Wes Anderson’s movies are about characters reinventing themselves and their world until everything clicks in place.
The 44-year-old filmmaker is the same way — back to when he was a kid in Houston.
STEPHANE REIX/EPA
Bill Murray (left) and Wes Anderson in Cannes for ‘Moonrise Kingdom’ in 2012
“I’m sure everybody is sort of self-invented in a way, or are how they expected themselves to be,” Anderson says, reminded of a revelation he had after receiving a “box of stuff” after his father moved.
“There were all these drawings in there that I did when I was 9 years old,” he says, “drawings of [tennis star] Bjorn Borg, a Mongoose BMX bicycle, things like that.
Martin Scali
Wes Anderson works on a ‘Grand Budapest Hotel’ scene with Tony Revolori (left) and Saoirse Ronan.
“Looking at that box of junk, it seems like I’m just continuing to do [in films] what I was doing at that age. I can’t say I’ve gone in a totally different direction from the stuff I did that’s in that box.”
That cinematic direction has led to a specific, satisfying blend of sly, dry wit and appreciation for past pop-cultural curiosities. It’s a combination that results in some of the most influential, singular and entertaining films today.
Ralph Fiennes is the dandified center of attention in Anderson’s new film.
When they work best (“Bottle Rocket,” “Rushmore,” “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “Moonrise Kingdom”), Anderson’s films can make like-minded moviegoers feel they’re part of the coolest, nerdiest club in school.
Even Anderson’s lesser films (“The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou,” “The Darjeeling Limited”) have a level of Zen-like focus and wry observation rare in American films.
Niko Tavernise
Jared Gilman (l.) with Wes Anderson on the set of ‘Moonrise Kingdom’
“Usually, I’m just trying to make a little world that suits my characters,” Anderson says. “I’m trying to cast a kind of spell, and find the right tone for the story so it all fits together.”
All that past is prologue to Anderson’s new film, “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” opening Friday. Like his prior work, it’s an intimate, often epic comedy-lark. But this time, Anderson is working on his biggest canvas yet.
Ralph Fiennes (left) and Tony Revolori team as a concierge and lobby boy in ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel.’
Set in a mythical Eastern European country primarily in 1932, “Hotel” is about Gustave (Ralph Fiennes), a dandified concierge who romances elderly dowagers, and Zero (newcomer Tony Revolori), his loyal lobby boy. After the pair come into possession of a valuable painting, they elude thugs (Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Harvey Keitel), world war and, most important, declining hotel standards.
F. Murray Abraham, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, Bob Balaban and Edward Norton also have key roles.
The movie, like Gustave, is particular and fastidious, of-the-moment yet fading — qualities that mark all Anderson films.
He’s obviously an actor’s darling, given how he keeps adding names to his growing troupe of collaborators. Stories from Anderson’s sets are legion, most recently with one member of the fraternity, Jeff Goldblum, relishing how the director brought in a private chef and commandeered an entire hotel to keep spirits up during weeks of shooting “Grand Budapest Hotel.”
“The biggest thing for me is, if making the movie on a day-to-day basis isn’t interesting and fun in and of itself, then I’m never going to feel great about the thing anyway,” Anderson says.
“If you have a bad time making a movie, I can’t see how it’ll be worth it.”
Article source: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/wes-anderson-sly-offbeat-humor-grand-canvas-article-1.1711599