← Back to Reviews
in
The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
Director: Wes Anderson
Cast overview: Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham
Running time: 100 minutes
This review ends a temporary hiatus in my reviewing caused by starting university. The latter, ironically, was the reason I watched this film last night, as part of the film society, and I was pleasantly surprised. Wes Anderson has always struck me as someone who makes kooky, bizarre, and strange films - it's what he's probably known for, to be fair - so I wasn't much expecting to enjoy this as he didn't really seem my type of director. However, I did.
Firstly, it's Ralph Fiennes who steals the show with a fantastic, engaging performance, though most of the cast - strong and varied - offer breadth and depth to their roles, particularly Sam Neill. Not only this, but the film looks terrific, sounds terrific, is extremely well-made and well-directed, and is all-round a decent show of Anderson's abilities and idiosyncrasies to a newbie of his work. Considering the film's title, very little of it actually takes place in the hotel, compared to the prisons, trains, and countryside that form most of the setting. However, that's not a criticism - the other settings give it variety and probably stopped it from becoming stale and predictable.
It's based on Stefan Zweig's writings, but it really feels like a thoroughly original work - I certainly can't think of another film like it, and I'm sure you could say that about most of Anderson's films. I also wasn't expecting it to be funny, but it certainly was at many points, some of them quite subtle. I don't think this necessarily reaches greatness, but not every film does.
Overall, this is the first Wes Anderson film I've seen, but I doubt it'll be the last, as it was enjoyable, engaging, interesting, quirky, funny and unique. You could use many adjectives to describe this film but I don't think dull is one of them.
Quotes
M. Gustave: Keep your hands off my lobby boy!
M. Gustave: You see, there are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity. Indeed that's what we provide in our own modest, humble, insignificant... oh, **** it.
M. Gustave: [to Mme. Celine's corpse] You're looking so well, darling, you really are... they've done a marvelous job. I don't know what sort of cream they've put on you down at the morgue, but... I want some.
Trivia
Unlike most films, in which random and often repeated text is used, every time a newspaper article appears it is a detailed and complete depiction of the events in the headline.
The symbol worn by Edward Norton's character Henckels and his army is the head of Mr Fox from The Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), also directed by Wes Anderson.
Tilda Swinton spent hours in the makeup chair to play 84-year-old dowager Madame D. "We're not usually working with a vast, Bruckheimer-type budget on my films, so often we're trying a work-around," said Wes Anderson. "But for the old-age makeup I just said, 'Let's get the most expensive people we can.'"
Trailer
Director: Wes Anderson
Cast overview: Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham
Running time: 100 minutes
This review ends a temporary hiatus in my reviewing caused by starting university. The latter, ironically, was the reason I watched this film last night, as part of the film society, and I was pleasantly surprised. Wes Anderson has always struck me as someone who makes kooky, bizarre, and strange films - it's what he's probably known for, to be fair - so I wasn't much expecting to enjoy this as he didn't really seem my type of director. However, I did.
Firstly, it's Ralph Fiennes who steals the show with a fantastic, engaging performance, though most of the cast - strong and varied - offer breadth and depth to their roles, particularly Sam Neill. Not only this, but the film looks terrific, sounds terrific, is extremely well-made and well-directed, and is all-round a decent show of Anderson's abilities and idiosyncrasies to a newbie of his work. Considering the film's title, very little of it actually takes place in the hotel, compared to the prisons, trains, and countryside that form most of the setting. However, that's not a criticism - the other settings give it variety and probably stopped it from becoming stale and predictable.
It's based on Stefan Zweig's writings, but it really feels like a thoroughly original work - I certainly can't think of another film like it, and I'm sure you could say that about most of Anderson's films. I also wasn't expecting it to be funny, but it certainly was at many points, some of them quite subtle. I don't think this necessarily reaches greatness, but not every film does.
Overall, this is the first Wes Anderson film I've seen, but I doubt it'll be the last, as it was enjoyable, engaging, interesting, quirky, funny and unique. You could use many adjectives to describe this film but I don't think dull is one of them.
Quotes
M. Gustave: Keep your hands off my lobby boy!
M. Gustave: You see, there are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity. Indeed that's what we provide in our own modest, humble, insignificant... oh, **** it.
M. Gustave: [to Mme. Celine's corpse] You're looking so well, darling, you really are... they've done a marvelous job. I don't know what sort of cream they've put on you down at the morgue, but... I want some.
Trivia
Unlike most films, in which random and often repeated text is used, every time a newspaper article appears it is a detailed and complete depiction of the events in the headline.
The symbol worn by Edward Norton's character Henckels and his army is the head of Mr Fox from The Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), also directed by Wes Anderson.
Tilda Swinton spent hours in the makeup chair to play 84-year-old dowager Madame D. "We're not usually working with a vast, Bruckheimer-type budget on my films, so often we're trying a work-around," said Wes Anderson. "But for the old-age makeup I just said, 'Let's get the most expensive people we can.'"
Trailer