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The Great Budapest Hotel: Wes Anderson and Ralph Fienns' Finest Effort

This is going to be a very long piece and I shall definitely be re-posting it. I am also deviating from my original list of 13 topics but this piece shall be worth it. It's not going to be a 'corollary' by any means, It shall stand on its own legs.

I watched a Wes Anderson film yesterday. The Great Budapest Hotel. I was planning to watch it for over 15 months and I finally managed to yesterday. So what's special with a Wes Anderson movie? Wes directed 'Rushmore' in '97 casting Bill Murray and Jason Shwartzman in lead. It became a modern classic comic film and beloved of all of America. Repeatative yet magnificent casting became a staple of Wes' movie and Bill Murray, his go-to lead. I must tell you that Hollywood is richer with Bill's presence for you shall never find such an iconoclast, drab and droll with fabulous sense of humor and dry wit in all of America. But in this latest of his offerings, Wes managed to find exactly one like Bill Murray. But he hadn't had his eureka moment in USA as I said, he found his Xerox in Britain, in Ralph Fienns.

Ralph Fienns, I had told you all about him in my write up for 'The Constant Gardener'. Ralph, an ageless hero of melancholic romances and faceless villains of summer blockbusters, could have been a very dangerous choice for playing the lead in Wes Anderson movie. Wes films are characterized by dry, subtle and intelligent humor accompanied by a steller starcast that are equipped with smart lines in second-quick frames (and not more than that, you shall be lucky if you manage to catch your breath in between scenes at 'Budapest Hotel'). Wes Anderson's movies are where you get the meaning and significance of an 'Ensemble Cast'. At least, 6-7 top movie stars are cast on an average on Wes movies. And none of them shall have more than 10 mins of screen time combined in a 120 mins long movie, apart from the Solo lead. Critics too were skeptical,of Ralph's casting but boy, hasn't he delivered a mercurial and miraculous performance in Grand Budapest? You shall believe it only when you see it.

And Wes' staple starcast does make an appearance here too. Bill Murray in 80 secs long role, Owen Wilson in 20, Jason Shwartzman in 30 and Bob Boblan in 95 secs. Wes directed one more modern classic some two years ago, 'The Moonrise Kingdom'. And he has created a new ensemble starcast altogether out of nowhere. Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson, Adrian Brody........All are screen legends in their own right and now, Ralph has also been added to this list. I had seen Finnes playing a sleek gangster role in 'In Brudges', a first class and original 'dark comedy' with dry wit and finesse and thus had no apprehensions about his ability or the casting and he delivered.

I shall not elaborate any details about the movie here for you can wiki it and get overwhelmed by on your own. I don't know the criteria of choosing a masterclass but if there are any, it comes the closest to define it in recent memory. And remember, there are still glimmers of hope in this barbaric slaughterhouse we call humanity.......you will get its meaning when you would stand witness to this miracle of a movie..............‪#‎Enthralled‬..............‪#‎TheGrandBudapestHotel‬..............‪#‎RalphFienns‬.........‪#‎NakedEmotions‬

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