The Grand Budapest Hotel.

Unfortunately I was unable to attend this weeks Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club screening as I was attending a concert performed by the Dutch-Belgian band Gare du Nord at the De La Mar Theatre, but I did manage to get to the RBC on Thursday evening to see the screening of Wes Andersons latest comedy drama The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014).

The present owner relates his story to ....

....The Author.

The Film Club’s host for Monday evening was Pat Pickering who was kind enough to e-mail me her presentation that began with a short introduction on the director who not only produced the film but also co-wrote the story and wrote the screenplay. Anderson admits that the story was partially inspired by two books written by the Austrian author Stefan Zweig’s[1], namely Beware of Pity (1939) and The Post Office Girl published posthumously in 1982. The Houston Texas born film director is known for his distinctive visual and narrative style with a meticulous attention to detail and as Pat pointed out is considered one of modern films most original directors. His body of work, eight feature films to date, have included The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), The Darjeeling Limited (2007) and his best received to date Moonrise Kingdom (2012) all of which have quirky formats and include flawed but uniquely detailed characters often with a father figure in some guise. Pat’s introduction goes on to say that his main cinematic influences have been Francois Truffaut, Louis Malle, John Huston, Stanley Kubrick and Roman Polanski. But Anderson also admits a massive influence on his life was when his parents divorced when he was only eight years old, an event he describes as the most crucial of his and his brothers' early years. It was during childhood that he began writing plays and making super-8 films.

 

Monsieur Gustave H and his Lobby Boy.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is a German/UK co-production filmed on location in Germany in Gorlitz and other part’s of Saxony as well as Babelsberg Film Studio’s where between 1933 and 1945 1000’s of feature films were made including hundreds of films under the direction of Hitler’s propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels one of which was Triumph of the Will (1935) directed by the innovative German director Leni Riefenstahl which proved to be a prime example of propaganda in film history. 

 

Madame D.

Anderson’s latest film is set between the two World Wars in the fictional Republic of Zubrowka an ‘eastern European alpine state’ and recounts the rather risqué exploits of the grand hotels concierge Monsieur Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes) and his young protégé, lobby boy Zero Moustafa (played by relative newcomer Tony Revolori). Anderson cleverly tells the story as ‘a narrative within a reminiscence within a novel’ or in plain English the film opens in the present day and we find a young girl sitting in front of a monument to a writer known only as “The Author” reading a chapter in his book about a trip he made to the Grand Budapest Hotel in 1968. It was there that The Author (played by Jude Law as a young man and Tom Wilkinson as the older version) meets the present owner of the hotel (F. Murray Abraham), which is no longer quite so grand as it once was, who relates the story of how the hotel came into his possession.  A story that includes various colourful characters like Madame D (on leaving the picture house I was asked by another member of the audience if   knew which character Tilda Swinton played?) who, although very much older, shares a deeply sexual bond with Gustave. And it is Madame D’s death that allows us to meet her son, Dmitri (Adrien Brody) and his very scary henchman (played by the formidable Willem Defoe). Lots of other characters appear but the list is too long to mention in this blog but include some recurring collaborators like Owen Wilson, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman and Edward Norton along with other performers including Lea Seydoux, Mathieu Amalric, Harvey Keitel and Saoirse Ronan who all appear in scene steeling roles.

 

The Concierge is questioned by the Authorities.... 

....only to end up in custody!

A truly humorous piece of work with a stellar cast that does the ingenious screenplay proud, especially Fiennes who is in magnificent form as the concierge but the real star is the Grand Budapest Hotel described by Peter Bradshaw as a ‘superb cathedral of eccentricity’[2] The film portrays a wonderfully illusionary world but one that could so easily have existed in a eastern European alpine state between the wars? Anderson’s direction goes from strength to strength and I for one can’t wait for his next project.

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[1] Stefan Zweig (1881-1942) was said to at one time to be one of the most popular authors in the world.

[2] The Guardian 7^th March 2014.

Only Lovers Left Alive.

I sit here in my darkened room listening to the soundtrack recording of the film that I’m just about to write about. I not sure whether it’s the hypnotic vibes from this collaboration by SQURL and the Dutch lute player Jozef van Wissem or perhaps it was the fact that ‘breakfast’ was not delivered today but I can’t get Jim Jarmusch latest movie out of my head?

 

Adam and Eve....

A darkly comic tale of a long-term relationship between husband and wife is the main theme of Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)[1]. The average marriage today is said to be only 7 years (barely worth the expense!) so very few marriages last for hundreds of years, with the exception of the aptly named Adam (Tom Hiddleston) and Eve (Tilda Swinton) a vampire couple whose relationship could conceivably last for ever if they can continue to obtain a supply of good quality blood. Adam lives in the run down backwaters of Detroit while Eve lives in the romantic confines of Tangiers.

 

Christopher Marlowe.

