"The Grand Budapest Hotel" (2014) Directed by Wes Anderson

#moviereview #movies #wesanderson #comedy #masterpiece

“I’m afraid that’s me darling!”

I consider myself very fortunate to see Wes Anderson’s eighth film just after opening night at my local picture house and instantly fell in love with it. For personal reasons only I rank it second in my all time personal favourite films of his but sixteen years after Rushmore it truly runs it close for my all time favourite. The Grand Budapest Hotel is far more elegant, poetic and picturesque than Rushmore and I adore the comic book/picture book feel of the film. It’s timeless flow and imagination makes an instant re-watching an easy decision, especially when you consider the film itself is almost a film within a film, within a film. The three separate time periods of 1985, 1968 and 1932 flow together seamlessly and whilst the film may be predominantly set in the 1930’s the movements forward in time are never jarring or awkward and simply add to the majesty of this wonderful film. As I write this ode to joy on 1st October 2014 the Oscar buzz has not yet started but surely this is the breakthrough film of Oscar recognition Wes Anderson has thoroughly deserved since the eponymous Rushmore sixteen long years ago. Whilst Oscars are not the yardstick by which to measure a film’s success, we can but hope.

The film is inspired by the writings of Stefan Zweig (who is thanked in the closing credits) but Anderson and fellow writer Hugo Guinness deserve an Oscar nomination for their surreal screenplay and for the poetic, dancing dialogue given to Ralph Fiennes and Jeff Goldblum, both of whom pull of their linguistic treats to perfection but more of this later. Robert Yeoman’s cinematography is again inspired, adding to the picture book texture of the film and combined with Adam Stockhausen’s production design and miniature models provide so many endearing and effective cinematic shots that deserve Oscar recognition in 2015 but the same can be said for Milena Canonero’s wonderful array of costumes that truly are a centre piece of the film, Anna Pinnock’s set decoration and Stephen Gessler’s art direction are all worthy of recognition and in Oscar circles, if it’s The Grand Budapest’s year in 2015, all will be worthy recipients of the prized statue. The film is such an incredible achievement Wes Anderson’s entire behind the scenes crew deserve special praise for realising an astonishing looking film that enchants you with every watch, but a final nod goes to Film Editor Barney Pilling for weaving together three differing timelines, so many narrative strands and of course, the long held Wes Anderson trademarks which proliferate the film and work so wonderfully well as ever.

Originally written nearly a decade ago and transferred to my Medium blog site on 4th September 2022, the above paragraphs are taken from my spoiler free review of "The Grand Budapest Hotel" that can now be read in full and for free via my Substack blog site and original article linked immediately below:

https://ramblingmusings666.substack.com/p/revisiting-the-grand-budapest-hotel-9750df513c5b

This spoiler free review is also contained within my 7 volumes of "essential film reviews collection", with each and every volume free to read should you have an Amazon Kindle "Unlimited" package:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0C4HZSTTH?ref_=dbs_p_pwh_rwt_anx_a_lnk&storeType=ebooks

https://www.patreon.com/TheBlackfordBookClub
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