The latest picture from auteur
director Wes Anderson is in my opinion, his finest to date. A typically lavish
and exquisitely designed movie, it stars Ralph Fiennes as M. Gustav H, a
respected concierge at The Grand Budapest Hotel. Pitched as a sort of cross
between a Palatial residence and the hotel from The Shining, The Grand Budapest is seen in all its splendour during
the majority of the film. The movie opens however around thirty years after the
events to be depicted in, at a time during which the grand old hotel is but a
shadow of its former self. The action is depicted in flashback, from the
memories of Zero Moustafa (Tony Revolori), a once Lobby Boy and apprentice to
the aforementioned Gustav H.
In 1932, Gustav H. is seeing off
one of his many elder lady friends, a rich widow by the name of Madame D.
(Tilda Swinton). Gustav’s charms have lead to an on off affair which has lasted
for many years and she is upset to be leaving the hotel over which he holds
sway. Days later the woman is dead. Gustav H. rushes to her Estate in the hope
that his romantic efforts have written himself in the will and sure enough
discovers that they have. The deceased’s son (Adrien Brody) is outraged at the
reading of the will and accuses the concierge of murder. Gustav H. is soon on
the run and ends up under lock and key inside an intimidating maximum security
jail.
