by Debbie Vance
I went to see Wes Anderson‘s new film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, at the Esquire Theater this past weekend, and although it will never surpass my love for Moonrise Kingdom, it stayed true to form:
“There is quirky dialogue with a deadpan delivery, symmetrically framed shots, close-ups that go on a beat too long, meticulously detailed mise-en-scene, whimsical imagery, and slow-motion sequences.”
-Craig McCarthy on “The Wes Anderson Aesthetic“
I’m no film critic, so I’ll leave that business up to the professionals (* ahem * Gareth Higgins, you listening?), but I can say it was both beautiful and thought-provoking-thanks to both the plot and the cinematography.
“The animating emotion of “Grand Budapest” is nostalgia for nostalgia: the past, affectionately teased as a repository of antiquated styles, recedes into art. The film is, finally, not so much a recapture of lost time as a history of the way we have felt about lost time. Anderson and his cinematographer, Robert Yeoman, shot the various periods in different aspect ratios, as if to evoke earlier phases of filmmaking.”
Included on the film’s website is a link to the Akademie Zubrowka-a fictional historical account of the Grand Budapest hotel that is so well collected it is, at times, passable as true history (plus it’s a fun, interactive web platform-not to be missed!): “The Republic of Zubrowka Before the War: A Central European Case Study of Social, Political, and Cultural Upheaval.”
Tags: Movie Review, Video