Thoughts I Had... About Our First Look At "Grand Budapest Hotel"
Monday, October 14, 2013 at 7:34PM In the interest of speed and efficiency, and before all this good icing melts, my uncensored thoughts as they come to me...
• This poster looks good enough to eat. Literally. All I see is a tiered heavily frosted chocolate cake and I want it in me right now. Put it in me!
• Remember when people made such a big deal of Natalie Portman's nudity in "Hotel Chevalier" even though it was only like side butt? Will their be profile nudity in this hotel? And if so whose? My guess is Léa Seydoux though its unlikely to occur at all.
• The title signage is like delicate decorative pastel frosting (I have not eaten dinner yet, can you tell?)
• So pleased that Ralph Fiennes' career seems to be on an upswing again -- I believe he's the protagonist and butler here -- though I read the weirdest headline the other day (I didn't click on the link) about The Invisible Woman, his second directorial effort, being a misfire of a vanity project. I have seen the movie and I can't for the life of me think why it would be considered a vanity project (though "misfire", maybe) when Fiennes is SO much more handsome in real life than he allows himself to look as Charles Dickens. And Dickens doesn't even come across all that well in terms of character, either. He's no outstanding citizen in the movie.
• Can Ralph Fiennes please do playful homages to Tim Curry and Forrest Whitaker and other famous butlers when he hits the talk show circuit. Please?
• Did Oscar winner F Murray Abraham get a new agent or something? Totally back! Homeland (sinister!), Inside Llewyn Davis (wonderfully judged cameo), and now this.
• This poster reminds me of the architectural minimalism of Chris Ware or maybe it could have been done by illustrator Max Dalton who did great stuff for Matt Zoller Seitz' new book on Wes Anderson. I want to read that book. Did any of you get it yet?
Max Dalton print of Wes Anderson characters
• My favorite Wes Anderson movies are The Royal Tenenbaums (#1 by a margin of 375 imaginary city blocks), and Moonrise Kingdom. Hotel Chevalier and Fantastic Mr Fox tie for third. No, really.
• My best friend used to live super close to the exterior of The Royal Tenenbaums on Convent Avenue here in NYC and I used to stare at that building in melancholic wonder every time it entered my field of view.
• Wes Anderson is the ideal person to make a movie about a hotel because structures are like actual characters in his movie: the train in Darjeeling Unlimited, the submarine in The Life Aquatic, the tree in Mr Fox, the vertical home in Tenenbaums, and so on...
• When will Oscar voters ever warm to Anderson? Beyond the writers branch who (wisely) gets him.
• I just noticed that Anjelica Huston's name is not on this poster and it suddenly doesn't look as tasty.
Reader Comments (13)
Oh man. I really can't wait for this. I eat up all of Wes Anderson's movies with a spoon, even the less popular ones. Something about his style, humour and character work just mesh so well with my personal sensibilities. This one especially is sounding so right to me, the cast, the concept, that hotel... I suspect I'll be in Wes Anderson fanboy heaven.
01. the royal tenenbaums
02. fantastic mr fox
03. rushmore
04. the darjeeling limited
05. moonrise kingdom
06. the life aquatic with steve zissou
(yet to see bottle rocket)
Saoirse Ronan is finally getting back on track. A bit strange that the awkward years for all teens just was far more personified in her role choices post-Atonement. Accept for Hanna. Hanna rocks. I really want those Star Wars rumors to be true.
Well said about the pastry-ness of the poster. Also, I am most excited to see Amalric involved; such a teriffic actor able to do comedy and drama with a lovely twist.
Please let this be a great part for Harvey Keitel. The man is 74 years old and it has been WAY too long since he was last showered with praise and admiration.
Also, who is playing the role that Angela Lansbury dropped out of?
Huston's upcoming memoir is merely a first vol that chronicles her life prior to Hollywood stardom. The second half will see release next Fall.
I think Swinton has usurped Huston in the Anderson universe. She also is the replacement for Lansbury.
The first thing I thought when I saw the title is how this is serving as an unofficial sequel to (of all things) The English Patient. Least we forget, Ralph Fiennes famously played the disfigured leading man in that Oscar winner, who's character was labeled English even though he was a Hungarian count. What's the capitol of Hungary? Hmm, it's in the title of the new Wes Anderson film!!!
Cast members ranked by my excitement:
Tilda (Social Services!)
Léa Seydoux (Prada Candy! Also the shameless continuation of her auteur collection)
F. Murray Abraham (That voice!)
Jude Law
Ralph Fiennes
Willam Dafoe
Harvey Keitel
Bill Murray
Edward Norton
Jeff Goldblum
Saoirse Ronan
Matthieu Amalric
Tom Wilkinson
Owen Wilson
Adrien Brody
Jason Schwartzmann (Sorry J. We'll always have Rushmore)
This is probably the most impressive cast Anderson has gathered yet, and that's saying quite a lot.
F. Murray Abraham has also appeared on a few episodes of Louie, so that adds onto what you were saying about his mini-comeback. I hope his role in this is good. He's such a brilliant actor who has suffered one of the more unfortunate cases of a post-Oscar fade.
I have to say, though, that I'm not sure even the writer's branch of the Academy is really gung ho about Wes. Yes, he has two nominations, but they could easily have nominated him for Rushmore and Fantastic Mr. Fox, and they didn't. 2009 didn't even have a particularly crowded Adapted Screenplay field either, so that was a really good chance to nominate him again, yet they passed. I get your point, though, and I do hope other branches start embracing his films more, particularly the Production Design category. His movies are almost always worthy in that category, but the Academy never notices.
One more thing: I get that he can't give him big roles in every movie, but does anyone else get the impression that Wes Anderson has been casting Bill Murray just for the sake of keeping the partnership going in the past few movies? It's not like he's been bad (is Murray even capable of being bad?), but I got the sense that his characters were written into the script primarily just to give Murray a part. The fact that he's way down on the bottom of this cast list makes me think this trend will continue.
I'm not sure if Abraham's 'fade' was beyond his control. He had a presence on the stage and teaching theater for years. He seems pretty comfortable in how much his life did not dramatically change after Amadeus. And really, what was moving up for him after a turn as Salieri? How many times do you get to see an Oscar winner perform Brecht but not feel removed because of too much star power?
It is a lovely poster (surely by the same guy who did Moonrise Kingdom's?), but everytime I hear the name of this movie I can't help but hear Grusinskaya's "I want to be alone." The names/premises are a little too close for comfort.
I like Anderson as a writer, but I just don't get his dollhouse approach to directing. There are other axes out there beyond the horizontal and the vertical ones, you know...
I so wish Angela Lansbury hadn't dropped out of this :(