At The Hotel
Encyclopedia
At the Hotel is a Canadian drama
-comedy
-musical
mini-series concerning the goings-on at an illustrious Montreal
hotel
, known for its favourable treatment of struggling artists. Created by Ken Finkleman
and produced by One Hundred Percent Television, the series aired on CBC Television
in 2006. The music
is composed by Robert Carli. This is the only Ken Finkleman production in which he did not cast himself as a character. He does however make a very brief on-screen appearance as a member of the crew shooting a music video in the hotel.
, the miniseries was notable for its use of surreal plot devices and unique use of music.
At first glance, the story appears to be a series of unconnected vignettes, woven against a mystery in the past which may be the reason behind a murder in the present day. Each episode opens with a short flashback to that critical night during a party back in 1961, during which a nameless chambermaid died. In the fifth episode, the audience discovers that everything they have just been told may lie solely in the imagination of a writer who is also a character in the miniseries. The end of the miniseries winds up the end of the novel, which pays for the writer's bar tab at the hotel; but the hotel hallways still have closed doors and the audience is left knowing nothing more about the hotel than when the miniseries began.
While the writer researches the hotel's past, Jenny hears a gunshot at the hotel pool and arrives to find a body floating in the pool. She also finds herself face to face with the murder suspect, gun in hand; but she cannot identify him because she is near-sighted and can't see him clearly.
The death may be related to events in the past. It may also be related to an attempt by Jacob Knowlton to have his sister Lucy murdered, leaving him with sole ownership of the hotel. He plans to demolish it, partly to support his son's election campaign, but knows that his sister would never allow it. The body is that of Lucy and Jacob's old friend Peter Miflin, whose daughter was killed when Jacob's son got drunk and drove the car into a river. News of her death was hushed up.
In the meantime, guests come and go at the hotel, each with his or her own story like a cross-section of their lives. Some have affairs, one couple tries to sell a baby, there is even a case of spontaneous human combustion. A young girl whose mother dies at the hotel successfully covers up the death by hiring another guest as her "father." The chambermaids and bellhops also have complex relationship problems, which are made worse for Adelaide and Jeremy by Jeremy's constant scheming to turn an additional illicit buck at the expense of the guests. Jenny's uneasiness over what she has witnessed also factors into many of the vignettes.
In the fifth episode, it becomes apparent that many if not all of these stories are actually the novel the writer has written instead of the history he was supposed to write. The writer blames the closed doors of the hotel, which told him nothing, so he had to make things up. Lucy agrees to read the novel. If it is good enough, she will tear up his bar bill, which was not included under the terms of room and board.
With that, the story plunges back into other guest vignettes, while continuing to follow Jenny and the other hotel staff. The novel does not end with the operatic death and funeral of another guest, because the writer thinks that would be too maudlin. A formerly famous opera singer was overcome with emotion and died when a famed tenor came to serenade her. All the staff and guests at the hotel break into operatic song at her funeral.
Jenny has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. When one of the guests learns of his father's death over the telephone, she is present to console him. It turns out that the guest is now the King of Saudi Arabia, and she will become his queen.
It turns out that Jacob's son is not Jacob's son at all. Instead, he was secretly adopted by Jacob after he was born to Lucy out of wedlock to an unknown father. When the young man finds out, he rejects Jacob and his scheming. Jacob is ruthless and reveals the secret of the accident in revenge against his son's betrayal. Jacob's son saves himself from the disclosure by discovering Christianity. Jacob is arrested for his friend's death in the pool, but turns out to be innocent of that death. He was, however, the person at the 1961 party who killed the chambermaid.
The novel finally ends when Jacob is killed in the halls of the hotel he tried so hard to own. The story told by the miniseries ends when the writer receives an envelope with the torn-up bar bill inside. Lucy never tells him that she thinks the novel is rather bad. However, she has a soft spot for artists.
The Residents
The Guests
, Gemini Award
for best performance by an actor in a guest role ("The Perfect Couple")
Drama
Drama is the specific mode of fiction represented in performance. The term comes from a Greek word meaning "action" , which is derived from "to do","to act" . The enactment of drama in theatre, performed by actors on a stage before an audience, presupposes collaborative modes of production and a...
