In the Hempel Hotel a maid busies herself ironing and preparing the fabrics with starch for the perfect finish. One of the guests, a business executive passes her and displays a certain affection for the maid's work but demands more starch to fulfil her desires. The result of the unspoken longing is going to be a rather sticky mess.
God but don't ask me what this was about because I have no idea. The closing shot of the drawer left me a bit lost as to the wider story I was supposed to be getting but this may be my fault. However even without taking this all in I was still held by the short film because it did such a good job of capturing the tone of the material. The unspoken relationship is one of sexuality and hostility surrounding the sheets and, although I didn't understand it much beyond this, this much was palatable and obvious. It makes the material more interesting and held my attention.
Le Couteur's direction and the design of the film matches this in being minimalist and very white. Along with the music this makes for a rather crisp air that suits the tone of sexual tension and hostility in the film. The two leads play this off very well and the whole thing is interesting even if the bigger picture was not one I could grab.
