Podcast Summary: All Of It — "The Best Movies Set in Hotels with the Criterion Channel"
Date: December 11, 2025
Host: Alison Stewart (A)
Guest: Aliza Ma (B), Head of Programming, Criterion Channel

Episode Overview

This episode of All Of It spotlights "Hotels on Film," a freshly curated collection on the Criterion Channel. Host Alison Stewart is joined by Aliza Ma to explore how hotels have inspired filmmakers and function as storytelling devices, iconic settings, and metaphors. Listeners chime in with their favorite hotel-set movies, and key themes—escape, transience, isolation, and transformation—are threaded throughout the lively discussion.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Concept Behind "Hotels on Film" (00:47–02:25)

• Seasonal Programming at Criterion Channel

  • Aliza Ma explains that programming is inspired by seasonal moods—hotels fit December’s themes of travel and escapism.
  • “Even if you are staying put, there is this sense of wanting to escape... So that's sort of where it originated.” (B, 01:54)

• Selection Criteria

  • Aliza focused on films where hotels aren’t just backdrops but central to story, mood, and structure.
  • “They are just spaces that are both familiar and foreign... an interesting calibration of familiarity and exoticism.” (B, 02:50)

Hotels as Structuring Devices (03:41–04:50)

• Alison probes whether hotels are central to plot or setting.
  • Example: What’s Up, Doc? uses a hotel for comedic confusion and chase sequences.
  • “The hotel is just [an] important part of the storytelling device.” (B, 04:49)

Hotels vs. Motels (04:50–05:10)

• Motels (like the Bates Motel in Psycho) were left out to keep the mood consistent; perhaps a summer or separate collection.

Notable Films Discussed

The Shining (06:00–08:15)

• The Overlook Hotel’s design, history, and shifting atmosphere make it the definitive hotel film.
• “The architecture calibrates the feeling of openness and claustrophobia... you get the sense of the oldness of the space. And that really gets at the creepiness of hotels too.” (B, 07:03–07:56)

Grand Hotel (09:24–11:48)

• Celebrated for its star power and its hotel as the dramatic nexus.
• Memorable line: “I just want to be alone.” (C quoting Garbo, 11:04)
• “There’s a doctor among the characters... talks about how the hotel is a place where many doors open onto the same hallway, but nobody knows each other.” (B, 10:01)

Four Rooms & Barton Fink (12:48–13:54)

• Four Rooms: Anthology format built around Tim Roth’s bellhop encountering new guests every door.
• Barton Fink: Uses a rundown hotel to externalize writer’s block and psychological malaise.
• “The hotel room... becomes this incredible chamber, an external extension of this feeling of stuckness that he has.” (B, 13:44)

The Bellhop Archetype (15:14–15:56)

• The Bellhop (Jerry Lewis): Plot-light, but exploits setting for slapstick and character comedy.
• “It's basically a setup for him to display his incredible talent as a slapstick comedian.” (B, 15:45)

Listener Picks & Memorable Moments

• Forgetting Sarah Marshall (08:23): Comedy set at a Hawaii resort; praised for humor and “full frontal nudity” (with an on-air chuckle).
• Room Service (Marx Brothers): Held up as essential viewing for cinephiles.
• North by Northwest / The Graduate (20:22): Both leverage hotels for crucial plot turns.
• Some Like It Hot (21:17): Florida hotel provides pivotal space for comedy and disguise.
• Grand Budapest Hotel (19:38): Listener describes the hotel as “kind of a character”—a nostalgic institution with “the Renaissance man concierge.”
• John Wick Series (27:13): The Continental Hotel is “an alternative universe” with its own rules.
• Home Alone 2 (24:47): Cheeky suggestion from a listener; playful banter ensues.

Theme Analyses

Hotels as Emotional and Metaphorical Spaces

• “The hotel becomes a visual metaphor for the character's state... there's a sort of midlife drift for Bill Murray's character.” (Lost in Translation, B, 18:07)
• The “ritual of checking in” as crossing into a world with different rules, ripe for storytelling possibilities (B, 27:36).

The Globalized and Transitional Quality of Hotels

• Hotels as symbols of globalization, transient community, and isolation, as in Lost in Translation (18:00–19:20).

Hotels as Microcosms

• Grand Hotel: The hotel's corridors and changing guests represent the perpetual churn and anonymous intersection of lives.

Highlighted Quotes & Timestamps

• On the appeal of hotel films:
  “Spaces that are both familiar and foreign... gives films a great opportunity to play and be imaginative within their worlds.” (B, 02:50)
• On The Shining’s Hotel:
  “The architecture calibrates the feeling of openness and claustrophobia.” (B, 07:03)
• On Grand Hotel’s structure:
  “Many doors open onto the same hallway, but nobody knows each other. When you leave, someone else takes your room.” (B, 10:01)
• On the bellhop archetype:
  “It's basically a setup for him to display his incredible talent as a slapstick comedian.” (B, 15:45)
• On the magic of Lost in Translation’s hotel bar:
  “The bar becomes a sanctuary from the chaos that the characters are trying to escape in their own lives.” (B, 18:07)
• On the John Wick hotel:
  “When you step into those hotels in those movies, you're in another world with a whole nother Morocco instead of rules.” (C, 27:13)
• On why hotels work as movie settings:
  “The ritual of checking in makes you feel like you've entered into a place with different rules... a great place of imagination for films to unfold.” (B, 27:36)

Recommendations: Where to Start (28:06–28:52)

• Aliza suggests starting with Grand Hotel for a pre-Code, star-studded classic, or the stop-motion drama Anomalisa for something “indelible,” plus both Sofia Coppola films for modern meditations on identity and drift.

Conclusion

The episode is an engaging exploration of why hotels are such fertile ground for filmmakers—transient spaces ripe for drama, comedy, and existential inquiry. Alison Stewart and Aliza Ma, along with a chorus of passionate callers, traverse classic cinema, modern masterpieces, and under-the-radar gems, making this a lively resource for film lovers looking for something gripping to stream this winter.

Notable Segments/Timestamps

• Introduction and programming concept – 00:47
• Defining “hotel movies” – 02:25
• The Shining and hotel design – 06:00
• Listener picks: Grand Hotel – 09:24
• Four Rooms & the Bellhop – 12:48, 15:14
• Sofia Coppola films – 16:14, 21:51
• Lost in Translation: Sanctuary in a hotel bar – 18:07
• Grand Budapest Hotel / John Wick – 19:38, 27:13
• Aliza’s recommendations – 28:06

Original Tone: Playful, enthusiastic, cinema-literate, accessible, with lively host/listener interaction.