The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

The Grand Budapest Hotel directed by Wes Anderson is a comedy-drama about the adventures of Gustave H. a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the bellboy who becomes his most trusted friend.

In fact, I hesitate: it’s possible that this film is one of those that you don’t love the first time you see it, but that you come to appreciate more and more. A bit like The Big Lebowski!

Apparently, this film was inspired by the works of Stefan Zweig, a writer, novelist, short story writer, playwright, biographer, essayist, autobiographer, and poet who wrote in German, English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. Yes, that’s it!

A film that’s both serious and very funny at the same time. It’s great to see the team of Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson, and Jude Law with mustaches! 😀 We mostly see Ralph, actually. The others mostly make appearances, as do Tom Wilkinson, Tilda Swinton, Jason Schwartzman, Léa Seydoux… Edward Norton and Adrien Brody are seen for little more than 5 minutes. Harvey Keitel is only recognizable if you know him well. Well… in the end, it’s a bit the same with Murray and Wilson. It’s great to see Saoirse Ronan back in the female roles. Jeff Goldblum and Willem Dafoe are also magnificent actors. Their faces have changed a lot, but we still recognize them.

Is this film forbidden to children under 15 in certain countries? I really wonder why! That’s really being a prude. Nowadays, nothing in this film will shock young people. On the contrary, they’ll be bored and won’t understand the point of such a feature. 

F. Murray Abraham has one hell of a charisma. We’ve seen this man in Scarface in 1984, in Amadeus the following year, in “Encounter with Forrester” in 2000 and even in Last Action Hero in 1993. 

Here, in the role of the hotel counter-owner. And this opposite Jude Law, who listens to the story. In “Les désastreuses aventures de Orphelins Baudelaire”, Jude was the narrator. 

But we only see him in shadow.

Great moments!  

A film to see once, in any case.