British director Tony Richardson adapts the popular John Irving novel about an eccentric family and their wild ride through life.
The father, Win (Beau Bridges), is obsessed with hotels so he buys a run-down seminary in New England, transforming it into the Hotel New Hampshire.
But after a number of tragic incidents, including the gang rape of Franny, the family is invited to take over another hotel in Vienna, courtesy of their friend Freud (Wallace Shawn).
On arrival, they find that the upper floors of the hotel are dedicated to prostitution and the bottom floors are occupied by terrorists. They also meet Freud's companion, Susie the Bear (Nastassia Kinski), a woman so obsessed with her unattractiveness that she spends all her time in a bear suit.
The extended family includes the profanity-spouting Franny (Jodie Foster); Lily (Jennifer Dundas); a gay dwarf, Frank (Paul McCrane); John (Rob Lowe), who is strongly attracted to his sister; Egg (Seth Green), the youngest boy; and Iowa Bob (Wilford Brimley), Win's father.
The Hotel New Hampshire is a Film programme that first aired in 1984 and has been classified a 18 certificate.
