Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel

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.)