Stewball wrote: Or a little bit too pretentious???? Please, connect the dots.
i don't believe wes anderson is pretentious at all. granted, ive only seen his first six films but that's a complaint i have never understood.
Re: my last post.
movieboy wrote:I have seen only one movie of his - Royal Tanenbaums. I got the feeling that it was quirky for the sake of being quirky. I didn't get where he was going with the movie - nor did I find it funny. It ended up at T2
Rufflesack wrote:Meaningful in that there are two engaging stories in the film. The telling of the story and the story itself, neither of which could really exist without the other and both of which can influence how the other is interpreted. Essentially, it's Tom Wilkinson telling the story of an aging Zero telling the story of Mr Gustave. All of these characters have perspectives of their own, that color the way the story is told to the viewer of the film. The story goes through several filters, each of which leave a distinctive mark on it. In the case of the port wine stain, my theory is that this might be exaggerated, embellishment or simply made up by Tom Wilkinson writing the book of the Grand Budapest, because it is an evocative description for a book. It's kind of speculative, but that's what I like about the framing and the way the story is told, it's very open for interpretation and there's no right answer. We can't know why that detail is included. Perhaps it's an important detail to Zero. Perhaps it's just embellishment.
I think this is the best interpretation of it. A lot of Wes Anderson movies (and this one in particular) give the impression that he's giving 3-dimension life to characters and stories that had only been previously just the work of a quirky writer. The "shape of Mexico" is a type of throwaway description assigned to a port wine blob when describing a heroic character got translated in perfect detail to some comedic effect.
Absolutely gorgeous movie to watch though. Beautiful architecture, design, vistas, details, etc. Even the drabbest scenes were a feast for the eyes. I haven't seen the competition, but I'm rooting for this to win Best Cinematography.
I thought the cinematography in Birdman was as good or even better, and I found using a model for the hotel was off-putting; though I can appreciate the effort.
Certainly I liked 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' after I had watched it. The cast, the humour, the paste-up, all that merges into a sophisticated cocktail which proves very tasty even inspite of the character of Ralph Fiennes` strange tastes.
