On December 25 1995, Four Rooms was released in the USA. The film features Madonna as Elspeth in the first segment of the film, The Missing Ingredient, directed by Allison Anders.
The film’s tagline:
Twelve outrageous guests. Four scandalous requests. And one lone bellhop, in his first day on the job, who’s in for the wildest New year’s Eve of his life.
Here’s how Rotten Tomatoes describes the film:
Four of the most celebrated directors in the independent film community pooled their talents for this episodic comedy. Ted (Tim Roth) is the new bellboy at a beautiful but decaying luxury hotel; he is not having a good time of it on New Year’s Eve, his first night on the job. In one room, a coven of witches are trying to summon the spirit of the goddess Diana; each of the witches must bring a different bodily fluid for their spell to work, but Eva (Ione Skye), who was supposed to bring semen, managed to lose her supplies, and needs Ted’s help for a last-minute replacement. Another room, where Ted was supposed to deliver some ice, turns out to house an angry husband (David Proval), who is holding his bound-and-gagged wife (Jennifer Beals) at gunpoint. A third room is taken by a tough-talking gangster (Antonio Banderas), his doormat wife (Tamlyn Tomita), and their two children; the gangster demands that Ted watch over the kids, who turn out to be mischievous terrors beyond Ted’s wildest imagination. And room number four is where an arrogant film actor (Quentin Tarantino) is holding a party. One of his guests makes a bet that he can get a Zippo lighter to light ten times in a row, with his finger at stake if he loses. Allison Anders directed the first segment, which also featured Madonna, Valeria Golino, and Lili Taylor. The second segment was directed by Alexandre Rockwell, husband of his frequent leading lady Jennifer Beals. Robert Rodriguez directed the third story, while the finale was directed by its star, Quentin Tarantino; the final segment also features Bruce Willis, who appeared unbilled.
I haven’t seen that one yet but I might want to!
Atrocious film with even worse acting from M
Four Rooms was definitely an odd movie. It’s one of those that didn’t even sound good on paper. However, I thought Madonna LOOKED great in it. Not sure why the poster shows her as a red head, when she was a hot blonde in the film.
Many people say M is a bad actress, however, i disagree. I think she chose many shitty roles like this one. The Next Best Thing and Swept Away two from the early 00s were actually good. Swept Away she played a rotten Diva which Madonna did perfect. The romance part softened the character Amber up and the ending was a tear jerker. Same thing with The Next Best Thing. Her character Abby was just wanting a baby, but Abby became selfish and didn’t consider her best friends feelings. I think the director left out so much from the film. I believe her films are already deemed bad before they are released because critics lump Madge in a category. It will happen with her biopic too, wait and see!