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It's curious that the film is inspired by Stephan Zweig when it belongs totally to Joseph Roth's world (except the corny cupcakes colors). I love both authors. It's a Roth's frontier space, sometimes fairy tale with time, a complete Roth's Galitzia atmosphere, even with the Roth's rhythm.

Even Roth wrote a novella named Hotel Savoy, that I read and loved.

http://www.amazon.es/Hotel-Savoy-Narrat ... roth+hotel" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So, hipster American director, don't lie.

Anyway, the movie is the best Austro-Hungarian film since Szabo's Sunshine.

I've gotten an early peek at the Blu-ray, and it's got a title card before the film asking you to change your TV setting to 16:9 with framing on the corners to show you where it should line up. I had my TV set to "Native" (which makes 1.85:1 films appear to have a slender bit of letterboxing on a 16:9 screen, and makes cinemascope a bit wider, rather than making 1.85:1 snap to the size of your screen at the expense of some negligible info on the left and right). It's just what I prefer. However, the slight black bar above and below the 1.33:1 frame that you can see in those screenshots was also visible when set to "Native," so I changed my TV's setting to 16:9 and viola, perfect for this Blu-ray. So just a protip for anyone who'll be purchasing this, while there is very slight windowboxing on the 1.33:1 stuff, it's there by design, and so long as your TV's setting is correct, it's not visible.

Wellll, I thought this was okay, certainly the best of his "dollhouse pics" (Zissou/Fox), but still exhaustingly over-crafted and ornate in its set design. Luckily Anderson utilizes the intricate set dressings for a somewhat compelling narrative, with the overall caper helped along immensely by Ralph Fiennes' wonderful central performance. This is all a huge step backwards from Moonrise Kingdom's perfect utilization of Anderson's tics and stimuli, but few films are on that level and the same things that excused and bolstered the implementation of Anderson's mise-en-scene don't really translate here. This movie is a bit like going to a show and seeing really technically proficient music played in a showy fashion. While it's easy to praise the craftsmanship and skill, you don't walk out humming anything and the overall experience is as empty and quickly flattened as one of those little pink pastry boxes. So, if we're updating our rankings, this one comes in at about the same level as Darjeeling for me, in the middle.

One thing that occurs to me over and over with each Wes Anderson film is what the heck did he do to the other voting members of the production design guilds or whatever to get them to not vote for his films for Oscar noms in what is far and away their universally recognized and praised category? It's like Gordon Willis in the early 70s, producing what is clearly the best work and getting snubbed out of professional jealousy in a move that cheapens an already cheap award. Given this film is Anderson's best shot yet to get some awards attention, it'll be interesting to see if the Academy ignores it in everything except writing again (Though given what is apparently a weak backend to the year on the horizon, it has a good chance of picking up a Best Pic nod and, dreaming here, a nod for Fiennes)

domino harvey wrote:This movie is a bit like going to a show and seeing really technically proficient music played in a showy fashion. While it's easy to praise the craftsmanship and skill, you don't walk out humming anything and the overall experience is as empty and quickly flattened as one of those little pink pastry boxes.

That's interesting. That's pretty much how I've felt about all Anderson's films from Fantastic Mr. Fox onwards, with Grand Budapest Hotel being the worst offender in that regard.
He seems to've come to focus more on style, design, eccentricity, at the expense of depth of story and character. There's no doubting his control of the medium stylistically, but it all leaves very little behind when most of the characters are left at the surface. With Hotel it seems only Fiennes got any real attention at all. Though for myself, this feeling is I'm sure exacerbated by a number of favourite actors being relegated to little more than walk-on parts. Excepting of course another great turn by my favourite chameleon, Tilda Swinton.

The Grant Budapest Hotel is getting raving reviews on TripAdvisor

Here's a sneak preview of Matt Zoller Seitz's Grand Budapest Hotel book, due February 10. Here's Vulture's earlier announcement of the book, if you missed it.

So I was reading this interview with Anderson re: The Grand Budapest Hotel, and he mentions that the cast and crew stayed here, in the Hotel Börse during shooting. Look at those photos! So now you know where to go if you want to stay at a real-world approximation of the Grand Budapest, if only a miniature one.

Hadn't seen this before, and there's not a better time to post it. Here's Rick Linklater interviewing Wes Anderson about Grand Budapest at South by Southwest.

