CITY Issue 55 - (Page 44) CITY LIFE / SMALL TALK DOUGLAS KEEVE / HOTEL Dou las Keeve’s Hotel comes on the heels of his t o idel acclaimed documenta ies about the fashion o ld: Unzipped ( ) and Seamless ( ), the latte of hich also sc eened at T ibeca. fashion photo aphe fo ea s, Keeve is no loo in to a d a still-sec et ealit sho and hopes to ma e his fi st comme cial featu e. CIT : What was you inspi ation fo Hotel? DOUGL S KEEVE: Well, I’ve lived in New o k fo yea s. lot of people have just been kvetching to me about how New o k was losing its soul, and I’ve been kvetching inte nally about the same thing, and I think that was a big eason fo doing this fi lm — to just witness the changes taking place and, f om a jou nalistic point of view, to tackle whethe it was good o bad and whethe it was happening and whethe it was ight o w ong. nd as is usual with these fi lms, I wind up with mo e questions than answe s. I think I’ve always had a love-hate elationship with Ian [Sch age ]’s hotels because maybe I felt like I was neve cool enough to go to them. nd I think [I’ve always had] just a fascination with the man himself. So has New o k lost its soul? It’s ve y ha d to look at anything in the wo ld and not think that it’s changed fo the wo se. It’s impossible not to feel that [New o k is losing its soul] but whethe it is o not, I don’t know. Like it says in the movie, New o k is al a s changing, and I want to believe some of the voices in the movie that say that New o k will always be the best city in the wo ld, which is kind of how I feel, even though Pa is is mo e beautiful and the food is bette in Milan o in Italy. But I love New o k — it is the best city in the wo ld. Wheneve I’ve gone on a t ip and I’m coming ac oss the b idge I get this ove whelming kind of giddy, nostalgic glee, so t of like I’m a kid. It’s eally ha d to fi nd that in a lot of places in my life. I think it eally lives inside of one and so the answe to the question is yes and the answe to the question is no. I feel the same way eve y time I come home f om a t ip. I wave hello to the Ch ysle Building f om the Williamsbu g B idge, which I always felt was a little st ange, but now I guess maybe it’s not so biza e. eah, it’s funny because you fo get all of these things in you life, you know? We fo get most of ou lives, most of ou memo ies, most of why we became fi lmmake s o w ite s o whateve , and it’s so easy to be jaded and coy and ha dened by life and by the city, but New o k doesn’t let you fo get that. It kind of makes you emembe . It makes you emembe you oots. It makes you emembe why you’ e he e. The G ame cy Pa k Hotel has such a st ong histo y with celeb ities and ock sta s, especially the B itish ock scene. Why did you choose to instead focus on the family that fo me ly owned the hotel and the longtime esidents who efused to move out du ing the enovation? When I hea d that people we e living th ough the enovation, I said the same thing as [Ne o ’s] Sa ah Be na d. She says in the movie that you just can’t [ believe these people a e living the e. Fi st of all, a e all these yea s, and second of all, du ing this c azy thing, which anybody who’s been th ough any kind of home emodel knows so t of what it’s like. I just couldn’t believe they we e the e. I so t of could unde stand that it would be c azy to move but it would be c azy not to move. Ian was building his hotel a ound them and they CITY 44 TY EMPIRE II DIRECTOR, DOUGLAS KEEVE. BELOW: LONG-TIME RESIDENTS OF THE GRAMERCY PARK HOTEL DISCUSS THE HISTORY OF THE NEW YORK LANDMARK IN HOTEL.
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