The Grand Budapest
Hotel
American Imperial Pictures
Director: Wes Anderson
Starring: Ralph Fiennes,
Tony Revolori, Saoirse Ronan
A
uteur filmmaker Wes Anderson’s
latest
whimsical
creation
continues his winning streak of
wonderfully eccentric and imaginative
contributions to contemporary cinema.
Ralph Fiennes once again displays his
considerable talent for comic timing as he
relishes the role of the gloriously indecent
and unscrupulous M. Gustave H – loyal
concierge of the Grand Budapest Hotel in
the fictional alpine state of Zubrowka.
Three prologues – gradually opening
like multilayered Fabergé eggs – allow
Anderson to indulge his love of 20th
century European culture from the early
1930s until the outbreak of war, all the
while following the fate of the magnificent
hotel and its unlikely inhabitants.
When Gustave H. becomes entangled in
a complex web of murder and deceit, he
must rely on his inscrutable protégé and
hotel lobby boy, Zero Moustafa, to assist
him on an audacious adventure to clear
his name.
Featuring
perhaps
the
greatest
ensemble cast in recent years – including
Adrien Brody, Bill Murray, Jeff
Goldblum, Willem Dafoe, Jude
Law, Edward Norton, Harvey
Keitel, Tom Wilkinson and Tilda
Swinton, among others – the film
is meticulously choreographed
and carefully stylised with
Anderson’s unique vibrancy.
Inspired by the writings
of Stefan Zweig, The Grand
Budapest Hotel is wonderfully
visually rich and detailed, without
ever detracting from moments of
sombre reflection.
As with all Anderson films,
its sheer distinctiveness and
eclecticism will delight admirers
of his work while irritating those
less appreciative. For those of us
already persuaded, it’s certainly
worthwhile.
Charlie Williams
The Last Samurai
Director: Edward Zwick
Starring: Tom Cruise,
Ken Watanabe, Hiroyuki Sanada
I
can still remember how excited I was
when my local cinema screened this
movie. It was made by Hollywood, but
included one of my favourite Japanese
actors Hiroyuki Sanada, as one of its stars.
Not many Japanese actors appear
in foreign movies due to the language
difference – or maybe even for other
reasons. For example, in one famous
movie about Japan Sayuri which told
the story of a “geisha”, the main geisha
character wasn’t even Japanese.
That is the why when The Last Samurai
was screened all over the world and was
such a big success, my heart was full of
excitement about what was on offer in this
latest Hollywood take on a Japanese story.
The plot centres around a disillusioned
American Civil War cavalry veteran Nathan
(Tom cruise) who accepts an extravagantly
well-paid commission to travel to Japan
to train the new Emperor’s army. But he
discovers the westernising government’s
conscript troops are no match for the
traditional the warrior class of Samurai.
The Samurai are opposed to the new
regime’s discarding of the old ways. And
Tom Cruise’s regiment, armed with the
latest firearms, prove no match for Japan’s
legendary warriors steeped in the way of
“bushido”.
Cruise is taken hostage by Katsumoto
(Ken Watanabe), and spirited away into
captivity in the mountain heartland of the
Samurai clans.
Over six months, Nathan’s view of his
adversaries changes, and he comes to
admire the “bushido” Samurai ways.
The cherry blossom heartland of
a Japanese society that has emerged
from the 200-year isolation of the
Tokugawa Shogunate is well captured,
and the Japanese countryside stunningly
portrayed.
The film, agonisingly recalls the death
throes of the Samurai way of life, whose
destruction Cruise has come to enact. And
he finds himself comparing his Samurai
mission to his previous bloody campaigns
against native American tribes.
Like the Indians, the doomed Samurai
focused their attacks on all aspects of
Western modernity, included the railways,
symbol of a modernizing democracy.
Asking why Katsumoto persists in a
lost cause, Nathan is told: “Like these
blossoms, we are all dying. To know life is
in every breath … the way of the warrior.”
And Nathan admits: “I guess I am not the
only person who doesn’t get the difference
between Native American and Samurai.”
Yuka Toda
FAN FAR E J U N E 2014•9