Exclusive Preview of Robina Rose's Remarkable, Revamped Nightshift Tracks: One Night in a Hotel

      I wish there were a precise subgenre for Robina Rose’s Nightshift so I could discover all its counterparts. This British film––which evokes the stark melancholy of Chantal Akerman or the works of its cinematographer, Jon Jost––has languished in complete obscurity for over 40 years. Watching it is enlightening: it serves as a masterclass on camera placement, editing, and how to follow, complicate, or overturn previous choices of framing. Forget film school; just watch Nightshift repeatedly.

      The Lightbox Film Center, the British Film Institute, and Cinenova have restored Rose’s film, which Arbelos will premiere at Anthology Film Archives for a one-week engagement starting March 14. Before this, we are excited to present a trailer that perfectly captures the essence of Nightshift.

      Here’s the synopsis: “During a single nightshift, a hotel clerk in West London (U.K. counterculture figure Jordan, who previously starred in Derek Jarman’s Jubilee) silently observes a diverse array of guests, from punk rockers and trendy magicians to seemingly conventional businessmen and old-world aristocrats. As the night deepens and the eclectic clientele slips away from the waking world, the hotel morphs into an otherworldly, liminal space oscillating between the mundane and the magical. Beautifully shot by filmmaker Jon Jost, with a score by Simon Jeffes of the iconic Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Nightshift is both a striking snapshot of London's early-1980s art scene (featuring actor/poet Heathcote Williams and filmmaker Anne Rees-Mogg) and a bold, instantly captivating artistic statement from director Robina Rose. Newly restored by the Lightbox Film Center and reintroduced to the public by Arbelos Films, Nightshift is a mesmerizing masterwork of surreal, dreamlike cinema that casts a powerful and enchanting spell.”