WEB OF STORIES: Bill Murray stars in The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Screwball intrigue fills the Grand new European jaunt from Wes Anderson. By Mark Olsen
More than just about any other major American filmmaker working today, writer-director Wes Anderson doesn’t so much make movies as create worlds. Each of his films takes place in its own strange sovereignty, whether the Texas prep school of Rushmore, the train running through India in The Darjeeling Limited or the island hideaway for a pair of adolescent lovers in Moonrise Kingdom.
His latest, The Grand Budapest Hotel, is set in the fictional country of Zubrowka. Though the story skips through multiple time periods, the main action is set in the 1930s against the backdrop of impending war, as a meticulous yet rambunctious concierge known as Monsieur Gustav H (Ralph Fiennes) takes on a young refugee named Zero Moustafa (Tony Revolori) as lobby boy and protege.
The cast also features F Murray Abraham as an older Moustafa, Tom Wilkinson and Jude Law as an author at different ages and an impressive ensemble including Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Owen Wilson, Saoirse Ronan, Edward Norton, Jason Schwartzman, Mathieu Amalric and Lea Seydoux.
Along the way there is a contested inheritance, a missing painting, a brief imprisonment, a few separate chases, a secret society and the impending menace of an invading army, giving the film an air at times of a farcical caper. Fiennes in particular conjures a surprising spirit of screwball grace.
The film, which opened in Los Angeles, has a rather complicated framing structure that creates a story within a story within a story within a story. (Anderson, a two-time Oscar nominee for screenwriting, shares story credit with his friend, the artist Hugo Guinness.) The film is, among other concerns, about mentorship, the end of eras and how the traumas of youth can be carried forward through adulthood. Also, pastries.
Themes of mortality, the fragility of romance and the importance of approaching life with a sense of adventure have also pulsed through Anderson’s previous films — frequently seen through the prism of naive and then pained youth. The films are swathed in his bedrock style of deadpan comedy and aching melancholy within meticulously constructed visuals. Anderson and his longtime cinematographer, Robert Yeoman, shot Budapest on 35mm film and switched aspect ratios to signal changes in time periods. For Anderson, each film is “starting from scratch,” meant as a renewed exploration both for him as a filmmaker and audiences too.
“To me each one is just a completely new ball of wax, if I’m using that expression properly. I’m not really using that expression properly. But anyway, you get the idea,” said Anderson recently by phone from his home in New York.
“I just don’t know what doesn’t keep them distinctive,” he added. “I know often people see my movies linked to each other, which I totally understand why they see that, but for me I’m just doing a completely different story. I make no effort to make them anything like each other. I just do ‘em the way I like to do ‘em.”
The film, shot in Germany, recently premiered as the opening-night film of the Berlin International Film Festival. Variety declared it “Anderson’s most ambitious and deeply felt movie to date.” The Village Voice derided it as little more than “a meticulously appointed dollhouse.” Anderson, 44, has become an unlikely lightning rod and a polarising figure, both revered and derided (and sometimes a bit of both at once).
“I don’t want to try to guess why people don’t respond to his work, but some people don’t. One theory might be that his works can be very confusing to people who expect movies to be one way,” said Matt Zoller Seitz, author of the recently published The Wes Anderson Collection, a career survey including interviews with the filmmaker covering all his previous work. — Los Angeles Times, MCT
Woodley doesn’t own a cell phone
Actress Shailene Woodley isn’t a tech-savvy person and she says that she does not even have a cell phone. “I’m not a big technology person. I don’t even have a smartphone. I don’t even have a cell phone,” the 23-year-old actress said in a statement. Woodley prefers a lifestyle without constant intrusion by technology. “There’s a bigger lack of privacy than there’s ever been, but there’s also a bigger lack of camaraderie and community than there’s ever been. “Since I got rid of my phone, I’m talking to people more than I’ve ever talked to in my life because I no longer have that crutch. The more you get away from the entire technological buzz, the more freedom you have,” she added. Despite her nature, she has featured in Divergent, a movie which is based in a futuristic era where the use of gizmos and high-tech gadgets is unavoidable. — IANS
Will Smith to adapt Harlem Hellfighters
Actor Will Smith has reportedly signed on to produce a film adaptation of the graphic novel Harlem Hellfighters. The 45-year-old actor will team up with Sony Pictures to bring Max Brooks’ upcoming novel, which is inspired by the true story of the all African-American 369th Infantry Regiment which fought in the US Army during World War I and II. Sony Pictures owns the rights to the graphic novel. So far there has been no indication as to whether Smith will also appear in the movie, reports contactmusic.com. Harlem Hellfighters writer Max is best known for writing the book World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War, which was later adapted into successful zombie horror World War Z, which starred Brad Pitt. — IANS
Another big year for Julianne Moore
Four-time Oscar nominee actress Julianne Moore had delivered some amazing performances in 2013, and this year too may turn out no different for her. She has been cast by director Francis Lawrence for his new movie, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay — Part 1, where she will play the central role of President Alma Coin. She also takes the lead in director David Cronenberg’s Maps to the Stars, starring Robert Pattinson, John Cusack, and Mia Wasikowska. Described as “a vicious look at a twisted Hollywood dynasty”, the movie seems to work as a critique of celebrity and pop culture in Western society, reports hollywood.com. For now, she can be seen keeping the audience thrilled with Non-Stop, which also features Liam Neeson and Lupita Nyong’o.
Last year, she was featured in Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s Don Jon, the Carrie remake, the indie film What Maisie Knew and another independent feature, The English Teacher, where she brilliantly played a high school teacher having an affair with a former student. — IANS
Moss calls her marriage ‘traumatic’
Actors Elisabeth Moss and Fred Armisen filed for divorce in 2010, just one year after their marriage. Recalling the phase, she says it was a traumatic and horrible experience for her. “Looking back, I feel like I was really young, and at the time I didn’t think that I was that young. It was extremely traumatic and awful and horrible,” Moss told New York magazine, reports people.com. However, she believes the decision of parting ways at that time turned out for the best. “I’m glad that I’m not there. I’m glad that it didn’t happen when I was 50. I’m glad I didn’t have kids. And I got that out of the way. Hopefully. Like, that’s probably not going to happen again,” she added. Armisen described himself as a ‘terrible husband’ on TV Host Howard Stern’s show, a classification to which Moss nods in agreement, when the statement was pointed out in the interview. After news of the couple’s split made headlines, the 31-year-old actress had said that becoming tabloid fodder was an interesting experience for her. — IANS
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TECH PHOBIA? Shailene Woodley