The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson)

[Stay Puft]

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL
Dir. Wes Anderson

IMDb page

[Q & T]

Fucking A+++ movie.

[Pop Trash]

Yeah it's pretty damn good. Ralph Fiennes has an uphill battle (early release date/a comedy) but he should get an Oscar nod for this. Slightly < Moonrise Kingdom for me and it plays tonally a bit like a live action version of Fantastic Mr. Fox, but I'm OK with that.

Also, like most W. Anderson I imagine this will only improve with multiple viewings. There's so much visual ephemera and incepted storytelling going on here.

[eternity]

Too much, Wes. Too much.

[MarcusBrody]

I enjoyed the film a lot (and it was a clear Yay for me), but it didn't rank up there with my favorite of Wes Anderson's output (Rushmore, Moonrise, probably Royal Tenenbaums).

I think what I wanted was a little more development of the characters over the course of the film. Either they could be shown changing in response to the events depicted in the film, or we could learn a bit more about them as the film goes on. Instead I felt like I basically knew all I was going to about M. Gustave and Zero soon after we were introduced to them (though I guess their relationship dynamic becomes a bit more symmetrical as the film goes on). I wanted some of the character deepening that I like a lot in films like Rushmore and Moonrise Kingdom.

Another way to have gone would have been to ratchet up the importance of the plot and its mystery just a bit more. It was more important than in most of Anderson's films, but it still felt like it wasn't the film's reason to exist. Adding a bit more actual mystery would have helped in my mind, and I wouldn't have thought as much about the flat character arcs.

I think one part of this problem was how much we learned in the trailer. I tried to avoid it but-due to a lack of willpower and it showing with a number of films I've seen recent-but ended up watching it several times. It shows some of the good lines and gives the viewer a map of where the plot is going. I think I'd have liked the movie even more if I hadn't seen it.

Now all that sounds fairly negative, but it's more an explanation of why I only liked the film a lot rather than loved it. I really enjoyed all the performances, thought the visuals were fun, and would consider seeing it in the theater again. I'm curious to watch it while thinking about Zero's [

Show Spoiler

explanation of M. Gustave, his era, and why Zero kept the hotel.

]

[Dukefrukem]

Quite easily the weakest Anderson film to date story wise. The casting, crafting of sets, the style all on track but man... I couldn't have cared any less about these characters.

My favorite part of the movie was the skiing.sledding bit.

There needs to be more Murray.

[Kurosawa Fan]

My gut reaction is that this is among Anderson's best work. Maybe even his best. I absolutely loved it.

[Sven]

My gut reaction is that this is among Anderson's best work. Maybe even his best. I absolutely loved it.

This is my take too. Need to watch Darjeeling again to see, but I'm inclined to think it's a masterwork. It firmly lands in square A1 of my Great Cinema rubric. K wasn't as taken, echoing some of the hesitances expressed in this thread, but I'm unsympathetic--every scene was rapturous and witty and layered.

[dreamdead]

My biggest complaint about this is personal more than anything, and it's that I'd like to feel that one of Anderson's strongest films legitimately focuses on the women's perspective to some degree, and Ronan's narrative here is marginalized a little too heavily. It's why I feel that Royal, Fox, and Moonrise might be his best work.

[Derek]

It's why I feel that Royal, Fox, and Moonrise might be his best work.

Huh. I can see Moonrise for Suzy, but I'd say Rushmore's Rosemary Cross remains Wes's most compelling female character and I'd even take Margaret Yang over any female character in Tenenbaums and Fox. But I think Rushmore is still easily his best film, and one of the best comedies ever, for many other reasons aside from the sexes of its most developed characters.

EDIT: This is my second fave film of his. Quite remarkable.

[[ETM]]

Indeed. I thought it got right everything that I disliked about Moonrise Kingdom.

[Ezee E]

Loved the music in it.

[MadMan]

Loved this film. There were elements of 30s Hitchcock and the ski chase was straight out of a Bond flick. The ski lift scenes reminded me of Night Train to Munch. Grand Budapest Hotel had bits from Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic, and even Rushmore. This is one of his best films.

[MadMan]

Some days I think his best is The Life Aquatic. Other times its Rushmore.

[baby doll]

So what's the deal with Harvey Keitel's torso twitching?

[Rowland]

So what's the deal with Harvey Keitel's torso twitching?

He keeps flexing and unflexing his muscles.

[D_Davis]

Bottle Rocket is still his best.

It's the only film of his that I find sincere anymore, because it isn't so far up its own
story-book-world-of make-believe ass.

Anderson fell too in love with his own aesthetic, and forgot the earnest, sincere joy and humanity found in Bottle Rocket.

Everything about his post-BR films seems so manufactured and disingenuous.

[Watashi]

Yes, how dare directors fall in love with their own craft. They should distance themselves from their personal style and only present the raw realism of humanity through an unfiltered lens.

[baby doll]

Bottle Rocket is still his best.

It's the only film of his that I find sincere anymore, because it isn't so far up its own
story-book-world-of make-believe ass.

Anderson fell too in love with his own aesthetic, and forgot the earnest, sincere joy and humanity found in Bottle Rocket.

Everything about his post-BR films seems so manufactured and disingenuous.

The film's style is inseparable from its overall achievement, which is to create a sense of nostalgia for a fairy tale pre-war Europe that never really existed except in the films of Ernst Lubitsch, lending a touch of gravity (not much but enough) to what is otherwise a delightfully silly movie. (Probably its closest cousin in terms of tone would be Fantastic Mr. Fox in which the villains are very, very bad people to the point of self-parody.)

[transmogrifier]

It's fascinating to see the rankings all over the place.

[Watashi]

No point ranking Wes. They're all masterpieces.

[Pop Trash]

1. The Royal Tenenbaums
2. Moonrise Kingdom
3. Rushmore
4. The Grand Budapest Hotel
5. Fantastic Mr. Fox
6. Bottle Rocket
--Reservation Row--
7. The Darjeeling Limited (probably needs a rewatch)
8. The Life Aquatic

[Gittes]

This thread made me think back to Jeff Goldblum's last scene in The Grand Budapest Hotel. Amazing. That film is a delight, and probably my favourite after the The Royal Tenenbaums. I haven't seen The Life Aquatic or Rushmore, though.

Also, Dignan's line in Bottle Rocket is one of my favourites: "They'll never catch me... because I'm fucking innocent."

[Pop Trash]

Also, Dignan's line in Bottle Rocket is one of my favourites: "They'll never catch me... because I'm fucking innocent."

hahahaha isn't that a Guns N' Roses line from "Out to Get Me?"

[Melville]

"They'll never catch me... because I'm fucking innocent."

I love that line. Dignan in general is great. Like a sad, unhinged Tom Sawyer.