The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

The film is an American-German-British co-production that was financed by German financial companies and film-funding organizations. It was filmed in Germany.The Grand Budapest Hotel was released to widespread acclaim from film critics, and many included it in their year-end top 10 lists. The film led the BAFTA nominations, with 11 nominations, more than any other film, including Best Film and Best Director for Anderson, and Best Actor for Fiennes.The film won the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy and garnered three more Golden Globe Award nominations, including Best Director for Anderson. It also garnered nine Academy Award nominations, the joint most (with Birdman) for the ceremony, including Best Picture and Best Director. It won the Academy Awards for Best Production Design, Best Original Score, Best Costume Design and Best Makeup and Hairstyling.

Storyline

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL recounts the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend. The story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting and the battle for an enormous family fortune -- all against the back-drop of a suddenly and dramatically changing Continent.

Plot

the present, a teenage girl approaches a monument to a writer in a cemetery. In her arms is a memoir penned by a character known only as "The Author". She starts reading a chapter from the book. The Author begins narrating the tale from his desk in 1985 about a trip he made to the Grand Budapest Hotel in 1968.

Located in the Republic of Zubrowka, a fictional Central European state ravaged by war and poverty, the Young Author discovers that the remote mountainside hotel has fallen on hard times. Many of its lustrous facilities are now in a poor state of repair, and its guests are few. The Author encounters the hotel's elderly owner, Zero Moustafa, one afternoon, and they agree to meet later that evening. Over dinner in the hotel's enormous dining room, Mr. Moustafa tells him the tale of how he took ownership of the hotel and why he is unwilling to close it down.

Cast

Ralph Fiennes as Monsieur Gustave H.
Tony Revolori as Young Zero Moustafa
Adrien Brody as Dmitri Desgoffe und Taxis
Willem Dafoe as J.G. Jopling
Jeff Goldblum as Deputy Vilmos Kovacs
Saoirse Ronan as Agatha
Edward Norton as Inspector Henckels
F. Murray Abraham as Old Zero Moustafa
Mathieu Amalric as Serge X.
Jude Law as The Author as a Young Man
Harvey Keitel as Ludwig
Bill Murray as Monsieur Ivan
Léa Seydoux as Clotilde
Jason Schwartzman as Monsieur Jean
Tilda Swinton as Madame Céline Villeneuve D

User Review

The Grand Budapest Hotel is the latest from Wes Anderson, and what great fun it is. My review of Monuments Men pointed out that putting the likes of George Clooney, Matt Damon, Cate Blanchett, Jean Dujardin, Bill Murray and Hugh Bonneville in the same film was no guarantee of a good film. Following that logic, what should we make of the following turning up together: Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, F. Murray Abraham, Adrien Brody, Willem Defoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jude Law, Edward Norton, Tom Wilkinson, Saoirse Ronan, Owen Wilson and (a wonderfully made up) Tilda Swinton? The answer is a near masterpiece of cameos that add up to a highly entertaining and memorable film.

In a complex serious of flashbacks, Tom Wilkinson plays an author remembering his younger self (Jude Law) being recounted, a number of years before, the life story of The Grand Budapest's mysterious elderly guest Zero Moustafa, played by Abraham. (Are you still with me?) Featuring strongly in this life story, Ralph Fiennes plays hotel concierge and lothario Gustave H., seducer of his elderly and wealthy guests. He is supported in this role – for everything outside the bedroom that is – by trainee Bellboy, and Gustave's protégé, Zero (in the younger form of Tony Revolori).

Following the murder of one such guest (Tilda Swinton), Gustave is not surprised to feature strongly in her will, awarded a priceless Renaissance painting – Boy with Apple. This is much to the displeasure of her son Dimitri (Adrien Brody) and his evil henchman Jopling (Willem Defoe). What follows is a madcap pursuit across snowy landscapes, various grisly murders, a couple of civil wars, some disconnected fingers, a prison break and a downhill ski chase.

All the cast seem to enjoy themselves immensely, but it is the production design and cinematography that really shines through: every single shot of the film is just a joy to look at, from the bright pastel colours of some scenes to the oak-panelled finery of the elderly lady's mansion. Beautifully crafted, beautifully lit,beautifully costumed, beautifully filmed. Bringing a film out so early in the new Oscar-year must be risky: but one can only hope that the voting members have a long enough memory to recognise this movie in these sorts of categories.

There are some interesting crossovers to recent films: both 'The Book Thief' and 'The Monuments Men' were filmed – as this was – in Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam. No coincidence then that the steam train chugging through the East European countryside looked startlingly similar to that in the opening scenes of 'The Book Thief'; and if you have Bill Murray and Bob Balaban in town for Monuments Men, then why not stick them together for this film too? Simples! Alexandre Desplat turns up AGAIN with another quirky and fitting score.

All in all, if you like the quirky style of films of the likes of Moulin Rouge then you'll love this. Highly recommended.