One of the joys of movies is watching them with friends and discussing them afterward. The Flix Fest meets on the second Thursday of each month, offering movies in a comfortable setting with lively discussions.
Written and directed by Wes Anderson, “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” released in 2014 to critical acclaim, is a comedy drama that showcases Anderson’s diverse cinematic techniques. The story unfolds through the eyes of a writer visiting the hotel in its final days, as he delves into the history of the aging Eastern European establishment. In the opening scenes, the writer expresses his belief that vivid thoughts and memories are inevitably shared, leading him to embark on a journey of discovery by interviewing the current owner of the hotel.
We are transported back in time through the clever use of miniatures in long-distance scenes that are barely noticeable. Additionally, the film employs varying perspective ratios to represent the 1930s, 1960s, and 1980s. Rich colors in various shades are brilliantly used to create the appropriate moods for the time and period being filmed.
The scenes are unusually detailed, requiring the viewer’s full concentration to follow the storyline. Many scenes are perfectly symmetrical creating visual pairings that emphasize the dialogue taking place between characters.
The principal character in this story is the hotel concierge, M. Gustave H., played to perfection by Ralph Fiennes, who reflects on his history with the hotel through whimsical satire, stylized pretension, and nostalgia, thus altering our perspective on his reality. F. Murray Abraham, as Mr. Moustafa, plays the current hotel owner, and is represented in flashbacks as Zero, the lobby boy, played by Tony Revolori, an immigrant fleeing political turmoil before being employed by M. Gustave H.
The storyline is linear and a straightforward portrayal of a wealthy dowager’s 20-year affair with the concierge and the conflicts arising from her desire to leave her estate to him. The dowager’s lawyer is masterfully played by Jeff Goldblum, and is the center of the controversy involving a forged will fabricated by the dowager’s son, Dmitri, whose role in the dowager’s death leads to a suspicion of murder. When the concierge and Zero visit the dowager’s estate for a reading of the will, Dmitri conspires to accuse M. Gustav of her murder and has him arrested and thrown in prison.
Further events unfold in well-choreographed sequences that provide a fast paced and quirky ending, aided by a well-known cast of supporting characters played by Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel, Ed Norton, Jude Law, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, and Saoirse Ronan.
The Grand Budapest Hotel will be shown on Thursday, Oct. 8 at 1:00 p.m. at the Piedmont Center for the Arts, 801 Magnolia Ave. Doors will open at 12:45 p.m., and the movie is free to anyone 18 and over. Our next movie is A Few Good Men, a 1992 drama to be shown on Nov. 12 at 1 p.m.