Pastel Colours and Murder

Many directors have a distinct style. Many of you will remember the review on Baz Luhrman's The Great Gatsby on this blog, and how it claimed the film was dripping with the director's unique visual aesthetic, for example. Well today we look at another director with a very clear set of stylistic trademarks in his telling of the story of a man telling the story of how he heard a story from a man. This is The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The Author, a man whose words have meant the world to some, wants to now tell us, the audience, how he came across those words. Flashback. A younger author (Jude Law) is suffering from a very real - cough - disorder and resorts to staying in The Grand Budapest Hotel, a run-down shell of its previous majesty. Whilst there, he meets Zero Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham), the owner of the hotel, who offers to tell The Author his story. Flashback again, to 1932, where a teenage Zero (Tony Revolori) is the new lobby boy for the hotel under the watchful eye of concierge, M. Gustave H (Ralph Fiennes). When a client of the hotel, and a close acquaintance of Gustave, Madame C.V.D.u.T (Tilda Swinton) dies, the pair of hotel workers are thrown into a battle of greed and selfishness with her son Dmitri (Adrien Brody) and along their adventure they meet all sorts of personalities like an army inspector, an artistically gifted criminal, and a concierge that can get you anything from (in the forms of Edward Norton, Harvey Keitel, and Bill Murray respectively).

'Uh, just checking the wall was safe...'

With a cast so numerous in stars that hold Oscar statues or nominations (including a nigh invisible cameo from Jean Dujardin), it is difficult to imagine anything less than top level performances from all the cast, and The Grand Budapest Hotel does not disappoint. First and foremost is the absolutely fantastic Ralph Fiennes. His perfect combination of charm, bluntness, and crisp diction (not to mention his campness) are a delight to behold. A man so wonderful, he can make the biggest brutes in prison his assistants. Along with rookie Tony Revolori, the pair keep the film rattling on at a frightful fun pace, visiting prisons, mountains, strange cult-like churches all whilst on the run from wicked Adrien Brody and terrifying Willem Dafoe.

Zero was feeling a bit boxed in.

But as is the case with all Wes Anderson's films, it is the production, the beauty with which the film is crafted that stands out. The pastel colours and symmetrical images create a dreamlike landscape which you will wish you would be absorbed into. If life were as wonderful as The Grand Budapest Hotel makes it seem, we would live in a wonderland of pinks and baby blues. Coupled together with a touching and hilarious screenplay, Anderson uses all the possibilities that the medium offers him to make his story as engaging as it can be. Colour, aspect ratios, camera positioning, and sound are just a few of the elements that Anderson uses as part of his playground.

Easily one of the finest and most entertaining 100 minutes of 2014.* A treat for any viewer, old or young, for academia of for leisure. Rest assured, The Grand Budapest Hotel is art.

Best Bit? The film is so packed with 'best bits' that is nigh impossible to chose. I'll leave you to make your own mind up.

*So good, it promoted this blogger to buy his first ever Blu-Ray. 

Vietnam Week 2: War Is Not Nice

Out in the world of films there are more than a few war films. Perhaps this is because, as a species, we have so many wars. Whatever the reason is, it seems that we can never get tired of one war. The war that, if you weren't there, you can never imagine. Described by more than one solider as a hell on Earth and claimed 58,282 U.S. Solider's lives. The war in Vietnam.Yesterday’s filmed starred Martin Sheen, today we look at his son. Renowned more now for his drug abuse and his Tiger Blood breakdown, Charlie Sheen has become a bit of a joke in the media. But let us go back to when he was a serious actor and what could be more serious than Vietnam. This is Platoon.

Based on Oliver Stone's experience in Vietnam, the film’s events should arguably be a more truthful representation on the war. Young and naive recruit, Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen) has just arrived in Vietnam for his tour of duty. He's one of the few men who chose to come to Vietnam after dropping out of college and he soon finds out that he is not the most respected of figures to to the lack of his war experience. Like most of the men in his platoon, he gets torn between two non-commission officers: the rough, tough, and indestructible Staff Sergeant Robert Barnes (Tom Berenger) and the nice, fatherly Sergeant Elias Grodin. (Willem Dafoe) In between fighting and smoking pot, the platoon experience ambushes, death, destruction, illegal killings, and rape - all of which start to push towards a psychological breakdown. This is not just a war in Vietnam, this is a war with a single platoon of men.

And that's before Sheen was known to be dirty...

It is hard nowadays, perhaps, to picture Sheen as a serious actor. Ironically, he got the role over Johnny Depp because Depp was not well known. How times have changed. But there was a reason that Sheen got the role: he is good. Starting off as an innocent college drop-out, desperate to do his part for his country but slowly his sanity starts to slip and we see his evolution from naive boy to hardened solider. But both stand out roles come from the polar opposite officers, both of which received Oscar nominations.That is Berenger as Barnes and Dafoe as Elias. Their hatred of one another is so clear and through their performances they manage to raise philosophical questions regarding the duality of man: does the war shape the men and if so how did they end on such opposite ends of the scale. It takes a really good performance to delve into philosophy. the supporting cast, too, are excellent additions to the film, especially John C. McGinley as Sgt. O'Neill, Barne's biggest supporter. The cockiest character throughout out the film until a request of his leaves him broken and fearful for the climax of the film, only to be followed by what would normally be considered good news, but not for O'Neill.

Despite not being the main part, Depp was still there.

Written and directed by a Vietnam veteran, Oliver Stone, there's no doubts about the realism of the film. The actors, prior to filming, had to participate in an intensive 14 day military training camp which finished the day before filming. There is method acting, and then there is this. Actors so exhausted they almost vomited, actors almost falling out of helicopters, actors who were just as happy to finish filming as they would be to leave 'Nam. A brilliantly directed film though. Some incredible action sequences and some horrifying moments. There is a real sense of the hell - as Taylor describes it - that was in and around Vietnam. With no front line, anyone could be attacked any time. It shows that the strong can be weak and the intelligent can break down. If I have one main complaint about the film it is the overuse of Adagio for Strings on the score. I'll die happy if I never hear it again.

Another good, gritty, realistic representation of the war in Vietnam. Again, it shows the true horror that the war installed in the fighters from both the U.S. army and the Vietnamese army and the innocent people that were just living their lives through the war.

Best Bit? [SPOILER ALERT] Well it has to be the iconic scene with Elias running from the Vietnamese before falling to his knees, heavily wounded, arms outstretched, taking bullet after bullet. Classic.