Desk

Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel is a slightly rambling portrait of the very end of an era. An uneven film, it is nonetheless fascinating for the questions it raises and the thoughts it provokes.

Rated: 3/5

Jan 23, 2023

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John Serba

Decider

Dreaming Walls has its share of poignant moments, but for a documentary about a building, it rarely seems rooted to the ground.

Nov 4, 2022

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Mel A

I was very disappointed. The description sounded interesting. Instead it was an artist bore. No real story. Just about elderly people living in terrible conditions over the years of construction. I was getting annoyed midway, but felt I needed to watch the rest to be sure it was really as awful as it seemed. It was.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

04/11/23

Full Review

dave d

The Chelsea Hotel probably has a wonderful story, but listening to mostly boring people complain about their living arrangements in a rent-controlled apartment in the heart of NYC is not my idea of a good time or an interesting documentary. The famous landmark is undergoing renovations, and there's very little context to anything and it makes the 80 minute film feel like a slog. It's in focus! Final Score: 2/10

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Disappointing. There would be great potential about a documentary about the sparkling and varied history of this New York hotel where fascinating figures in the arts lived. But instead it features interviews with the largely drab and uninteresting people who are leftovers, who have stayed in the hotel after most residents left while rehabbing was taking place. I don't blame the interviewees, who were game and did their best, but I do blame the filmmakers for building a movie around them. One cute scene in which an elderly woman resident dances with one of the young and friendly construction workers.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

Audience Member

I wish something would have happened in this doc. It is boring.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/12/23

Full Review

Audience Member

A impressionistic love poem and elegy about the hotel as the haunted and indestructible body of New York and its living mythology. Occasionally veering toward the nostalgic, the directors always manage to re-center the focus on how the building inspires fringe artists currently living there to make new work and how it is essential to their livelihood.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/09/23

Full Review

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Amélie van Elmbt

Director

Maya Duverdier

Director

Amélie van Elmbt

Writer

Maya Duverdier

Writer

Hanne Phlypo

Producer

Lori Cheatle

Executive Producer

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Dreaming Walls: Inside the Chelsea Hotel: Trailer 1

2:10

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Synopsis

The legendary Chelsea Hotel, an icon of 1960s counterculture and a haven for famous artists and intellectuals including Patti Smith, Janis Joplin and the superstars of Warhol's Factory, has recently reopened after extensive renovations, which are now almost complete. Dozens of long-term residents, many in their later years, have lived amidst the scaffolding and constant construction for close to a decade. Against this chaotic backdrop, DREAMING WALLS takes us through the hotel's storied halls, exploring its living body and the bohemian origins that contributed to its mythical stature. Its residents and the walls themselves now face a turning point in their common history.

Director: Amélie van Elmbt, Maya Duverdier
Producer: Hanne Phlypo
Screenwriter: Amélie van Elmbt, Maya Duverdier
Distributor: Magnolia Pictures
Production Co: Doco Digital, Les films de l'oeil sauvage, Hard Working Movies, Clin d'oeil films, Momento Film AB, Basalt Film
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jul 8, 2022, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jul 8, 2022
Box Office (Gross USA): $22.1K
Runtime: 1h 20m

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