UPDATE: Grand Budapest and LEGO together at last!

UPDATE: We've figured out what the teaser is for! To promote the releases of Grand Budapest Hotel and LEGO Movie on home video, Ryan Ziegelbauer and 8 other artists put together a Grand Budapest made entirely out of LEGO bri...

My final roundtable interview of SXSW was with Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel. Since it was my first true Anderson film experience (which I loved), I had plenty of questions for him. But since I had to compete with a few other press folks with little time to spare, I only got one in. But I'm happy with the result either way as my time spent with Anderson couldn't have gone any better. 

In our discussion Anderson divulged his a bit about his writing process, how he picks and chooses character quirks, the work of Stefan Zwieg, and cats. 

Let me be frank. Since this was going to eventually come to light, I may as well admit I've only seen one Wes Anderson film. When I was tasked with the review for Anderson's latest, The Grand Budapest Hotel, I was anxious because Anderson movies are notorious/famous for their self referential humor and narrative. While I realized Budapest was essentially going to be the most referential out of all of his films, I almost backed out of this review completely. 

I'm glad I didn't because while I didn't grasp every single reference, that's not really needed. Whether or not you understand the source of every idea or decision, in a story that's essentially all about storytelling and the storytellers themselves, The Grand Budapest Hotel is a riveting marvel of a film. 

It's something I want to see again, and again, and again. 

_{[From March 7th - 15th, Flixist will be providing coverage from South by Southwest 2014 in Austin, TX.  Prepare yourselves for reviews, interviews, features, photos, videos, and all types of shenanigans!]}

The Grand Budapest Hotel is a record-breaker

Wes Anderson's latest kitsch-fest, The Grand Budapest Hotel, earned over $800,000 in the course of its first limited run. On Friday, the movie opened in four theaters -- two in NYC, two in LA -- earning over $200,000 per thea...

New Grand Budapest Hotel clip is all Bill Murray

We have here a new clip for Wes Anderson's new film The Grand Budapest Hotel, and since it's a Wes Anderson film that means it also has Bill Murray in it. Thus this clip is both full of Wes Anderson style and Billy Murray aw...

Flix for Short: Castello Cavalcanti

Fans of Wes Anderson, of which I count myself, are hankering for a bit of The Grand Budapest Hotel, but to tide us over we have a new short for the auteur and it's jam packed full of Wes Anderson style. Castello Cavalcanti&n...

SNL's Wes Anderson parody is pure brilliance

The only thing wrong with this brilliant Wes Anderson parody is its lack of Bill Murray. Other than that, it looks exactly like an Anderson film. The music is perfect, the shots are perfect, Edward Norton's Owen Wilson is perfect...ahhhh, it's perfect! [via YouTube]

Here's the first trailer for Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel, and it looks old-timier than usual. Note the full frame aspect ratio throughout most of the trailer, which was probably a conscious decision to help evoke the look and feel of a pre-war film.* What's surprising is how well Anderson's distinct color palettes and chockablock diorama compositions still work in a square frame.

Inspired by the work of Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder (the vibe of both is there in this trailer), the film's ensemble includes Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Edward Norton, Mathieu Amalric, Saoirse Ronan, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Léa Seydoux, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Harvey Keitel, Tom Wilkinson, Bill Murray, and Owen Wilson.

Whew.

The Grand Budapest Hotel comes out March 7, 2014. You can see the poster for the film here.

* _{Unnecessary editor's note: If I'm not mistaken, 1.33:1 and 1.37:1 aspect ratios were standard up until the early 1950s.}

First poster for Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Grand Budapest Hotel is Wes Anderson's next movie, and judging by this poster, I already want to see it. Budapest Hotel, like Anderson's 2012 movie Moonrise Kingdom, will have a killer lineup of acting talent; from Anders...

RIP Kumar Pallana (1918-2013)

Kumar Pallana, best known for his appearances in various Wes Anderson films, passed away yesterday at age 94. Pallana has been a part of the Anderson ensemble stable since Bottle Rocket and also appeared in Rushmore, The Roy...

Details on Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom was our pick for the best comedy of 2012. Anderson's latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel, is another period piece and it may lead to back-to-back Golden Pterodactyls for best comedy. Fox Sear...

The 2012 Flixist Awards (known as the Golden Pterodactyls by those in the know) have arrived. Now that those far less important awards have come and gone, it's time to get down to the ones that really matter. We'll be spending the next week honoring the best films of 2012. To kick things off we're opening with a big one: Best Director.