-comedy
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
-musical
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...
mini-series concerning the goings-on at an illustrious Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
, known for its favourable treatment of struggling artists. Created by Ken Finkleman
Ken Finkleman
Ken Finkleman is a Canadian television and film writer, producer and actor.In Canada, Finkleman is best known as the writer, creator and producer of the CBC Television series The Newsroom, in which he starred as television news producer George Findlay...
and produced by One Hundred Percent Television, the series aired on CBC Television
CBC Television
CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...
in 2006. The music
Incidental music
Incidental music is music in a play, television program, radio program, video game, film or some other form not primarily musical. The term is less frequently applied to film music, with such music being referred to instead as the "film score" or "soundtrack"....
is composed by Robert Carli. This is the only Ken Finkleman production in which he did not cast himself as a character. He does however make a very brief on-screen appearance as a member of the crew shooting a music video in the hotel.
Background
At The Hotel is a six-episode miniseries created, co-written, and produced by Ken Finkleman, which aired on CBC Television in 2006. Like Finkleman's The NewsroomThe Newsroom
The Newsroom is a Canadian television comedy-drama series which ran on CBC Television in the 1996-97, 2003–04 and 2004-05 seasons. A two-hour television movie, Escape from the Newsroom, was broadcast in 2002....
, the miniseries was notable for its use of surreal plot devices and unique use of music.
At first glance, the story appears to be a series of unconnected vignettes, woven against a mystery in the past which may be the reason behind a murder in the present day. Each episode opens with a short flashback to that critical night during a party back in 1961, during which a nameless chambermaid died. In the fifth episode, the audience discovers that everything they have just been told may lie solely in the imagination of a writer who is also a character in the miniseries. The end of the miniseries winds up the end of the novel, which pays for the writer's bar tab at the hotel; but the hotel hallways still have closed doors and the audience is left knowing nothing more about the hotel than when the miniseries began.
Plot
A writer arrives at the Chateau Rousseau, an illustrious Montreal hotel known for its favourable treatment of struggling artists. He has been hired by Lucy Knowlton, the alcoholic owner of the hotel, to research and write a book about its history. She will comp his room and board until the book is written. At the same time, Jenny arrives at the hotel and is hired as a chambermaid.While the writer researches the hotel's past, Jenny hears a gunshot at the hotel pool and arrives to find a body floating in the pool. She also finds herself face to face with the murder suspect, gun in hand; but she cannot identify him because she is near-sighted and can't see him clearly.
The death may be related to events in the past. It may also be related to an attempt by Jacob Knowlton to have his sister Lucy murdered, leaving him with sole ownership of the hotel. He plans to demolish it, partly to support his son's election campaign, but knows that his sister would never allow it. The body is that of Lucy and Jacob's old friend Peter Miflin, whose daughter was killed when Jacob's son got drunk and drove the car into a river. News of her death was hushed up.
In the meantime, guests come and go at the hotel, each with his or her own story like a cross-section of their lives. Some have affairs, one couple tries to sell a baby, there is even a case of spontaneous human combustion. A young girl whose mother dies at the hotel successfully covers up the death by hiring another guest as her "father." The chambermaids and bellhops also have complex relationship problems, which are made worse for Adelaide and Jeremy by Jeremy's constant scheming to turn an additional illicit buck at the expense of the guests. Jenny's uneasiness over what she has witnessed also factors into many of the vignettes.
In the fifth episode, it becomes apparent that many if not all of these stories are actually the novel the writer has written instead of the history he was supposed to write. The writer blames the closed doors of the hotel, which told him nothing, so he had to make things up. Lucy agrees to read the novel. If it is good enough, she will tear up his bar bill, which was not included under the terms of room and board.
With that, the story plunges back into other guest vignettes, while continuing to follow Jenny and the other hotel staff. The novel does not end with the operatic death and funeral of another guest, because the writer thinks that would be too maudlin. A formerly famous opera singer was overcome with emotion and died when a famed tenor came to serenade her. All the staff and guests at the hotel break into operatic song at her funeral.
Jenny has a knack for being in the right place at the right time. When one of the guests learns of his father's death over the telephone, she is present to console him. It turns out that the guest is now the King of Saudi Arabia, and she will become his queen.
