Goodbye to a Mecca of Modernism

The Next Best Thing to a Night in the Chelsea

23.05.08 / Spending just one night in New York’s Hotel Chelsea — hallways echoing with panicky conversations and the occasional scream, the sound of an artist who never wore anything but pajamas stapling his Polaroids to your door at 4 in the morning — was enough to convince you of the sui generis madness of the place. It was something very different from what most people expect when they see the word hotel.The Chelsea was famous (Mark Twain and Jimi Hendrix were among the long-term residents) and infamous (Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen shared their final moments together in room 100), but mostly it was what it was: a place that embraced modern art and the financially challenged people who make it, and it stayed that way much longer than anyone could have predicted. Even so, the Chelsea wasn’t built to withstand the seismic upheavals of the Manhattan real-estate market, and in 2007 the hotel changed hands and now seems destined to end up being exactly what people expect when they see the word hotel.Abel Ferrara’s Chelsea on the Rocks, screening in Cannes tonight, is a message from a dysfunctional lover, a documenatry every bit as strange, funny and spooky as the Hotel Chelsea. Many of those who talk about their experiences there (Grace Jones, Dennis Hopper, Milos Forman, Ghostface Killah, Ethan Hawke, Robert Crumb…) have since moved on, but there are many others who never left, and we have reason to be concerned about their future. And about our own. — R.K.