I saw the
trailer for The Grand Hotel Budapest a while ago. The moment I saw the trailer
I wanted to see the film then and there. Right away. You know the feeling. The
anticipation has been toe-curling but at the same time, as I always say,
slightly daunting because the higher your expectations are the further they
have to fall. But the Grand Hotel Budapest came up and beyond my expectations.
Not only has Wes Anderson come up with another masterpiece, he has done
something rather extraordinary in the person of Monsieur Gustave (Ralph
Fiennes), the hero of the film. Allow me to endeavor to explain.
See I work
as staff. You may even have seen me – I may have served you drinks, lunch or
dinner. So I know first-hand what it means for staff to be “invisible”. A well-staffed
establishment runs smoothly and it looks as if things are magically falling
into place. In actual fact it’s a bit of a “swan” number going on – mad
paddling underneath to keep up the appearance of calmness above. In a hotel,
the beating heart of this phenomenon, the keystone connecting and directing the
staff and liaising with the guests at the same time is the concierge. And the
Grand Hotel Budapest – once one of the most celebrated hotels on the continent
– was once the area of operations for M. Gustave, one of the best concierges
known to the hotel industry. Now, how magnificently well things are running is
worthy of lengthy praise – but it doesn’t really make for a brilliant story.
What does make a good story is what is going on behind the scenes, and this is
precisely where Wes Anderson is taking us. Because if you think the front of
house at the Grand Budapest was amazing, you may not be able to take what is
going on back of house…
First of
all, rest assured, Wes Anderson fans are going to love this. It’s his dry sense
of humor running through the film through and through and through. And if you’re
not sure what that means, this is the film to try. Anderson builds a wonderful,
surreal, colorful world filled with characters who, bizarrely perhaps, are some
of the most believable we have ever met. I think it is the author’s (a
wonderful, almost cameo-esque performance from Jude Law) straight faced every
man approach to everything that makes
the whole semi-modern fairy tale just that tad more believable. But then again
poker-faced absurd comedy has always been a very Anderson thing. It’s basically
what I love about the man.
But we
must, simply must spare a paragraph or two for M. Gustave. It’s an absolutely
stellar performance from Fiennes, one of his most “fabulous” characters to
date. And the best and most historic part of it is, he’s bisexual. Now, openly
bisexual heroes are thin on the ground as they are. The whole concept of
bisexuality is generally linked to something fishy. They are generally villains
that stab you in the back in 1980’s movies. This of course is linked to the
lack of comprehension of the fact that a person can be sexually attracted to
two genders. It sounds… Fishy. My point has always been that one shouldn’t
really have to fully understand something to accept, live and let live and even
love a person. But then again, that’s my inner old-fashioned hippy. That said,
M. Gustave makes no bones about using his sexuality. He charms and beds the
older female clientele to make them “regular” clients. And yet at the other end
of the spectrum Anderson makes Gustave openly camp in places; be it his
obsession with romantic poetry, his cologne, his appreciation of delicate
pastries or his effeminate gestures. But the fact that he is effeminate does
not mean he is “ineffective”. That’s another thing that really annoys me about
the “effeminate” hero is the incompetent one. You know, the one that falls on
his face, not strong enough to do whatever it is… You know. The screen needed
an openly effeminate action man like Gustave who can single-handedly (yet quite
realistically) outsmart the villains and win the day in the end. This film is
just about all the proof you need that if you keep a straight face and act
natural you can pretty much make the most outrageous suggestion look normal - which
is what Gustave does. My especial favorite is the fact that, just in case
anyone is confused, one of the baddies yells “You’re bisexual!” at Gustave.
Gustave’s answer is a facial expression but amounts to “Yeah, fair enough.”
I could
write for pages and pages and still could not convey the atmosphere of The Grand
Budapest. You really have to visit it yourself to understand. You will
definitely fall under Gustave’s charms. I mean, there’s a reason it has barreled
into the IMDB Top 250.
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