Quartile rating: 6/10 · 1 rating
During the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, Wim Wenders asked a number of global film directors to, one at a time, go into a hotel room, turn on the camera, and answer a simple question: "What is the future of cinema?"
Room 666 is a genuinely singular documentary artifact — Wenders' deceptively simple conceit of placing directors alone with a running camera to muse on cinema's future is brilliantly conceived and utterly one-of-a-kind. The roster (Godard, Herzog, Fassbinder, Spielberg, Antonioni, etc.) gives it extraordinary historical weight and intellectual richness, making Novelty a clear 4. The 'plot' is structured enough to sustain interest as a meditation across contrasting cinematic philosophies, earning a solid 3. 'Acting' here reflects the authenticity and presence of the directors as subjects — some are riveting (Herzog, Godard), others less so, averaging to a competent 3. Cinematography is deliberately static and minimal by design — the locked-off hotel room camera is conceptually intentional but visually unremarkable, warranting a 2. The ending, like the film itself, is thoughtful but somewhat inconclusive by nature of the format.