Behind the scaffolding of an eight year renovation, a handful of residents remain within the legendary Chelsea Hotel as the iconic landmark transforms from a Bohemian hotspot to a decadent hotel. From Andy Warhol to Janis Joplin, all the immortals of the 20th century have stayed there.
In celebration of Dreaming Walls: Inside The Chelsea Hotel playing in cinemas and On Demand, we asked the filmmakers Amélie van Elmbt and Maya Duverdier to answer some questions about their personal experiences with the infamous location and its residents. Martin Scorsese also shared a few words about the film, the filmmakers and the legend of the Chelsea Hotel below.
Martin Scorsese ON
Dreaming Walls: Inside The Chelsea Hotel
"Amélie van Elmbt and Maya Duverdier’s Dreaming Walls is a multi-dimensional cinematic requiem for the Hotel Chelsea as it once was—the epicenter of a Bohemian New York that now exists only in memory. I lived through those days, when you could feel the reverberations and shockwaves of the New York avant garde everywhere. In the cinema, Andy Warhol, Jonas Mekas, Shirley Clarke and Harry Smith, all of whom turn up like ghosts in the film’s rush of images past and present, were guiding lights, embodying and transmitting a precious spirit of unlimited artistic freedom, breaking everything down and building it back up again in brave new forms. And of course the same thing was happening in dance, in music, in theatre, in sculpture, in writing, and it all seemed to emanate from the Chelsea. Dreaming Walls catches the excitement of that great moment in that once beautifully ragged place, and it also catches the sadness of its gradual disappearance."
– Martin Scorsese
Amélie van Elmbt and Maya Duverdier Q&A
How long were you filming in the hotel for and did it radically change from start to finish?
A & M: When we entered the Chelsea hotel for the first time, we discovered a building site, electric cables in all directions, dust everywhere, workers, elderly inhabitants... The building was in a big metamorphosis, like a body in the process of moulting.
Today, the hotel is polished, gilded and marbled; only well-to-do people can come there, it has lost its "destroyed" aspect and therefore probably some of its audacity and freedom...
Nevertheless, it seems that free art is filling the walls again, which is good news.
There's plenty of famous people that have passed through the halls, are there stories from the residents that didn't make the cut?
A & M: Aside from the most famous and talked about sulfurous stories, the Chelsea has always been a place of refuge for famous people because they knew their secrets would be well kept there. Whether you're famous or not, there's a real respect for people's privacy there. You know a lot of things happened there, but you have to let your imagination run away with it. That's probably what makes the Chelsea even more mythical and mysterious.
Are the residents still there, has anything changed? Do you still keep in touch?
A & M: Unfortunately, some of the residents that we filmed have passed away, like Bettina Grossman or Joe Cory.
Except them, all the residents are still living in the hotel. You might meet some of them in the lobby or in the new restaurants of the hotel, even if the prices of their cocktails are not the same any more… It’s heartbreaking to see how capitalism has taken over such authentic places like the bar El Quijote, next to the hotel.
We try to keep in touch as much as we can with the residents that we know. We also try to create the opportunity to share some screenings and presentations of the film with them. The Q&A with Rose Wood at the ICA in London was a wonderful time!
If you had to pick one current resident that had the most impact on you, who would it be?
A & M: That's a tough question! They all have something that will forever be remembered by us. Rose Wood and Bettina Grossman for their determination and abnegation, Merle Lister for her eternal youth and ability to connect, Nick and Zoe Pappas for their welcome and tenacity, Skye Ferrante for his acuity, Susan Kleinsinger and Joe Cory for their creativity, Gerald Busby for his humor and tranquility, Steve Willis for his fantasy…
CATCH DREAMING WALLS: INSIDE THE CHELSEA HOTEL
IN CINEMAS AND ON DEMAND now
The legendary Chelsea Hotel, an icon of 1960s counterculture and an artists’ refuge forover a century, has been under renovation for the past eight years and will soon reopen as a luxury hotel. 51 people, now all in their later years, still live amidst the scaffolding. Caught between fear and frenzy, some residents prepare for imminent upheaval as others protest against the hotel’s administration or hole up in their rooms. Against this backdrop of constant change, the film explores the utopian origins that contributed to the Chelsea’s mythical stature whilst questioning the challenges it confronts in the future, as its residents, sold to capitalism, and walls themselves face a turning point in their common history.