Hotel Redux

Reviewed by Minna Alanko

I was looking forward to this short film by American animator Otto Berchem. Unfortunately Hotel Redux turned out to be a mere cartoon remake of the BBC’s 1997 docusoap Hotel Adelphi, clips of which preceded the animation to highlight the similarity. Visually, Berchem’s work was professionally drawn but the plot did not live up to the quality of the pictures. An American cartoon company previously employed Berchem for two years and although he disliked the job and eventually left, Hotel Redux suggests that he is still reproducing other people’s ideas instead of creating something meaningful and original.

Berchem came to Liverpool with little knowledge of the city. ‘The usual,’ he says. ‘The Beatles, football, the funny accent.’ The latter he learnt by watching Hotel Adelphi on TV. In Hotel Redux Berchem presents his characters as the stereotypical Scousers he saw in the TV programme, simplifying them even further in an animated form. In the cartoon Hotel Adelphi remains the pathetic, dysfunctional old hotel portrayed in the BBC programme. Yet the building is a unique cultural landmark of Liverpool and certainly rich material for an animation. Berchem’s response to this argument is simple: ‘Liverpool hasn’t got the clientele for the grandeur of the Adelphi.’

Hotel Redux was part of an evening of Trash TV, and a badly structured collage of random examples of American TV preceded the animation. We are all aware of America’s attempts to dominate the world’s politics and culture. I found it unpleasant to first watch images of consumerist, macho USA and then witness Otto Berchem reinforcing crude stereotypes about Liverpool people. The awkward, badly prepared discussion that took place afterwards, followed by TV commercial karaoke (need I explain more), ensured that this was the most unnecessary experience I have had for a long while. This work was commissioned by FACT and supported by various foundations. I cannot but wonder how many local artists could have been employed to create a project for the centre with the money wasted on Hotel Redux.