Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel

Rohm probably did

(sorry, that's a terrible joek)

"...along with whatever we haven't spent on whores and whiskey."

this has just started on telly and on rewatch of the first twenty mins i think we ought to declare it the greatest movie ever made in mature retrospect

vg otm a week ago basically

:D

it's also quite impressive the level of aesthetic and visual control he reaches. of course, that's been one of his strength since the beginning but the evolution is remarkable (the experience of MrFox has certainly helped).

otm. never liked this guy outside of some bits in rushmore but liked fantastic mr fox a lot and then was hugely impressed by this one, it's totalized. like if nabokov made a movie (w any irritations that might imply). the 20c-nesting-doll structure of the (literal) framing is rly sad and sweet, my favorite thing he's done w his storybook fetish. fiennes' performance is p much sublime. anyway

"you FUCKERS"

― Οὖτις, Friday, August 1, 2014 6:00 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otmfm

Yeah, I'm always a sucker for framing narratives. I guess three-levels of framing is about as much as you can do, before the effect starts to wear off. This was sort of what happened with Calvino's "If on a Winter's Night a Traveler", which is kind of like if someone decided to write a novel that was all frames, like peeling layers of an onion. After you've made it through the first few frames, it becomes a bit repetitious.

"you FUCKERS"

― Οὖτις, Friday, August 1, 2014 6:00 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otmfm

― difficult listening hour, Sunday, January 22, 2017 11:30 AM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

still

As part of the acting and production design module this week in my film class, I showed it. First, the class' enthusiastic response -- when they didn't know who Edward Norton, Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, etc were -- astounded me after two periods when Playtime and Touch of Evil inspired lukewarm responses. Then it astounded me. Anderson's grasp of what each scene needed cinematographically blew me away, and the sheer pace of the thing.

I hadn't watched it since 2014.

And was surprised to find that maybe it's my new favorite of his. I feels like it pulls all of his talents together in a meaningful way

otm

I retract everything I said upthread, by the way, especially when my class made the connections between production design + cinematography + acting. It helped that I'd shown Playtime.

Lukewarm responses to Touch of Evil?! Away with these philistines

they're young

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, fuck it.

The line about how Gustav's age ended before he was even born but that he "certainly maintained the illusion with remarkable grace" seems more than a little self-referential/on-the-nose re: Anderson.

Keep your hands off my lobby boy!

My favorite Ralph Fiennes performance, and he's wonderful in Anderson's Roald Dahl shorts. (Great in Schindler's List and Spider too, but Grand Budapest Hotel is the one I'll be watching most.)