The Mad Fantasies of Grand Budapest Hotel
By Skip Sheffield
Wes Anderson lives in some kind of parallel, crazy,
beautiful universe.
His latest fantasy is “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” and it is
his grandest vision to date.
Even more than “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” Anderson’s surrealistic
take on Jacques Cousteau, “Grand Budapest Hotel” is a strange and wonderful
creation, filled with one-off characters that seem vaguely familiar yet distinctly
artificial.
The pink wedding cake hotel of the title is obviously not
real, but enchanting just the same. The story begins in 1932 in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka-
not Hungary- in mountains
that look vaguely like the Alps.
At the center of the story, inspired by Viennese author
Stefan Zweig and fleshed out by writer-director Wes Anderson, is a prissy,
fastidious and somewhat androgynous concierge named M. Gustave H.
This role is perfect for Ralph Fiennes, a delicate-featured
actor who can be effeminate, manly, refined and sexy all in the same character.
Gustave, a “most liberally perfumed man,” is a by-the-books
perfectionist at the complete service of his oddball guests- especially the
wealthy older women he often seduces.
Gustave’s boy Friday is a novice Lobby Boy named Zero
(wide-eyed newcomer Tony Revolori). Zero has zero education and zero family,
but he is eager to please.
Plot is the least important part of “Grand Budapest Hotel,”
but the main device is the theft of a priceless painting called “Boy with
Apple.” The painting had been owned by dowager and hotel guest Madame D (Tilda
Swinton), who expires with a hotly-contested will.
The large cast of characters is familiar to Wes Anderson
fans, because most of them have been in his previous seven films. F. Murray
Abraham is the mysterious hotel owner Mr. Moustafa. Adrien Brody is the weasely
Dmitri. Willem Dafoe is the violent, dangerous Jopling. Jeff Goldblum is the
officious Deputy Kovacs. With shaved head, Harvey Keitel is a tattooed inmate
known as Kovacs. Edward Norton is Police Inspector Henckls and Bill Murray
makes the most of a brief appearance as M. Ivan.
New to the Anderson
ensemble is Saoirse Ronan, baker of the delectable pastries that figure
prominently in the plot and a love prospect for Zero.
There is a little bit of everything: a tense stalking scene,
an intricate prison break, chases, a runaway sled, a crowded, noisy gunfight
and a funicular that provides the only transportation to the hotel, yet looks
like a child’s toy.
“Grand Budapest Hotel” is heavy with nostalgia and movies of
the 1930s. It had a special resonance for me, because much of the first seven
years of my life was spent in grand hotels and resorts not unlike the Budapest. Seeing “Grand
Hotel Budapest” was like awaking to a dream sad and sweet, accompanied by an
indescribable sense of loss.
No comments:
Post a Comment