Robina Rose, 1981, United Kingdom, 68 min
Over the course of a single nightshift, a West London hotel clerk (U.K. counterculture icon Jordan) plays mute witness to a nocturnal constellation of guests ranging from punk rockers and scenester magicians to seemingly staid businessmen and old-world gentry. As the hours march deeper into night and the varied clientele depart the waking world, the hotel transforms into an otherworldly, liminal space swaying between the everyday and the enchanting.
Gorgeously photographed by Jon Jost (All the Vermeers in New York) with a soundtrack by Simon Jeffes of the legendary Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Nightshift is both a potent snapshot of London’s early-‘80s art scene (actor/poet Heathcote Williams and filmmaker Anne Rees-Mogg also star) and a bold, instantly engrossing artistic statement from director Robina Rose. A masterwork of surreal, somnambulant cinema, the film casts a resonant spell audiences won’t soon forget.