Top Ten Luxury
Hotels in Movies
Luxury, privacy, anonymity... it's a potent combination that makes hotels the stars on many a big screen. In early 2011 our smart friends at Design Hotels came up with the 'Don't Forget the Popcorn' competition to choose the world's favourite hotel movie scenes. So if you want to be a smash hit at your personal box office, here's where to head off to. (We're ready for our close-up now, please.)
 
Jennifer Stevenson, 10/12/10
1. Lost in Translation: Park Hyatt, Tokyo
1. Lost in Translation: Park Hyatt, Tokyo

The New York Bar teetering above Tokyo on the 52nd floor of the Shinjuku Park Tower is the perfect place to experience that very-international, very-Japanese vibe. The hotel is authentically movie-glamorous, but drop-in ikebana classes are not guaranteed.

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2. The Shining: The Little Nell, Aspen, Colorado
2. The Shining: The Little Nell, Aspen, Colorado

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy and the snowbound Overlook hotel in Oregon of Kubrick's imagination had not a lot to commend it. You'll find similar mountain-lodge style but much more winter fun heading east to The Little Nell.

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3. The Hangover: Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas
3. The Hangover: Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas

The ultimate bachelor-party film, with the groom going missing from a Caesar's Palace villa in Vegas. But you'll probably want to remain conscious to enjoy this high-octane style.

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4. Inception: Le Royal Monceau Raffles, Paris
4. Inception: Le Royal Monceau Raffles, Paris

2010's sci-fi hit folds and manipulates Parisian street scenes like origami, and features an epic fight scene in a hotel corridor that doubles its length and twists like a hamster wheel. Not what you might want as you search your pockets for your room key. The Monceau presents a far more civilised surrealist experience.

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5. Psycho: Whitehaven Hotel, Maryland
5. Psycho: Whitehaven Hotel, Maryland

We're assuming you don't want to stay at Bates Motel (those bathroom fittings are substandard, and a receptionist's spyhole is not the kind of hotel security we like). Hitchcock was inspired by the Second Empire style of architecture that featured in Edward Hopper's paintings of buildings in the eastern seaboard states. The Whitehaven is a rescued treasure of the same deep-porched, mansard-roofed style, but much more welcoming.

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6. The Graduate: The Standard, Hollywood
6. The Graduate: The Standard, Hollywood

Mrs Robinson favoured the very-establishment but sadly fictional Taft Hotel while giving young Benjamin some post-graduate training in 1967. The old Ambassador Hotel on Wilshire Boulevard was used as the location, but sadly it was demolished in 2006. Nowadays it's shag-carpet Sixties styling which creates a sexual frisson, and The Standard on Sunset Strip delivers.

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7. Mystery Train: The Madison, Memphis
7. Mystery Train: The Madison, Memphis

Trust us - you don't want to stay at the Arcade Hotel, the original flophouse which became the focal point of Jim Jarmusch's art house indie flick. Experience the cool cachet he established for downtown Memphis from the comfort of a hotel where it's actually safe to venture further than the lobby.

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8. The Bellboy: Fontainebleau, Miami Beach
8. The Bellboy: Fontainebleau, Miami Beach

Jerry Lewis was the bumbling bell-hop in the 1960's incarnation of the hotel. The very-grande dame of Miami Beach is still going strong, but the present management ensures faultless style and service.

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9. Pretty Woman: Beverly Wilshire, Los Angeles
9. Pretty Woman: Beverly Wilshire, Los Angeles
What movie-length ad for a hotel! A bathtub built for two, fantastically discreet service, a balcony parapet that's scary-but-not-really, and a general manager who can give shopping advice and in-house cutlery etiquette lessons.
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10. Titanic: Crystal Symphony
10. Titanic: Crystal Symphony

You can be blasé about some things, Rose, but not about the Crystal Symphony. With the original movie location tragically unavailable, the Crystal line offers the same mega-luxury without that... sinking feeling.

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