209 New Rose Hotel

[Finch]

Abel Ferrara (Ms .45) directs cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson's neo-noir short story about industrial espionage. Two extraction specialists Fox (Christopher Walken, King of New York) and X (Willem Dafoe, Poor Things) are hired to tempt the genius Hiroshi away from a rival company by using sexy call girl Sandii (Asia Argento, Land of the Dead). Featuring a variety of screens and footage, New Rose Hotel uses these mixed media formats to distance us from Hiroshi as an intractable presence that emphasises the lack of control experienced by Fox and X whilst also presenting a prescient view of our own engagement with screens and digital communications. Misunderstood upon release, Ferrara's feverish film has been reappraised in recent years and compared to David Lynch's exploration of perception and paranoia. Newly restored and making its UK home video debut, New Rose Hotel is one of the finest examples of cyberpunk on film.

BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION SPECIAL FEATURES

2K restoration from the 35mm interpositive by Vinegar Syndrome, approved by Abel Ferrara
Original 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio surround sound
Audio commentary by co-screenwriter Christ Zois (1998)
New interviews with director Abel Ferrara and star Asia Argento (2026)
Wild and Woolly - an interview with star Willem Dafoe (2025)
Interview with critic Beatrice Loayza (2026)
Trailer
Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original promotional materials
Booklet featuring new writing on the film by Brad Stevens, author of Abel Ferrara: The Moral Vision
Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in and full-height Scanavo packaging with O-card and removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

Year: 1998
Country: USA
Cert: TBC
Format: Blu-ray
Region: B
RAD209BDLE
EAN: 5060974684151
Release date: 14/09/26

[Peacock]

Ah great! This makes up for missing out on the VS limited edition. Glad I waited!

[mfunk9786]

This is a really fascinating one - easy to slag off, but has a lot of mesmerizing qualities and I was left quite sad by the end. Like many great films, it may have just been ahead of its time, as the isolated texture and feeling of it has never been more timely. Asia Argento is excellent, too. Enough to forgive the psychological torture of our favorite dearly departed foul mouthed bon vivant? Probably not, but still - she's really good here.

[colinr0380]

Excellent! I have been curious to see this for a while after reading the William Gibson short story in the "Burning Chrome" collection that this was based on. Here's my write up from our William Gibson thread. I will spoiler tag it as well:

Spoiler

New Rose Hotel is a beautiful noir-style reminiscence of a man about the woman brought into a scheme involving a high profile corporate defection [of a leading scientist]. Whilst the main character and his associate are small cogs hired by a corporation and who themselves hire an enigmatic woman to act as 'bait' for their target, unfortunately the main character is both failed by his associate (who cannot let go of his obsession with wanting to monitor the high profile scientist even after their small role in the operation is over) and by the woman, who double crosses everyone and was actually the 'bait' for the other side. With the wonderful added frisson of the main character, after a night of passion with the woman, finding the computer virus diskette in her bag (almost blatantly left there for him to find) and leaving it there even though he knew exactly what it was, and how it would doom him and his associate to death in retribution.

I have not seen the Abel Ferrara adaptation of this into a feature length film yet, but this idea of fatalism and fear of, yet excitement about, the idea of being destroyed by a powerful woman (when the man has in some ways brought it on himself) feels quite appropriate for Ferrara, so I'm curious about seeing it now!

[beamish14]

This is a really fascinating one - easy to slag off, but has a lot of mesmerizing qualities and I was left quite sad by the end. Like many great films, it may have just been ahead of its time, as the isolated texture and feeling of it has never been more timely. Asia Argento is excellent, too. Enough to forgive the psychological torture of our favorite dearly departed foul mouthed bon vivant? Probably not, but still - she's really good here.

I think it’s probably Ferrara’s most aesthetically gorgeous film. Dafoe’s last scenes as he’s hiding out are amazing, and I’ll never forget one particular shot of the sky above the urban decay that is just incredible.

I’m looking forward to hearing the Christ Zois commentary that was culled from its DVD release