The Grand Budapest Hotel
BBBB
(out of 5)
Wes Anderson turns to the inspiration of Stefan Zweig for a glimpse of old-world European daintiness filtered through his own precious imagination. Author Jude Law visits a faded grand hotel in a fictional nation (located somewhere near The Lady Vanishes) in the late sixties and asks the establishment’s owner (F. Murray Abraham) to narrate the tale of how the building came into his possession. From there Abraham flashes back to the early 1930s, with Ralph Fiennes the lively and mercurial concierge caught up in murderous intrigue when one of the aged matrons he services in multiple ways (Tilda Swinton in octogenarian drag) dies and leaves him a priceless painting in her will. Fiennes is unjustly incarcerated for murder before busting out and finding himself and his plucky protégé (Tony Revolori) travelling across Alpine Europe with Gormenghastish relatives of the deceased (led by Adrien Brody) on their tail, while young Revolori develops a romance with a pastry chef (Saoirse Ronan) that comes in handy when looking to save his friend and boss from his conundrum. True to Anderson’s form, the strongest chords struck between characters are the forged paternal ties between a mentor and his charge, but the auteur seems to have left behind the resonance of his earlier films in favour of stylized imagery and precise visual construction. Gone are the pangs of confused adolescence, the struggle to establish one’s place in the world that hung over the school days of Rushmore or the family angst of The Royal Tenenbaums: here the style is the substance, and this hotel’s brightly painted walls are frequently tinged with dark brushstrokes (cold-blooded murder and the reality of a war-torn world fracturing) and darkly humorous ones (a concierge who loves getting blown by women over eighty), but not splattered with the emotionally convoluted drama of Darjeeling brothers trying to find their lost ties. What Anderson improves on from his muddled and shallow Moonrise Kingdom, however, is a precisely mapped out plot that moves at a zippy and spritely pace, humorous wit that really is outlandishly funny, and the use of a giant cast of familiar faces whose contributions amount to far more than just cameos (with the surprising exception of Edward Norton who manages, in only three scenes as an army captain, to somehow come off a complete amateur).
Fox Searchlight Pictures, Indian Paintbrush, Studio Babelsberg, American Empirical Pictures, TSG Entertainment, Scott Rudin Productions
Directed by Wes Anderson
Story by Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness, Screenplay by Wes Anderson, inspired by the works of Stefan Zweig
Cinematography by Robert D. Yeoman
Produced by Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson, Steven Rales, Scott Rudin
Music by Alexandre Desplat
Production Design by Adam Stockhausen
Costume Design by Milena Canonero
Film Editing by Barney Pilling
Cast Tags: Adrien Brody, Alfred Hänel, Arwin Lobedann, Ben Howard, Bernhard Kremser, Bill Murray, Birgit Müller, Bob Balaban, Bohumil Váchal, Carl Sprague, Claudia Jung, Daniel Steiner, Dar Ronge, Darin Damjanow, David Adamik, David Cioffi, Dirk Bossmann, Ed Munro, Edward Norton, Enrico Hoffmann, F. Murray Abraham, Fisher Stevens, Florian Lukas, Francesco Zippel, Frank Jacob, Gabriel Rush, Georg Rittmannsperger, Georg Tryphon, Gerald Sullivan, Gisela Bech, Giselda Volodi, Golo Euler, Gyula Lukacs, Hannes Wegener, Hans Martin Stier,Harvey Keitel, Heike Hanold-Lynch, Heinz-Werner Jeschkowski, Hendrik von Bültzingslöwen, Jason Schwartzman, Jürgen Schwämmle, Jeff Goldblum, Jella Niemann, Jeno Orosz, John Peet, Jude Law, Jutta Westphal, Karl Markovics, Kunichi Nomura, Larry Pine, Léa Seydoux, Lennart Meyer, Lisa Kreuzer, Lucas Hedges, Manfred Lindner, Manpreet Gerlach, Marcel Mazur, Marie Goyette, Marko Dyrlich, Mathieu Amalric, Matthias Holfert, Matthias Matschke, Michael Benthin, Michaela Caspar, Milton Welsh, Monika Krüger, Moritz Hepper, Neal Huff, Oliver Claridge, Oliver Hazell, Owen Wilson, Paul Schlase, Philipp Sonntag, Piet Paes, Rainer Reiners, Ralph Fiennes, Reinhold Hegelow, Renate Klein,Robert Bienas, Robin Hurlstone, Roman Berger, Roy Macready, Sabine Euler, Sabine Urig, Saoirse Ronan, Sister Anna Rademacher, Steffen Nixdorf, Steffen Scheumann, Tilda Swinton, Tom Wilkinson, Tony Revolori, Ursula Kuhnt, Uwe Holoubek,Volker Michalowski, Wallace Wolodarsky, Waris Ahluwalia, Willem Dafoe, Wolfgang Ceczor, Wolfram Nielacny
Academy Awards
Best Cinematography (Robert Yeoman)
Best Costume Design (Milena Canonero)
Best Music – Original Score (Alexandre Desplat)
Best Production Design (production design: Adam Stockhausen: set decoration: Anna Pinnock)
Nominations
Best Picture (Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson)
Best Directing (Wes Anderson)
Best Film Editing (Barney Pilling)
Best Makeup and Hairstyling (Frances Hannon, Mark Coulier)
Best Writing – Original Screenplay (Screenplay by Wes Anderson; story by Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness)
Golden Globe Award
Best Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy
Nominations
Best Performance By An Actor in a Motion Picture-Musical or Comedy (Ralph Fiennes)
Best Director (Wes Anderson)
Best Screenplay-Motion Picture
New York Film Critics Award
Best Screenplay (Wes Anderson)
Los Angeles Film Critics Awards
Best Screenplay (Wes Anderson)
Best Production Design (Adam Stockhausen)
Nominations
Best Film
Best Director (Wes Anderson)
Best Editing (Barney Pilling)
National Society of Film Critics Award
Best Screenplay (Wes Anderson)
Nomination
Best Actor (Ralph Fiennes)
Berlin Film Festival Award
Grand Jury Prize
Screen Actors Guild Award Nomination
Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Writers Guild Award
Best Original Screenplay
Directors Guild Award Nomination
Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film (Wes Anderson)
British Academy Awards
Best Original Screenplay
Best Costume Design
Best Original Music
Best Make Up & Hair
Best Production Design
Nominations
Best Film
Best Leading Actor (Ralph Fiennes)
Best Cinematography
Best Sound
Best Editing
David Lean Award for Direction (Wes Anderson)
Cesar Award Nomination
Best Foreign Film
Toronto Film Critics Award
Best Screenplay
Nominations
Best Picture
Best Actor (Ralph Fiennes)
Best Director (Wes Anderson)
