In The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson has created a film that is artistic but also undeniably entertaining; fantastically constructed in plot, characterisation and cinematography. The film plays out as a classic farce, where the only way down is up; most clearly evident in the comical jailbreak scene that involves tunnelling through floors, climbing up ladders and sliding down laundry chutes. It opens with a young girl standing in a cemetery holding a book, she turns the book to look at the author's photograph and through this we transition to the next layer of the narrative. The "Author" played by Tom Wilkinson and as his younger self, Jude Law is based on an Austrian writer called Stephen Zweig, whose writing inspired Anderson's adaptation. It transpires that the book this "Author" wrote is based on a story told to him many years earlier about events which took place in an even more distant past, and so through this clever layering of narratives, we the audience find ourselves hurled from one time and place to another. Along with the multiple narrators the film also utilises the structure of book chapters which creates an Episodic feel, so while scenes stick out very clearly in your mind as individual events it still flows naturally on some bizarre course.
The main events of the story take place in 1932 when The Grand Budapest Hotel is rich in people, service and colour; the hero of the story is the concierge Gustav H, played by Ralph Fiennes, a man who is desperately clinging to the masterful art of exceptional service. All he knows and holds dear feels balanced in a fragile state, dramatised by the sudden death of one of his regular guests, Madame D, but also directly symbolising the hierarchical class system which balanced in a fragile state during the interwar years. Gustav inherits from this rich older woman and this triggers jealousy and conspiracy amongst her living relations, leading to false accusations and the quest for truth. The story takes on an almost Kafkaesque approach with the odd series of events and the strange characters who all seem connected, however it does so with a lot of humour and careful consideration of the aesthetics.
Anderson takes care in producing something that is at once visually pleasing but also immediately revealing. The palatial hotel in all it's plush, saturated glory is contrasted to the dismal remnants in 1968 when the young bell boy Zero decides to share his story with the "Author". To produce this fairytale building, Anderson used a three meter tall miniature handmade model rather than a more typical CGI version, "The particular brand of artificiality that I like to use is an old-fashioned one." This heightens the pre-war dream world that fills the screen emphasising the step back in time, but it also plays with the medium of film as an art form, rather than an imitation of reality.
With a fantastic cast, recognisable faces seem to literally pop up in the drama and amusingly while some characters appear to have middle European accent's others like Edward Norton are still thoroughly American in their address, further lending to the surreal nature of this film. The characters may not seem particularly realistic at times as they get lost in the dream world, but the emotion behind their actions and the human consciousness evident in the script brings them alive. You connect to the characters on some level as you empathise with them; it may all seem absurd and unconnected from reality but there are moments that are shockingly ordinary and base, such as the fate of Zero’s wife, Agatha. The viewer gets carried away with the drama of these wonderful creatures and they will definitely have you laughing, gasping and possibly even sobbing.
It is rare that these quirky films are so universally enjoyed, nevertheless this film definitely offers a beautiful and amusing interlude to life.
Rating: 8.5/10
Rating: 8.5/10
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