A love poem to Civilization
There is a moment in “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” that stands out to me.
Our hero, M. Gustave (played by Ralph Fiennes) the concierge of the Grand
Budapest Hotel has been unjustly imprisoned for the murder of his frequent
hotel guest and late lover played by Tilda Swinton. His loyal lobby boy, Zero
(introducing Tony Revolori) conspires to help him escape. He engages his
fiancé/baker’s apprentice played by Saorise Ronan to hide metal tools in the
pastries he regularly sends to his mentor. Unfortunately every gift from
outside must pass the rigorous inspection of the prison, i.e. a big man with a
big butcher’s knife who unceremoniously cuts up everything that comes his way.
But behold when this big man with this big knife sees these pastries so
elegantly crafted with grace and artistry his heart grows and melts. He cannot
bear to destroy them and lets the pastries (and the escape tools) pass onto our
hero. And if this one scene was all you saw you should know from experience by
now that you are in a Wes Anderson movie.
‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ is another masterpiece. That makes two in a
row for Wes Anderson who is absolutely flaming red hot right now. Arguably it
is his best film. When I reviewed ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ I outlined Anderson’s
improvements in his style over his first six movies. Namely that he had cast
actors in sufficiently dramatic roles with enough stage presence to burst
through his overly saturated and inevitably stifling style. Second that he had
provided his film with an actual climax and not an existential sigh of an
ending. Third: that he had switched from telling the stories of rich people
with bullshit problems to poor people with actual problems. All of that is here
in this story. We have Wes Anderson’s best villain to date, an evil Adrian
Brody, intent on usurping justice, stealing his inheritance, and killing those
who get in his way. He employs a hit man played by Willem Defoe. In addition
almost everyone employs colorful language. This is a must in a Wes Anderson
film. It shocks one out of the sublime contemplation of the art direction and
refocuses attention on the characters. The climax of the story involves not
only a sled race down a snowy mountain but also a shootout in the hotel. Also
there is the aforementioned break out from the prison, which involves some
ingenious sight gags. And the story is about the servants of a hotel, in
particular a refugee lobby boy whose entire family was killed during World War
I.
On On top of all of this Wes Anderson has added something extra special
that has never before graced his movies. He has added reason and purpose to his
overly stylized approach. In this movie it is called for from the story itself,
not simply because this is a movie made by Wes Anderson. First, the story is
told in several flashbacks. The movie starts off with a girl in present day
reading a book by the statue of its author, a hero of the Eastern European
Country she is resident. The movie moves into a flashback of the elderly author
played by Tom Wilkinson who starts telling us the story of how he came upon the
story as a young man. The movie flashbacks to Jude Law, the younger version of
the author, who is staying at the now decript communist version of the hotel
when he meets the now elderly lobby boy played by F. Murray Abraham. The two
have a catered dinner in the ballroom of the hotel and F. Murray Abraham
narrates his story. All throughout these several flashbacks the production
design of the movie gets more and more fanciful till it becomes clear when we
get to the lobby boy’s story that we are witnessing a visual game of telephone.
The story is real but the telling of it has become overly stylized as it has
been passed on from generation to generation. Obviously the invading force is
made up of Nazis although they are not named so in the movie. And surely the
Grand Budapest Hotel did not look so pink and red or so much like a minature
model in real life. It’s costuming has been the work of several permutations of
the same tale over the course of time.
Second and more importantly the movie has a philosophy on why such
costuming is important even noble. The little niceties of civilized life, the
grandeur of the lobby, the manners and rituals of a many course meal, the way
the hotel staff righteously guards the privacy of their guests, all are
contrasted with the barbaric cruelties presented in this time period of epic
slaughter. At a particularly dark time in the story, the tale is interrupted by
the serving of a dessert and a special desert wine. And it is a relief. The
comforting ritual is an escape from the random slaughter of the outside world.
Somewhere someone cares about your experience. That is what the ‘Grand Budapest
Hotel’ means. It is a precious love poem to civilization. It is the prison
guard that can’t bring himself to destroy something so beautiful.
We live in a world that so often takes the most cynical route possible
because it is the easiest and perhaps the most truthful. But Wes Anderson cares
about your movie going experience. He has made this extra special gem just for
you as a brief escape from all the nihilistic meanness out there. This movie
has love poured into every detail of the story and production.
What enormous amount of respect Wes Anderson commands in the Hollywood
community now! Just take a look at this cast most of which are in very bit
parts. Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson, Ed Norton, Bill Murray, Bob Balaban,
Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Mathieu Amalric, Harvey Keitel, Willem Defoe, Jeff
Goldblum, Lea Seydoux, Tom Wilkinson, F. Murray Abraham, Jude Law, Ralph
Fiennes, Saorise Ronan, and introducing Tony Revolori. Apparently most of them just
wanted to hang out on the set because the atmosphere excited them. I’ve heard
that Wes Anderson employs a friend chef of his who cooks a great meal for
dinner for everybody in the production every night of shooting. If tickets were
sold to these dinners they would be priceless.
One more thing: Tom Wilkinson’s character speaks about writing not as a
solo art but as the result of merely being open to the ideas and stories of
those around you. Well, Wes Anderson may deflect admiration all he wants but
one thing is for certain. He can be credited with recruiting an incredible team around him.
The production design of this movie was led by Adam Stockhausen (also worked on
Moonrise Kingdom). The art direction was led by Stephan O. Gessler, Gerald
Sullivan, and Steve Summersgill. The set decoration was led by Anna Pinnock.
The costumes were made by Milena Canonero. If they aren’t remembered come Oscar
time next year, it isn’t my bad taste; everybody else are uncivilized barbarians.
