The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Very entertaining, but I preferred Moonrise Kingdom. Certainly wouldn't argue with anyone who thinks this is Anderson's best, though.

The movie was at its best when in stayed in the hotel. I loved the cheesy 60s decor in the opening scene. The non-hotel scenes, particularly the skiing sequence, were overly cute and generally weaker. 

When I first saw the trailer, I wondered if the movie was based on a very obscure but great novel called Temptation, by John Pen (a pen name for Janos Szekeley, aka John Toldy), which is a bout a young bellhop at a hotel in Budapest in the 1930s. But clearly, it's not (credits attribute it to Stefan Zweig, who I haven't read. Anyone?).

Two other young men working in hotels in the early 20th century: The Confessions of Felix Krull, by Thomas Mann, and Down and Out in Paris and London, by George Orwell. Both very entertaining.

And of course there's the Garbo-Barrymore(J and L)- Crawford classic Grand Hotel (1932).

Laura


-----Original Message-----
>From: Mike Weaver <mike.weaver at zen.co.uk>
>Sent: Mar 22, 2014 10:42 AM
>To: Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
>Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
>
>Thoroughly enjoyable. No great depth, but a gloriously zestful 
>experience. Will probably go see it at the cinema again.
>
>On 22/03/2014 13:19, Dave Monroe wrote:
>> Comments? 
>
>-
>Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l

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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l