Ensign Lestat's Oscars Countdown, 18/01/2015
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Nominations - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Production Design
I am very late to this party. The Grand Budapest Hotel has been out on blu-ray for ages, and I've only just sat down to watch it because of its surprise (to me, anyway) entry into the Oscars. It's bagged a whopping nine nominations, strangely none for the acting category.
This is a typical Wes Anderson production. It's quirky and bright, but deep at its emotional core. I have avoided this film because of the hype, but I would have been kicking myself had I not watched it.
Set over three different time periods (thereabouts), the story is about Zero Mustafa (F. Murray Abraham) and how he proceeded to own the titular hotel in which he started out as a lobby boy.
Young Zero (Tony Revolori) was mentored by M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes); lessons he learned inside and outside the hotel, as Gustave gets himself mixed up in the family matters of deceased hotel guest Madame D. (Tilda Swinton, in copious amounts of aging makeup). He is relentlessly pursued by Madame D.'s son Dmitri (Adrien Brody) and his super-scary henchman Jopling (Willem Dafoe). Along the way we meet several of Gustave's connections and as well as folks dragged into the plot quite by accident.
The entire film is set against a fictional Eastern European country at the cusp of a war similar to that of the Second World War. There is a gentle quirkiness pervading each scene, making you giggle and chuckle without laughing at loud.
Never do we laugh at the characters, always with them or at their ridiculous predicaments. I'll admit that I meant to hate this film, but I am not surprised, after watching it, that it has got the nominations it has. What a beautiful film it is! The set design and cinematography is breath-taking. I was hardly five minutes into the film when I began applauding the cinematography. Indoors or outdoors, every inch of the frame is beautifully decorated by the scene. And the hotel. It was as grand as its name in the past, and as suitably rundown in the overriding timeline as you'd expect of a neglected hotel.
Granted, the initial R-Rated scenes could have been avoided, but Gustave's part time job being a secret escort to his elderly female guests was an amusing subversion of the trope. Not that his intentions are truly good.
Newcomer Revolori is suitably stoic in his unassuming, all-pleasing role. I loved Fiennes' Gustave - prim and propah when he wishes to be, before dissolving into hollow emotional outbursts. His intonations and quirks really made the character come alive and made him believable.
My sister was utterly taken with Adrien Brody's arrogant and indignant Dmitri, and he is, as always, a revelation. But the scene-stealer for me was Edward Norton. Having just seen him in Birdman, I can't decided which performance is superior (the one which has got him the nom, I guess), but the one that's won me over is this one. I loved his serious, astute and sometimes confused Henckels, the chief of police or the military (they don't mention his rank, I don't think). The comedy derived from his character is that he behaves like an actual cop in the situation, instead of a comical cop who is in this comical film. I absolutely loved it when he popped back on screen. He was the highlight for me in this film. His performance was on-point throughout.
The film is resplendent with cameos, which added to the overall fun. Let me also point out that Jude Law's dulcet tones and narrative intonations at the start of the film help segue the audience into just how quirky this world is likely to be.
I don't think this film will walk away with the big prize come Feb 22nd. But, so far, I have enjoyed, been entertained, and kind of fallen in love the most with this film. The majority of the nominees remain to be seen, but this one's stolen my heart.
The Grand Budapest Hotel
Nominations - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Original Score, Best Production Design
This is a typical Wes Anderson production. It's quirky and bright, but deep at its emotional core. I have avoided this film because of the hype, but I would have been kicking myself had I not watched it.
Set over three different time periods (thereabouts), the story is about Zero Mustafa (F. Murray Abraham) and how he proceeded to own the titular hotel in which he started out as a lobby boy.
Young Zero (Tony Revolori) was mentored by M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes); lessons he learned inside and outside the hotel, as Gustave gets himself mixed up in the family matters of deceased hotel guest Madame D. (Tilda Swinton, in copious amounts of aging makeup). He is relentlessly pursued by Madame D.'s son Dmitri (Adrien Brody) and his super-scary henchman Jopling (Willem Dafoe). Along the way we meet several of Gustave's connections and as well as folks dragged into the plot quite by accident.
The entire film is set against a fictional Eastern European country at the cusp of a war similar to that of the Second World War. There is a gentle quirkiness pervading each scene, making you giggle and chuckle without laughing at loud.
Never do we laugh at the characters, always with them or at their ridiculous predicaments. I'll admit that I meant to hate this film, but I am not surprised, after watching it, that it has got the nominations it has. What a beautiful film it is! The set design and cinematography is breath-taking. I was hardly five minutes into the film when I began applauding the cinematography. Indoors or outdoors, every inch of the frame is beautifully decorated by the scene. And the hotel. It was as grand as its name in the past, and as suitably rundown in the overriding timeline as you'd expect of a neglected hotel.
Granted, the initial R-Rated scenes could have been avoided, but Gustave's part time job being a secret escort to his elderly female guests was an amusing subversion of the trope. Not that his intentions are truly good.
Newcomer Revolori is suitably stoic in his unassuming, all-pleasing role. I loved Fiennes' Gustave - prim and propah when he wishes to be, before dissolving into hollow emotional outbursts. His intonations and quirks really made the character come alive and made him believable.
My sister was utterly taken with Adrien Brody's arrogant and indignant Dmitri, and he is, as always, a revelation. But the scene-stealer for me was Edward Norton. Having just seen him in Birdman, I can't decided which performance is superior (the one which has got him the nom, I guess), but the one that's won me over is this one. I loved his serious, astute and sometimes confused Henckels, the chief of police or the military (they don't mention his rank, I don't think). The comedy derived from his character is that he behaves like an actual cop in the situation, instead of a comical cop who is in this comical film. I absolutely loved it when he popped back on screen. He was the highlight for me in this film. His performance was on-point throughout.
The film is resplendent with cameos, which added to the overall fun. Let me also point out that Jude Law's dulcet tones and narrative intonations at the start of the film help segue the audience into just how quirky this world is likely to be.
I don't think this film will walk away with the big prize come Feb 22nd. But, so far, I have enjoyed, been entertained, and kind of fallen in love the most with this film. The majority of the nominees remain to be seen, but this one's stolen my heart.
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