Enjoy The Grand Budapest Hotel Summary
Exactly how many comedy movies have you watched? Okay, and how many of these would you like to watch again? And again? In my experience, 90% of modern comedies are possible to watch just once – and sometimes it’s better to perhaps not watch them at all. Jokes such comedies are mostly centered on sex or some stupid actions (or both), and I can scarcely imagine that some one would laugh at them twice.
Nevertheless , there are comedy movies which make you want to come back to them; such movies usually are based on what some may possibly call, “the absurdity of life, ” but I might rather say, “life in its fullness and diversity. ” And, in my opinion, one of many directors who has mastered this approach is Wes Anderson, with his recent The Grand Budapest Hotel.
The plot is straightforward. In the fictional Republic of Zubrowka located somewhere in Central Europe, there's a luxurious hotel. Its concierge, Monsieur Gustave H. (played by Ralph Fiennes) is famous for his reverent attitude to his duties, along with for his interest in ladies staying in the hotel. Once, he is accused of a murder which he failed to commit, and the major part of the movie Monsieur Gustave spends wanting to prove his innocence, escaping from his detractors, and parallelly mentoring his assistant, a lobby boy named Zero.
For this boy, by the way, the entire story is told. The Grand Budapest Hotel starts with the scene of a writer arriving to interview the hotel’s famous owner, who turns out to be the former lobby boy, Zero Moustafa.
In my experience, the whole movie is a hymn to the epoch we now have lost, almost certainly, forever – I mean the glamorous decadence of the 1930s, the atmosphere of salons, art-nouveau, high style, and the atmosphere of the chic of the Industrial Age. The Grand Budapest Hotel reminded me of the novels by Erich Maria Remarque, Stefan Zweig, and for reasons uknown Sholem Aleichem – the way in which in which characters talk, the direction they look, and the overall spirit of the film deeply immerses you into the good old days, clouded by poverty of the post-war (or pre-war? ) period in Central Europe of the 1930’s. If you're a fan, or if you wish to experience the real Europe – watching this movie is crucial for you.
Yet again, Wes Anderson used his favorite practices based on geometry, colors, and camera work. Split screens, frames within frames, characters speaking straight to the audience – the whole thing you know already. Vintage fonts, perfect combinations of colors, stunning costumes and character types – all of it you realize as well. However for some reason in The Grand Budapest Hotel typical Anderson practices work with 100% efficiency, and appear just perfect, as if most of the pieces of one big puzzle finally fell into their places. To me, here is the ultimate Wes Anderson’s director work.
I intentionally said little concerning the plot. Simple when you make an effort to describe it, it is actually as multidimensional as life itself. Everybody will find something of their own in it.
P. S. Oh, and in addition, if you are about to travel to Europe someday, ensure that you check out Görlitzer Warenhaus – a huge mall built ahead of the war. A massive piece of the movie was filmed in its atrium.
