PIt was a New Year’s Eve party “Alternative” New Year’s Evethis evening at 9.30pm on first TV on Rai 3 goes on air The Palacethe latest ferocious comedy directed by Roman Polanski. Presented Out of Competition at the Venice Film Festival in 2023, the film tells of a crazy New Year’s Eve night in a very luxurious hotel Swiss populated by bizarre and spoiled super millionaires.
The Palace: tonight 31 December on TV on Rai 3, plot and where to see it
New Year’s Eve 1999Swiss. At the luxurious Palace Hotel, nestled in the mountains of Gstaad, rich, capricious guests gather like every year and over the top, arriving from all over the world to celebrate the arrival of the new year. The fairytale hotel staffled by the upright director Hansueli (Olivier Masucci), he is busy orchestrating the gala dinner to perfection and the New Year’s Eve party, while trying to satisfy the often absurd requests of a decidedly eccentric clientele.
In fact, among the guests there are billionaire Bill Crush (Mickey Rourke), who demands his usual suite without a reservation, and the Marquise Constance (Fanny Ardant), obsessed with the fact that her dog cannot do its business in the snow and demands a patch of lawn directly in her room. The former porn star Bongo also gravitates among the corridors of the hotel (Luca Barbareschi), now idolized only by nostalgic peers, and Arthur William Dallas III (John Cleese), a ninety-year-old millionaire who, to celebrate the first wedding anniversary with the very young wifedecides to give her a real penguin as a gift.
While preparations are underway, a group of ambiguous Russian guests also arrives at the hotel, led by the sinister Anton (Aleksandr Petrov), who asks Hansueli to keep some suitcases with mysterious contents in the hotel vault, long out of use. And, in the meantime, a series of tragicomic misadventures begin to affect all the guests of the Palace. Up to a grotesque and absolutely unexpected ending.
Mickey Rourke in a scene from “The Palace”. (01 Distribution)
A cruel and grotesque comedy that confirms the genius of Roman Polanski
Last film directed by Roman Polanski, The Palace it’s a ferocious satire that never tries to be easygoing. Expert filmmaker in the grotesque genre, Polanski he focuses his lens on the “privileged” caste with merciless ironymore interested in unmasking the obtuseness of his characters than to win the spectator’s sympathy.
By setting the story in a closed place, the director transforms the Alpine hotel into a symbolic trap: an elegant and decadent microcosmself-sufficient yet fragile, destined to crumble under the weight of its own contradictions. With a wise hand, the direction governs the chaos of the plot with precision and uses the grotesque as a critical toolavoiding the banal accumulation of gags.
Veined with cruel humor, The Palace it is rhythmically supported by a fragmented structure, giving the image of a disintegrated societyclosed in on itself and now devoid of moral references. Despite some forgivable flaws, iThe film is certainly uncomfortable but hilarious and, above all, it is the perfect photograph of the sunset of an entire social classobserved without indulgence e without any desire for absolution.
The very rich cast of The Palace: from Mickey Rourke to Fanny Ardant
Another strong point of the film a memorable cast that openly works on excesschoosing caricature as an interpretative key. Starting from the historic member of Monty Python John Cleese which embodies a dry and cruel humor, perfectly aligned with the idea of a grotesque and senile power. Fanny Ardant instead plays on deformed elegancetransforming aristocratic control into a ridiculous and infantile obsession.
Also unforgettable is Mickey Rourke who agrees to “expose himself” as a grotesque mask after his beautiful face is now unrecognizable after decades of plastic surgery. In more supporting roles too Sydney Rome – protagonist of the film That? by Polanski filmed in 1973 –, Polanski’s daughter Morgane And Luca Barbereschi, also co-producer, who pushes self-parodyaccentuating the pathetic side of the character.