Similar to Thomas Alfredson’s Let the Right One In (2008) this is not a tale about vampires but a love story between two people who happen to be vampires albeit with heightened perceptions from having lived for such a long period of time. A character study that Jarmusch claimed is a metaphor for the decline of 21^st century America. Note the bankrupt and run down city of Detroit and compare it to the vibrant and mystical Moroccan city of Tangiers.  

 

Sister Ava and Ian.

The biosphere of our two lovers varies. Whereas Eve accepts the present with her mobile phone and modern cultural attitude, Adam seems to be stuck in the culture of the 1960’s and 70’s producing his music on vintage equipment, collecting guitars from that period and driving a vintage Jaguar. He dislikes what he calls ‘zombies’; his only human friend is Ian (Anton Yelchin) who, along with the musical instruments and recording equipment, provides him with a wooden bullet! His only other contact with the zombie world is Doctor Watson who works in a hospital and who provides the clean blood that guarantees Adams survival. Eve, who has come back to join her lover in America, has previously got her ‘supply’ from the English Elizabethan dramatist and poet Christopher Marlowe (John Hurt), the man who allegedly influenced William Shakespeare and died at the age of 29 in 1593, little do the historians know? She also has a younger sister Ava (Mia Waslkowska) whose actions are not appreciated by Adam.

The Taste of Blood is playing again and I’m feeling a little faint……….

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[1] Shown as part of the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre Film Club and hosted by Julie and Connor McMorran.

Possible Worlds.

This feature film started life as a play written in 1990 by John Mighton, Mighton, who along with some input from Robert Lepage, a Canadian born playwright, actor, and in this case film director, adapted it for the cinema. It is part murder mystery, part science fiction, and part mathematical philosophy, and follows the multiple parallel lives of the mysterious George Barber (Tom McCamus). As the film opens George is found dead - with his brain missing! Two detectives set out to uncover the truth behind this grisly death, and stumble upon several strange characters. We then discover that George is still alive, frequenting many different time periods as he pursues the woman who will eventually become his wife (Tilda Swinton)

It was written in such a way that it would be relevant to any era that is making advancements in neuroscience. This film opens up your mind to the possibilities of alternate dimensions, social constructs or worlds and then throws it to the ground in the end when all of it was a construct of the imagination. It explores the human consciousness, morals and scientific advancement all in one, while adding a bit of romance. It is very discontinuous and hard to follow at times and the viewer must pay close attention to pick up the very subtle messages and themes[1].

 

Tilda Swinton  and Tom McCamus.

I make no apologies for using someone else’s quote to describe Possible Worlds (2000) a movie that does not make any sense, at least on my first viewing. I would think this film must appeal to a niche audience, but the rest of us would have to watch it a number of times before it became totally clear and to be fair, although certainly intriguing, I’m not sure its worth it?

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[1] Hampton, Wilborn. "Aliens, Earthlings and Stolen Brains." The New York Times 17 Aug. 1996

The Invisible Frame (2009) and Cycling the Frame (1988)

From West to East 

Following on from the end of World War Two, on October 7, 1949, The United States of America, Britain, France, and Russia agreed to divide Germany into four sectors. Three of the Sector’s were joined together to form The Federal Republic of Germany or West Germany. The Soviet part became The German Democratic Republic of East Germany (GDR).  The city of Berlin, which was located in the heart of the Soviet Sector, was divided in the same way except that in 1961 a physical border was erected around the western section of the city something that became known as the Berlin Wall.  This division between the two sectors remained in place until November 1989; on July 1^st 1990 the complete reunification of Germany took place.

The Checkpoint Charlie Standoff 1961.

A year before the wall was breached in 1988, actress Tilda Swinton toured around its boundary on a bicycle accompanied by a film making team led by Berlin based writer and director Cynthia Beatt. At this time the filmmakers had no idea that within a very short time after their documentary was completed the Wall would no longer be the formidable impasse it had been for the previous 27 years. This film, Cycling the Frame (1988), originally made for German television, is now a rather fascinating modern historical artifact. 

Some sections of the wall remain in Berlin as a tourist attraction.

One of the last remaining watch towers.  

The East Side Gallery.

21 years later in June 2009 both Tilda Swinton and Cynthia Beatt revisit the 160-kilometre bike tour following the same route as the previous documentary, but this time filming from both sides of the former Wall. The Invisible Frame (2009) starts once again from the Brandenburg Gate but this time there no concrete fortification to stop our progress only a line in the roadway to mark the original barrier. Beatt documentary now shows a more vibrant Berlin of new buildings and developments. A city that has had inordinate sums of capitalist finance pumped in making it a most interesting place to visit and one which you can still witness the attempt to forge a state-run utopia.

A Trabi bursts through the wall! 

Brandenburg Gate 1989.

Brandenburg Gate 2012.

Both of these films have been released on a single DVD allowing you to watch the earlier one before comparing it to the longer and later documentary. Both have minimal dialog and next to no explanation, which if you have little or no idea of the cities geography could make it difficult to follow the locations. As way of compensation the camera work on both films is excellent and the eccentricity of the younger Tilda Swinton is a real bonus.  

The last remaining Soviet car park in Berlin.

Modern Berlin.