It turns out that Jacob's son is not Jacob's son at all. Instead, he was secretly adopted by Jacob after he was born to Lucy out of wedlock to an unknown father. When the young man finds out, he rejects Jacob and his scheming. Jacob is ruthless and reveals the secret of the accident in revenge against his son's betrayal. Jacob's son saves himself from the disclosure by discovering Christianity. Jacob is arrested for his friend's death in the pool, but turns out to be innocent of that death. He was, however, the person at the 1961 party who killed the chambermaid.
The novel finally ends when Jacob is killed in the halls of the hotel he tried so hard to own. The story told by the miniseries ends when the writer receives an envelope with the torn-up bar bill inside. Lucy never tells him that she thinks the novel is rather bad. However, she has a soft spot for artists.
List of episodes
- Episode 1 - "Welcome to the Rousseau"
- Episode 2 - "The Perfect Couple"
- Episode 3 - "I Fucked Lou Reed"
- Episode 4 - "Modern Solutions to Modern Problems"
- Episode 5 - "That's How You Wave a Towel"
- Episode 6 - "Doesn't Anyone Want to Ask Me About My Dress?"
Cast and characters
Chateau Rousseau Staff- Natalie Lisinska - Jenny
- Benz Antoine - Michael Quenton
- Carlo RotaCarlo RotaCarlo Rota is a British-born Canadian actor, best known to Canadian audiences for his role on Little Mosque on the Prairie and to international audiences for starring on the FOX series 24.-Early life:...
– Albert - Walter Alza – Slavic
- Brandon McGibbon – Jeremy
- Robin BrûléRobin BrûléRobin Brûlé is a Canadian actress, who is best known for her role as Susan Hunter in the Roxy Hunter series.-Acting career:Robin first studied acting at the Canterbury School of the Arts in Ottawa, Ontario...
– Adelaide - Sarah Cornell – Irina
- Matthew EdisonMatthew EdisonMatthew Edison is a Canadian actor born in 1975.A great, great, great grand-nephew of Thomas Edison, he has appeared in the television series At The Hotel and A Nero Wolfe Mystery, and in various television movies....
- Mr. Wolf - Hrant AlianakHrant AlianakHrant Alianak , also billed as Harant Alianak or Grant Aljanak, is an Armenian-Canadian actor and playwright. In 1988 he was nominated for the Genie Award "Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role" for his role in the 1987 film Family Viewing. He played Pete in the 1995 movie with Adam...
- Zlawko - Paulino Nunes – Milos
- Salvatore AntonioSalvatore AntonioSalvatore Antonio is a Canadian actor and playwright. He was born to Italian-immigrant parents...
– Pablo - Stephanie MorgensternStephanie MorgensternStephanie Grace Morgenstern is a Swiss-Canadian actress, filmmaker, and screenwriter for television and film. Born in Geneva, Switzerland and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Morgenstern began her acting career when she was 15. She has worked extensively on stage, film, and television in both English...
– Gerta - Andrew PifkoAndrew PifkoAndrew Pifko is a Canadian television, theater and voice actor, who has worked on numerous projects since beginning his career in 1998. Since then, Pifko has appeared on television shows such as Queer as Folk, Rescue Heroes, and Til Death Do Us Part, among others...
– Pete - Daniel KashDaniel KashDaniel Joshua Kash is a Canadian actor and director.He was born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of Canadian opera singer Maureen Forrester and violinist/conductor Eugene Kash. He is also the brother of actress Linda Kash. He studied at the Drama Center in London, England and has appeared in dozens...
- Detective Goldberg - Rosa LaBorde – Carmelita
The Residents
- Martha HenryMartha HenryMartha Henry, is a Canadian stage, film, and television actress, who is best known for her appearances at the Stratford Festival.-Background:...
- Lucy Knowlton - Samantha Weinstein – Piper
- Linda KashLinda KashLinda Kash is a Canadian actress.An alumna of Second City, she played Trudy Weissman in the 1998 Jean Smart sit-com, Style & Substance...
– Folly - Raoul BhanejaRaoul BhanejaRaoul Bhaneja is a Canadian actor. He was one of the stars on the short lived TV series Train 48 on Global...
- Harry Jindal - Shawn Campbell - William, Harry's lawyer
- Sandra O'Neill - Mme Boratto
- Nigel BennettNigel BennettNigel Bennett is an English actor/director/writer who has been based in Canada since 1986. He is best known for playing the vampire patriarch Lucien LaCroix in the TV series Forever Knight, for which he won the Canadian Gemini Award for best supporting actor in a dramatic series.-Life and...