Our nominees this year are basically a who's who of directing ranging from seasoned pros like Steven Spielberg to indy darlings like Wes Anderson. It's a telling fact about the wide variety and quality of film we got last year that we have such depth to our nominees. We also didn't forget about how truly good The Master was unlike every other person who watches movies. It was definitely a good year for talented directors to show us their best, but only one could win...

Illustrated Moonrise Kingdom script available to download

Focus Features has released online an illustrated version of Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola's Academy Award nominated script for their 2012 film, Moonrise Kingdom. You can click through the script on their website and downloa...

Big ensemble cast for Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel

The cast for Wes Anderson's new film is set, and it's one hell of an ensemble. (Johnny Depp is not involved with the film, by the way, contrary to our report a few months ago. Ditto Angela Lansbury.) The Grand Budapest Hotel ...

A lot of us here at Flixist enjoy Wes Anderson's movies. (You may recall we even dedicated a week of coverage to Wes Anderson.) Usually when you enjoy someone's work, you find that you have an affinity for a character that the person created. That's where Jennifer Lewis comes in.

Over at Flavorwire, Lewis created an infographic that helps determine which Wes Anderson character you are. It's surprisingly accurate. For example:

• I got Eli Cash from The Royal Tenenbaums (even though I'm secretly Max Fischer from Rushmore)
• Liz got Suzy from Moonrise Kingdom
• Geoff got Anthony from Bottle Rocket
• Flixist alumnus Alex Katz got Mordecai from The Royal Tenenbaums, automatically making him emperor for life

Give the infographic a whirl after the cut, and let us know who you are in the comments.

[Flavorwire via First Showing]

Of course Bill Murray will be in Wes Anderson's new movie

Bill Murray confirmed that we will be appearing in Wes Anderson's next film, The Grand Budapest Hotel. This comes from "A Day Spent Packing with Bill Murray", a really fun feature/interview from New York Magazine that appeare...

Johnny Depp will be in Wes Anderson's next film

Wes Anderson's next movie is The Grand Budapest Hotel, a European story that draws on Anderson's own experiences in France. Not only does the film reteam Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson, it brings a new face into Anderson's stab...

Adrian Tomine draws Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom

After seeing Moonrise Kingdom again, I've mentally added a couple points to my initial score. There's just something about that portrait of young love at summer's end that's beautifully done. Adrian Tomine captures that feeli...

Watch Cousin Ben host a Moonrise Kingdom screening

One of my favorite appearances in Wes Anderson's new Moonrise Kingdom is Jason Schwartzman as Cousin Ben. Schwartzman plays a semi-obnoxious older Khaki Scout who often takes advantage of the innocent younger scouts, but und...

Wes Anderson color palette swatches show continuity

Designer Beth Mathews has created this image showing what she believes to be the main color palettes for all of Wes Anderson's movies. She asserts on her blog that "You no longer have to be just a business to have a brand,...

Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom is spreading out into other cities this weekend, and with the expansion comes news of even more Moonrise Kingdom goodness. And yea, it shall come in the form of an animated short. Anderson revealed to Coming Soon that the short concerns the books that Suzy (Kara Hayward) reads in the film. He said the following:

[They're] sort of sci-fi/fantasy books. We had to invent them and give a little glimpse of each one. Different artists, most of whom very close to the filmmakers, were doing these. In fact, we have now animated them, each little passage, each in the style of the cover of the book.

Bob Balaban will host/narrate the short, which will appear online next week. They may be in the same vein as the Moonrise Kingdom behind-the-scenes videos from a little while back, or perhaps this will be its own sort of thing.

I'm probably going to watch Moonrise Kingdom again this weekend if I can wrangle up the cash somehow. (Got a big can o' change to feed a Coinstar machine.) Hopefully they'll project the movie properly this time; or, like last time, I'll be annoyed for a few minutes before being enchanted, and will go see it again the week after that.

[Via Coming Soon]

_{[This review was originally published last weekend. The film is now getting a wider release.]}

When I wrote about the retro aesthetic of Wes Anderson, I mentioned ideas of homage and influence, precocious children, arrested development, dioramas, shoeboxes, fear of adulthood, and fairy tales. Moonrise Kingdom fits in that mold, though there's an important difference. Rather than taking place in an uncertain time where the present day and a feel of the past is combined, Moonrise Kingdom takes place in 1965.

The year itself isn't necessarily important; the fact that a specific year gets named is. It's a film about nostalgia for a time and a place that's no longer there, and for that magical feeling of first love. And that's why Moonrise Kingdom, for all its kookiness and humor, has a very touching and sad undercurrent to it.

The year is 1965, and even if we try to recreate it today, we can never really have it again.