The hottest hotel destination for 2014 is opulent and eccentric with a fine eye for detail – behold The Grand Budapest Hotel located in the wonderfully whimsical world of Wes Anderson. After his celebrated ode to summers of love in last year’s Moonrise Kingdom (The Kingdom Come, January 2012), Anderson’s latest creation is a wintery adventure of wealth, murder and romance.
Shot through a regal spectrum of red carpets and purple tailcoats, the film director’s most beloved subject, the hotel, returns to take centre stage for a stellar cast featuring Anderson-regulars (Wilson, Murray, Dafoe, Brody, Schwartzman and Swinton) and rookies (bienvenue, willkommen and welcome Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, Saoirse Ronan and Tony Revolori). The star ratings have accumulated through Anderson’s cinematic career: from a Texan motel in Bottle Rocket to the heights of the Waldorf Astoria and Hôtel Raphaël in The Royal Tenenbaums and The Darjeeling Limited respectively. Hotel life makes for a compelling backdrop for Anderson, as it has been for his close contemporary Sofia Coppola (Lost in Translation, Somewhere). The Grand Budapest Hotel is five-star in meticulous style and loaded Anderson-symbolism as well as elaborate substance, with an irresistible narrative of upstairs, downstairs Downton-dynamics that plays out in the hotel lobby surrounding concierge and lothario Gustave H (Fiennes) and a Dowager Countess of Grantham-inspired Madame D (Swinton). Inheritance and art fuels the ritzy drama that is distinguishably Anderson, while also proving there is much more to explore in this crazy microcosm that has earned an established cult following, which will undoubtedly command advance bookings for a night’s stay in an imaginary Hotel Wes – if only for the bespoke hotel stationery. Imagine! Have your Do Not Disturb signs at the ready for a March 2014 release...