- Jacob Knowlton - Matthew BennettMatthew BennettMatthew Ray Bennett is a Canadian actor, writer and director. At the age of 20 he moved from his hometown of Toronto, Ontario to Vancouver, British Columbia to pursue an acting career...
- J.J. Knowlton - Frank Moore - Frank Richards
- Peter MacNeillPeter MacNeillPeter MacNeill is a Canadian film and television actor who has starred in several TV shows and movies.His film credits have included The Hanging Garden , Geraldine's Fortune, Giant Mine, Lives of Girls and Women, The Events Leading Up to My Death, Dog Park, Something Beneath and A...
- Peter Miflin - Jonas Chernick - Danny Book
- Neil CroneNeil CroneNeil Crone is a Canadian voice actor and comedian who does the voices of Gordon the Big Engine, Splatter and Diesel 10 from the film Thomas and the Magic Railroad. He does Phillip the Concierge in the My Secret Identity episode "Sour Grapes"...
- Tom Deacon - David FerryDavid Ferry (actor)David Ferry is a Canadian actor and Dora Award-winning theatre director. Ferry was nominated for a Genie Award, for best supporting actor in Hounds of Notre Dame. He was also star of the popular Canadian radio program "Midnight Cab". He was born in St...
- a political business associate in J.J.'s camp
The Guests
- Maury ChaykinMaury ChaykinMaury Alan Chaykin was an American-born Canadian actor. Best known for his portrayal of detective Nero Wolfe, he was also known for his work as a character actor in many films and on television programs.-Personal life:...
- Jerry Mitchell - Kathleen LaskeyKathleen LaskeyKathleen Laskey, sometimes credited as Kathy Laskey, is a Canadian actress, primarily associated with television roles. Her credits include roles in Check it Out!, Being Erica, Street Legal, George Shrinks, Blue Murder, Yin Yang Yo!, Wayside, Weird Years, At the Hotel and The Eleventh...
- Anne Silver, Jerry's former partner - Don McKellarDon McKellar-Personal life:McKellar was born in Toronto, Ontario to a lawyer father and teacher mother. He attended Glenview Senior Public School, Lawrence Park Collegiate Institute and later studied English at the University of Toronto's Victoria College...
- Woody - Tom McCamusTom McCamusTom McCamus is an award-winning Canadian film and theatre actor who is most widely known for his work on the science-fiction television show Mutant X....
- Bill DeJour - Alberta WatsonAlberta WatsonFaith Susan Alberta Watson , known professionally as Alberta Watson, is a Canadian movie and television series actress.-Early life:...
- Lucy's best friend, Camille - Rosemary DunsmoreRosemary DunsmoreRosemary Dunsmore is a Canadian TV, film and theatre, actress, born in 1953.She has starred in some well known Canadian productions, that include, The Campbells, Anne of Green Gables, Road to Avonlea and Murdoch Mysteries.-External links:...
- Marcia Bridge - Shawn Lawrence - David Bridge
- Geri HallGeri HallGeri Hall is a Canadian actress and comedian. She has appeared on the CBC's This Hour has 22 Minutes in October and November 2004, March 2007 and became a permanent cast anchor in October 2007. Other appearances include the Rick Mercer Report and numerous television commercials...
- Piper's concerned teacher, Miss Hudak - David Keeley - musician Mark Wilson
- Frank Fontaine - Cardinal Facinelli
- Alvaro D'Antonio - Father Segundo, the Cardinal's assistant
- Danny WellsDanny WellsDanny Wells is a Canadian movie and television actor and voice actor. He is perhaps best known for his occasional role as Charlie the bartender on The Jeffersons as well as playing the role of the video game character Luigi, brother of Nintendo's mascot Mario, in the live-action segments of The...
- Marty Kay - Aron TagerAron TagerAron Tager is an American actor and artist.- Background :As an artist, Tager has had numerous exhibitions of his work and has sculptures installed at the following locations: Mount Anthony Union High School, Bennington, VT; Shaftsbury Elementary School, VT; Delaware County Community College,...
- Norm Walsh, Marty's his long-suffering manager - Camilla ScottCamilla ScottCamilla Scott is a Canadian actress and television host.-Biography:Scott's first job was a cashier at the Canadian grocery chain Dominion when she was age 15...
