The L.A. Times is calling Hotel Chevalier “one of the year’s most talked about short films,” but in fact that should read “one of the year’s most talked about short films with rumors that Natalie Portman gets naked in it.” The article does get it right when it recognizes that Natalie does “her first nude love scene,” but I have only seen one journalist give a description of what is seen as Devin Faraci at CHUD writes:
Also, you see Natalie Portman’s butt, and later on she’s standing naked just covering the good bits. This seems like something that could add to the marketing of the film.
Considering the film received an R-rating for some language and sexual content, but not nudity or sexual situations I can’t assume audiences are going to see much, but as the Times again accurately mentions, the rumors have been received with “scurrilous delight [from] fan boys worldwide.” Hmmm, let’s see, an Hotel Chevalier, the short 13-minute short film that preceeds The Darjeeling Limited will be debuting next Tuesday, October 2, at Apple Stores in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, before becoming a free download from iTunes the next day. If you think they are going live with an ultra racy nude scene for a free download I would guess again, but I fully expect screen captures flying all over the Internet in just over a week.
The short film was expected to be placed in front of the film as something of a prequel, but ultimately it obviously will not be.
