Project Detail

Hotel Splendide

Synopsis

Set on a remote island off the coast, Hotel Splendide follows the Blanche family's attempts to maintain a crumbling, dilapidated hotel and health spa following the death of the family matriarch. Under his mother's tutelage, Ronald Blanche has been instructed in the art of a healthy Regime, based on boiling everything within an inch of its life.





His sister Cora runs a treatment room where services consist solely of mud baths and enemas, and Dezmond Blanche, determined to keep the spirit of his mother alive, is leading the hotel into ruinous straits. Into this bizarre universe bursts Kath, Ronald's erstwhile sous-chef and lover, banished from the island by his mother. Behind the peeling façade a gastronomical competition ensues, and as tensions and emotions mount, the hotel takes on a life of its own . . .

Details

Year
2000
Type of film
Features
Running time
105 mins
Format
35mm Kodak
Director
Terence Gross
Producer
Robert Buckler
Executive Producer
Robert Buckler
Editor
Michael Ellis A.C.E.
Screenwriter
Terence Gross
Director of Photography
Gyula Pados
Sound
John Taylor
Principal cast
Toni Collette, Daniel Craig, Katrin Cartlidge, Stephen Tompkinson
Composer
Mark Tschanz

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

Renegade Films Ltd Contact: Ildiko Kemeny Bolsover House 5-6 Clipstone Street London W1P 8LD Tel: 020 7637 0957 Fax: 020 7637 0959 renprism@dircon.co.uk

Sales Company

Filmfour 76-78 Charlotte Street London W1P 1LX Tel: 020 7868 7700 Fax: 020 7868 7766 filmfourintl@channel4.co.uk www.filmfour.com

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

Hotel Splendide Hotel Splendide

Director: Terence Gross

Year: 2000

In spite of a cast list boasting Toni Collette, Daniel Craig, Katrin Cartlidge and Stephen Tompkinson, the real star of Hotel Splendide is the hotel itself. Director Terence Gross and his team spent more than a year searching for the perfect location. They finally found it in the Slieve Donard Hotel in Northern Ireland. "It had all the qualities we were looking for - a fairy tale element, a hint of gothic and was overwhelmingly big to dwarf the staff and guests," says producer Ildiko Kemeny.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Gross sees the Hotel Splendide as embodying the spirit of Mrs Blanche, the late matriarch of the family who still manages the crumbling establishment. "She created a very ingenious heating system that runs off human waste. After her death she has had herself cremated into it and has a kind of presence in the hotel," explains Gross. "It's very Oedipal, with the children still living inside her."<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> Although the film has what Cartlidge describes as "a European sniff about it" ("it's very unusual for a British film to veer away from naturalism," she says) Gross sees it as carrying a very British message. "The whole film is a metaphor for the way the British settle for less and feel that mediocrity is better than risk," he says. But if that sounds portentous, it is also leavened with an essentially British sense of humour, as outsider Kath (Collette) brings liberating chaos into the suffocating environment of the hotel.<br /> <br /> <br /> <br /> The film, which is Gross's feature debut, was selected for this year's Berlin Film Festival in the Panorama section.

No Women No Children No Women No Children

Director: Akporé Uzoh

Year: 2025

The aftermath of a sexual assault (rape). Exploring the deep-felt consequences for all involved. At its heart an epic story of a couple's fight for the survival of their love.

Honey Don’t! Honey Don’t!

Director: Ethan Coen

Year: 2025

Honey O’Donahue, a small-town private investigator, delves into a series of strange deaths tied to a mysterious church.<br /> Official Selection Cannes Film Festival 2025 - Midnight Screenings - World premiere