[Leica] OT: The Beat Hotel

[pswango at att.net (Phil Swango)]

I just watched a very interesting movie from 2012 called "The Beat Hotel,"
which documents Americans from the beat generation who lived in Paris from
1958-63, including Allen Ginsberg, Greg Corso, Wm. Burroughs and their beat
friends.  The hotel closed in 1963.  One thing of interest here is that the
device used to carry along the narrative is commentary by British
photographer Harold Chapman, cued by his contact sheets from the period.
 He also discussed some photography technical issues with his Contax camera
and some unorthodox development techniques.  Other parts of the narrative
are advanced through clever animation, re-enactments, and interviews.  It's
a bit uneven but worth a watch by those interested in the Beats or Paris in
the 50s.  There's some really crazy stuff about Burroughs, who was, well,
really crazy. ;-)

One thing I noticed was curious, though -- the contact sheets were clearly
marked TMY in the sprocket area, like modern T-Max 400.  Since there was no
TMY in the 50s I'm wondering why.  Possibly the contacts were recreated for
the movie using T-Max -- otherwise I have no idea what's going on with that.

FWIW, I once met and chatted with Greg Corso after being introduced by a
poet friend who lived in the Chelsea Hotel in NY, where Corso also lived at
the time ('71 or so).  He was only around 40 at the time but looked a bit
worn down and had lost his teeth (at least the anterior ones).

I found the film on Netflix streaming.

-- 
Phil Swango
307 Aliso Dr SE
Albuquerque, NM 87108
505-262-4085