- Rachel Osterman - Susan CoyneSusan CoyneSusan Coyne is a Canadian writer and actress, best known as one of the co-creators and co-stars of the award-winning Slings and Arrows, a TV series which ran 2003–06 about a Canadian Shakespearean theatre company...
- Donna, Piper's fundamentalist Christian aunt - Rick RobertsRick RobertsRick Roberts may refer to:* Rick Roberts , Canadian actor* Rick Roberts , American radio talk show host* Rick Roberts , Canadian field hockey player* Rick Roberts , American rock musician, founder of Firefall...
- a nervous man having an affair - Janine TheriaultJanine TheriaultJanine Theriault is a Canadian actress. She grew up in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, where she lived until leaving to attend Walnut Hill School for the Performing Arts in Natick, Massachusetts...
- the nervous woman having an affair with the nervous man - Vince CarlinVince CarlinVincent A. Carlin is a retired Canadian civil servant. He was the ombudsman of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation from January 2006 to December 2010, serving a five year term with the Corporation. Carlin has since been succeeded by Mr. Kirk Lapointe....
- funeral director - Sam Kalilieh - a Saudi Prince
- Conrad DunnConrad DunnConrad Dunn is an American actor. He began his screen career with the role of Francis "Psycho" Soyer in Stripes . Working for some ten years under the name George Jenesky, he achieved soap-opera stardom in Days of our Lives as Nick Corelli, a misogynistic pimp who evolved from bad guy to romantic...
- Senor Arioso, the psychic hypnotist - Tommy ChangTommy ChangBorn and raised in Kyong Ki Do, South Korea, Master Tommy Chang is a Korean-Canadian world-renowned 7th degree Taekwondo instructor and Grandmaster, actor, stunt performer, stunt coordinator and producer. With over 35 years of training and experience in Taekwondo, Master Chang also trained...
- Stevie Chang, a professional poker player - Zoie PalmerZoie PalmerZoie Palmer is a Canadian actress. She currently appears in the television series Lost Girl, in which she plays a human doctor by the name of Dr Lauren Lewis...
& Cherion Drake - Sarah and Linda - Mark Caven & Leni ParkerLeni ParkerLeni Parker is a Canadian television and film actress. She is best known for her portrayal of Da'an in Gene Roddenberry's Earth: Final Conflict.-Education and early career:...
- Mr. & Mrs. Fishman - Karen Racicot & Philip Craig - the Zieglers
- Deborah OdellDeborah OdellDeborah Odell is a Canadian actress who has appeared in various films and television series, including Godsend with Robert De Niro and the premiere episode of the SciFi Channel series the Dresden Files.-External links:*...
& Rod Wilson - a publisher and an architect - Steven McCarthy - Danny Book's lover, Brian McDougal
- John Blackwood - Lucy's doctor
Awards
Maury ChaykinMaury Chaykin
Maury Alan Chaykin was an American-born Canadian actor. Best known for his portrayal of detective Nero Wolfe, he was also known for his work as a character actor in many films and on television programs.-Personal life:...
, Gemini Award
Gemini Award
The Gemini Awards are annual television broadcasting industry awards in Canada.First awarded in 1986, the Geminis celebrate the achievements of TV members of the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television. Essentially, it presents awards for the best television productions in Canada. Awards are...
for best performance by an actor in a guest role ("The Perfect Couple")
At the Hotel in other media
- A mock-up Chateau Rousseau website was launched, with links to staff resumes, J.J.'s fictitious blog, and publicity photos.
Soundtrack
- The show's main theme and incidental music were written by Robert Carli. The show also features some existing show-tune numbers, notably "Sue Me" from Guys and Dolls, and "Always True To You" from Kiss Me, KateKiss Me, KateKiss Me, Kate is a musical with music and lyrics by Cole Porter. It is structured as a play within a play, where the interior play is a musical version of William Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew. The original production starred Alfred Drake, Patricia Morison, Lisa Kirk and Harold Lang.Kiss...
, and some opera arias. Toronto band The Mark InsideThe Mark InsideThe Mark Inside is a four-piece rock band from Whitby, Ontario, that is currently based out of Toronto. The Mark Inside was formed in early 2000 and has toured extensively across Canada and England...
appears, uncredited, in an episode to shoot a video at the hotel.
External links
- At The Hotel: CBC official site
- The Chateau Rousseau: pseudo-website for the hotel at CBC