The Grand Budapest Hotel

A film set in an imaginary European country. A writer meets an old man at a hotel. The man owns it and tells how he came to; the narrative goes back from there. In the 1930s Gustave is the hotel's head concierge. He gives extraordinary attention to his guests, particularly the wealthy older women. One of them dies and leaves him an invaluable painting. Her family objects and Gustave is accused of murder. From there the film is an escape. A prison, a digging tool, a network of concierges, a train in the snow and a chase on skis. The lobby boy Zero is with him, and the narrative is really his story. What the narrative is interested in is not comedy but loss: the whole film is about a world the war swallowed, and the tone changes abruptly in the last section. The form is divided into three periods and a different aspect ratio is used for each; the frame approaches a square in the older ones. The exterior of the hotel is a model. The interiors were built in Görlitz, in Germany, inside a disused department store. Stefan Zweig is named as the source of inspiration and the film says so in its credits. The production won four Academy Awards: production design, costume, make-up and music. Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, F. Murray Abraham, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum and Tilda Swinton are in the cast. Wes Anderson wrote and directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes symmetrical framing, fast dialogue and a constructed world. Who it is not for: anyone looking for naturalism; everything is artificial on purpose and the style does not suit everyone.