The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Plot of The Grand Budapest Hotel: A writer meets with the owner of the Grand Budapest Hotel in its declining years and during a meal he is told the story of the hotel and how the owner inherited it. In 1932 Zero, a young man, takes on the role of lobby boy at the hotel, and is interrogated by Monsieur Gustave, the concierge. Zero becomes Monsieur Gustave’s assistant, and finds that amongst the concierge’s many quite elderly lovers is Madame D. When she dies the duo go to the funeral and find that she has left Gustave her famous painting ‘Boy with Apple’, which they recover. But Gustave is accused of murder and imprisoned. Meanwhile Zero has acquired a girlfriend who works in Mendl’s confectionary, and they are able to smuggle tools into the prison in sweetmeats, and using them Gustave and his cell mates escape, and with the help of the society of concierges they try to prove his innocence. But a witness has been killed and Dmitri,  Madame D’s son, sets an assassin J.G Jopling on the trail of those capable of determining Gustave’s innocence, and Gustave himself. Things change when they return to the hotel to find that it has been taken over by the military, but it is not all over.

Content: We can’t quite say that there is no sex. There is a montage of rapidly changing images which show Gustave engaged in sex with his many lovers, and when Zero is grabbing the painting of ‘Boy with Apple’, he replaces it with a painting in the graphic style of  Egon Schiele entitled ‘Two Lesbians Masterbating”. The writer and Zero, now old, are seen dining alone in the hotel dining room. Zero describes the events of the film, so there are a number of major scenes. Zero and Gustave go the Madame D’s funeral where the will is read and Dmitri begins a course of action which ends with Gustave in prison. At various times there is train travel and inspection of documents by police or the military. The pastry and confectionary house features extensively with all sorts of delicious offerings. The exterior of the hotel also features a lot as does the atrium and the dining room. The servant’s quarters are austere.

A View: I have usually found Wes Anderson’s offerings irritating, although they are much loved by the acting fraternity and the critics. But this film is an exception, for others as well so it seems. It has taken its place as No 195 in the IMDb best film list; it won four Oscars and made money. It has also been selected by the Library of Congress for preservation. It is fascinating and sometimes laugh out loud funny. There have been criticisms of its portrayal of Nazis, so like all films, whether you would like it depends on your stance in a variety of areas, but I thought it was terrific.

Fun Fact: There are a lot, but one is that a search for someone to play young Zero resulted in 2000 auditions.