Trailer for the great-looking Matt Zoller Seitz book, which is being released Tuesday.

Jeff wrote:Trailer for the great-looking Matt Zoller Seitz book, which is being released Tuesday.

I was surprised to have actually received my copy last Tuesday, but unfortunately, have not had the opportunity to go through either it or the first book yet. But of course, it appears every bit as well presented as the first book, with the same lovingly crafted illustrations, as well as an extensive collection of stills and on-set photography. For instance, my favourite immediate detail is that the back cover of the book is a mirror image of the front, but displays the Hotel as it appeared in the '60s.

As expected (and as indicated in the trailer), the structure of this book is somewhat different than that of the original:

Spoiler

Seitz includes a brief essay and three extensive interviews with the director, as well as a number of supplementary interviews with Anderson's collaborators. There are also the Zweig excerpts that Seitz refers to in the trailer. Possibly the nicest surprise is that he has included supplementary essays by other film critics ("The Society of the Crossed Pens"), including Bordwell's terrific piece "Wes Anderson takes the 4:3 plunge", which was previous published on Bordwell's blog.

I have not dug into the book in detail yet, but it certainly appears to be a terrific collection. The only slight disappointment I had, upon first glance, is that the dimensions of this book are slightly smaller than those of the original. Not a significant problem, sure, but mildly annoying for us members of the OCD crowd.

It's also huge compared to the other one. It's a few pages shorter, but when you consider that it only covers one film, it's incredibly extensive. I can't imagine ever wanting to pass this book up if you're a fan of the film - it's the world's biggest Criterion booklet.

Thought the book outstanding, though thought it really odd there was no afterword or anything like that. Ending it with the piece about aspect ratios is an odd choice, given the Zweig excerpts immediately before it would make much, much more sense. Still ridiculously detailed and makes me kind of upset every modern film can't be given a similar treatment.

Spoiler

Seitz seemed compelled to explain the monochrome choice for Gustave's final scene, which seemed a bit forceful as it reared its head in the interview repeatedly. The best explanation for it - and, I thought, a perfect note to end the book on, if they had so chosen - comes in the final Zweig excerpt, as he begins to detail how life loses all its color as we grow desensitized to it.

Similarly I get the impression Wes Anderson was a bit offended that Edward Norton wasn't seriously asking him to make a horror film with him!

Limited edition print (and pin, too)

A Bordwell video essay!

I'm looking forward to the Richard Brody essay(s?)

I'm thinking the Brody essays will just be what he's already written? I think he did a few pieces on the film when it came out.

I was really hoping that this disc would include "Castello Cavalcanti"--can we still make that happen?!

rohmerin wrote: Thu Jun 05, 2014 11:14 am It's curious that the film is inspired by Stephan Zweig when it belongs totally to Joseph Roth's world (except the corny cupcakes colors). I love both authors. It's a Roth's frontier space, sometimes fairy tale with time, a complete Roth's Galitzia atmosphere, even with the Roth's rhythm.

Even Roth wrote a novella named Hotel Savoy, that I read and loved.

http://www.amazon.es/Hotel-Savoy-Narrat ... roth+hotel" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

So, hipster American director, don't lie.

Anyway, the movie is the best Austro-Hungarian film since Szabo's Sunshine.

Very interesting observation - I personally have always thought the film is not a very good representation of Zweig's work, more true to Wes Anderson's artistic sensibility than Zweig's. (It reminds me of Portrait of a Lady - a good Jane Campion film but a poor representation of what Henry James wrote.)

I'll have to look at it again with Roth more in mind than Zweig. . . perhaps it will speak to me more that way.

Speaking of books related to Grand Budapest Hotel, here is another one:

https://wexarts.org/film-video/annie-atkins

If anyone is interested, prop creator Annie Atkins will be in-person at the Wexner Center here in Columbus to discuss not only her book, but take questions after the showing of the film (March 28). The tickets for the film itself are free, but the Q&A after with Atkins are $10 for the tickets, or a package deal $40 including a copy of her book. I do plan on attending

The forthcoming specs have been updated with further release details:

The commentary track now includes critic Kent Jones and the blu-release will include, "an 1880 essay on European hotel portiers by Mark Twain."

The Grand Bassoonist Hotel

Never fear, the good doctor is on top of it:

I have to state the obvious: This release was created for fans of Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel.