Hello
readers, I hope you’re having a lovely day wherever you are in this small
world. It’s been a while since I’ve typed in a film review. My last one was in
March, which was nearly 8 months ago… ouch. Fortunately, I’m back with not only
one review, but an ongoing marathon of film reviews from one of my favourite
directors ever, Mr. Wesley Wales Anderson. Yes, Wes Anderson in short.
Now,
where to start on the wonderful world of Wes Anderson? One way to describe it,
it’s a whimsical day trip. With film frames, songs, and posters out of a
fairy-tale book filled with warmth and intimacy to its own identity, this
perfectly suits Anderson and his talent for cinematic storytelling. It’s truly
amazing what this man can do.
On
the topic of Wes Anderson, I might consider myself an avid enjoyer of his
works. One of his films, ‘Fantastic Mr. Fox’, has piqued my interest since a
very young age and I have never stopped loving it till now. By growth, I’ve
discovered more of his wonderful creations which ranged from Bottle Rocket,
Moonrise Kingdom, The Darjeeling Unlimited, and so on. I thought to myself, why
not make a “Wes Anderson film review blog series” (definitely a tiring title,
my apologies). First of all, it’ll be beneficial for both me and Pak Taufik.
Pak Taufik would get tons of reviews for his blog, while on the other hand,
I’ll be having quite the fun time writing these blogs.
Alright
without much more talking, we’ll start with the first film: The Grand Budapest
Hotel.
I
could go on and on about the things here that are worth discussing, so I’ll
divide this review up into 3 parts: the plot, the set design + music,
and the actors. We’ll start this off with the plotline. It's… not
linear, so bear with me.
It
starts with a girl, who reads a book by an author, who hears a story about a
lobby boy, who befriends a man who runs a hotel, a hotel for which the story,
the book, and the film are named.
1932, enter our main characters, Monsieur Gustave H. and Zero Mustafa. A debonair concierge and his trusted lobby boy. Zero takes fondness to his new concierge, as well as Gustave to his lobby boy, this sparked a friendship within both of them. The whole film doesn’t tell the story of the grand hotel itself, rather an absurd journey these two pairs went through. It starts with Gustave’s quirky habit of escorting older women that have stayed in his hotel. He grew close to one of them called Madame D, and it struck an affair between them. Spoiler alert (well not really), she died. Her family gathered to a reading, where her fortune will be passed on to the family (greedy buggers).
Gustave was invited,
only to find out that he was given Madame D’s most treasured painting, which
-to be honest- is only a quirky painting of a boy holding an apple, but hey!
It’s art. This made Madame D’s son, Dmitri, envious (again, greedy buggers) and
from there on started the great combat for the priceless renaissance painting.
My
opinion on the plot? Amazing in its most simple way. Wes Anderson has his
quirks on plotlines. It will always leave a pull in your heart, whether it came
from melancholy or satisfaction. I also have to applaud his comedy! It's always
so awkward and weird completed with the actor's expressionless codas. Yeah,
awkward let's go with that to describe its humour. Many of the dialogues
between characters are painstakingly unique, not only dialogue but the small
details that the plot came along with, like a concierge having an absurd
relationship with a literal granny, a dialogue about nail polish that made me
holler because Anderson ALWAYS put comedy at a time of seriousness. Abrupt
deaths, abrupt running scenes, even Zero's girlfriend has a birthmark with the
shape of Mexico on her cheeks... for zero reasons at all. These little details
are simply divine and enjoyable.
Next
up, we take off to his set design, where Anderson's genius imagination turned
into reality. First of all, I'm not going to deep dive into this because boy,
it's a lot. But, I can suggest this stupendous YouTube video about Wes
Anderson's niche style, it's titled "Honest Trailers - Every Wes Anderson Movie" made by
Screen Junkies. You should check it out.
The
film society hates this repetitive action of Anderson, but this man took all
those comments and shoved it in his beige pants because instead of approaching
a new sense of direction, he made a full - to the maximum- film holding every
whimsy aspect of himself. This resulted in what I like to call the "Wes
Anderson Genre". It includes specific details, including pan shots,
consistently symmetrical shots, slightly off colour-tone combos, and loads
more.
If I could use one word to describe his set design and style, it's eye candy. Wes Anderson uses clever symmetry, he doesn't just put things centre frame or align it with guidelines, he uses depth and composition where he puts characters and objects into a corresponding space (this becomes magical when paired with his pan shots). For this film, it's perfectly pink with its pink-tinted backgrounds and sets (even the hotel itself is a pink madness). This gives a cheery and an "everything in life is sweet and jolly" kind of vibe, which is truly the first half of the film plot and fits well with the glorious 1930s. It descends into bleak white, grey, and washed-out blue everywhere, also parallel with the plot. Remember where I told you about the non-linear plotline consisting of different years? He can simply differentiate them with his choice of colour palette and set design. In Conclusion, you could pause at any second of the film, and that shot could be hung in the Louvre.
Anderson's choice of music also fits so well with this film. One of the
original scores of the film, titled "Mr. Moustafa" composed by
Alexander Desplat, holds a euphonious rhythmic piano which sounds playful and
mysterious at the same time, it resonates along with the film and appears quite
frequently but just with a different assembly of instruments to fit each scene.
An
amazing story doesn't come alone, for it has its characters. Here we introduce
the astonishing actors in this film. Gustave H. played by Ralph Fiennes, Zero
played by Tony Revolori, alongside spectacular actors and actresses, Tilda
Swinton, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Owen Wilson,
and Jason Schwartzman. Stated above are the "Anderson Bunch" aka
those who Anderson loves so much, he'd be willing to cast them for every single
one of his films. These actors are great at understanding Anderson's sense of
characterization and the story's mood setting. Just brilliant, brilliant,
BRILLIANT, I adore them so much, they truly turned the film's special sparks
into fireworks.
In
my final words, the whole film seems like an homage to early cinema. The film
wasn't reduced to only its plotline, instead, it held a grand gesture of
storytelling visually. What I'm saying is, it's sort of like puppetry and silent
theatre, without any dialogue, you can still be fully engaged and intrigued by
its storytelling. Just like how Georges Méliès (a figure in early cinema) was
so passionately dedicated to the art of cinematic storytelling and the visual
benefits it held. Wes Anderson does the same, only from another generation and
time. A ravishing young puppet master playing in front of our eyes. It
certainly is a celebration of cinema and the many ways creativity comes
within.
That's all for my review about The Grand Budapest Hotel. Hope you all enjoyed my little (quite big, actually) rambling just as much as I do. See you on another film review blog for yet another film by Wes Anderson, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.
