Nightshift

Welcome to West London’s Portobello Hotel. Will you be setting fire to your room tonight? How about a petticoat pillow-fight? Share our cook’s cigarette break as she grumbles about fussy guests; then wander our decadently shabby corridors, where you can eavesdrop on a husband-hunting countess, rub shoulders with businessmen and punk rockers, and even watch a poet-magician ply his trade. As the city writhes in slumber, hum along to the vacuum cleaner’s soft drone, and let small night-shift rituals transport you into a sensuous fugue …

Over five nights, director Robina Rose and her cinematographer, prolific US maverick filmmaker Jon Jost (All the Vermeers in New York, MIFF 1991), took over the hotel where she worked. Enthroned imperiously at the reception desk is punk scene queen Jordan (Jubilee). The guests – who drift to a dreamy soundtrack by Simon Jeffes of minimalist avant-pop band Penguin Cafe Orchestra – include experimental filmmaker Anne Rees-Mogg, mathematical philosopher and underground newspaper editor Mike Lesser, poet Heathcote Williams, writer Max Handley, and cabaret singer Barb Jungr. Painstakingly restored, this liminal mood masterpiece is a booking you’ll want to make.

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