Harold and Maude: The Best Wes Anderson Film that Wes Anderson Didn’t Make | Guest Post

by Brandon Engel

Wes Anderson is the darling of contemporary populist filmmaking. Most people love him, and everyone is familiar with him. The scripts for his films are well written. His music choices are distinctive and usually fit the tone of his films nicely. His characters are well-constructed and relatable. One of the things that makes his work so endearing to fans is that he manages to integrate elements of nostalgic sentimentality without his films feeling overwrought — a little too cutesy at times, maybe, but he usually manages to temper this.

Whatever your personal feelings are about the man and his work, Anderson is one of the most distinguished contemporary filmmakers. Obviously though, as with any sort of artmaking, nothing is born from nothing — which is another way of saying that everything is informed by something. Anderson owes much of his trademark aesthetic sensibility to the directors who influenced him, and perhaps none more so than Hal Ashby. Hearken back a few decades to Ashby’s cult comedy Harold and Maude (1971), and you can see that the film essentially sets the template for virtually every film that Anderson has ever made — if not thematically, than at least in terms of style.

Why The Grand Budapest Hotel Is Definitely Worth a Visit

- http://thegrandbudapestrp.tumblr.com/

Aren't we all more or less attracted by shiny objects? As toddlers we were. In kindergarten we were. In high school we really were. And even though we're getting better at hiding and transferring this primal instinct, we still are: attracted by shiny objects.

Wes Anderson is one the most talented, living craftsmen who make shiny objects. He taps the sunshine, freezes the quicksilver and literally blows the dust from the treasures of ancient (European) families. I have talked about Wes Anderson and his films before, at length. With the surprising arrival of The Grand Budapest Hotel to a cinema "near" me, I finally have more to talk about. A wise man once said that it is "the most Anderson that Anderson ever Andersoned" or something among those lines, and it's about the truest thing you could say about this film. It has the carefully and lovingly designed sets that create an atmosphere of a doll's house, the craziest... oh well, there's no evading the word, quirkiest characters, played by the most hyped actors. It has the props, the songs and the poetry. And - this is probably the most important thing - it has Europe. If we're being very black-and-white about it, Hollywood produces glamorous, entertaining movies while European films are thought-provoking and low-budget. Europe would not have made a film like The Grand Budapest Hotel. Nor would the United States. It's an inbetweener, a curious outsider, a cinematic weirdo. And that's part of why I love it so much.

The Grand Budapest Hotel is not just a film though, it is a place as well - and this is important to remember. It's a similarity that the film shares with Rushmore, The Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom, which just so happen to be some of my favorite Wes Anderson movies. To be true, most of his movies are some of my favorite Wes Anderson movies. Still, his latest work stands out from the little crowd. It's a pink bubble of nostalgia, romance and Ralph Fiennes being funny. Shining bright till the credits. 

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

2013 • USA/ Germany • English/ French

director Wes Anderson

authors Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness, (Stefan Zweig)

★ Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Tony Revolori, Saoirse Ronan

FINAL FRAME

„You're looking so well darling, you really are.“

My Big Fat Indian Drama Overdose

Try to imagine 'Bollywood' in one picture. What do you see? Is it, by any chance, a massive, colorful jumble of different spices and beautiful people you think must be too white to be Indian, embroidered with glistening pearls and golden sequins? If so, you are not wrong- but you're not exactly right either. 'Bollywood' is often used to describe a certain kind of film. Genre is the wrong word, but something among the lines of how indies or arthouse represent a certain kind of film. 'Bollywood' reflects a certain trend that has been predominating a big chunk of the Indian and Hindi language film industry, always. But something I like to point out whenever someone asks, and whenever someone doesn't, is that 'Bollywood' is not equal to Indian cinema and that yes,
 - there are good Indian dramas
 - there are good Indian dramas that feature song-and-dance and most importantly,
 - there are good Indian dramas that don't feature song-and-dance.

Song-and-dance in this context also represents any other trademark most people associate with Indian films (or Bollywood), like over-acting, strange side plots, strange side characters, extravagance and a long runtime. This month, I have seen a comparatively big amount of Indian drama of different quality, style and purpose- films that had been hovering on my DVD shelf for too long. My big fat apologies to the cool friend who borrowed me these and a few other films last summer, it has taken me far too long to watch them. All of these films had caught my interest either recently or a very long time ago and are on the 1001 Indian films you have to see before you die list that I've been secretly putting together for about two years. No, it's not done yet. Each of the films proved to be worth the watch, some more than others, but most of all it has been delightful to delve back into the rich and different world of Indian cinema for so long at a time. Here's what I take away from this adventure in a serious land.

Benvenuti to Cannes 2014 | 8½

Yesterday was the first day of Cannes and it was the first time I saw a film with the intriguing title of 8½.

I'm not talking about that blending mode or the amount of films Fellini had made up until 1963 - or am I? 8½ premiered at the Cannes Film Festival that year and it became an instant success. 41 years after its release, it was honored by being selected for the official poster of the festival and it became one of the two films I decided to watch in order to forget I wasn't attending the festival. 8½ is a strange film that plays with your perception of reality and the world of dreams and also is fully aware of its sexiness as a black-and-white Italian film. Never again have the screens of our cinemas experienced such stylishness and they perhaps never will. Marcello Mastroianni strolls the hotel hallways, Dolce Vita beaches and film sets in a film set like a God who just so happens to pay us peasants a visit while also maintaining an oddly fragile flavor in his character. Obviously (question mark?) he represents director Fellini himself, who - according to film bibles - directed himself out of an existential crisis with this film. Fellini blends the oddity and dreaminess of La Strada with the hedonism from La Dolce Vita into some of the most delicious, intriguing cinematic mush I have tasted yet. (Or did I just say that because those are the Fellini films I have seen?). Beside the clever script, abstract imagery and intellectually stimulating dialogue, it's also, surprisingly, the sound that makes 8½ stand out in cinematic history. Whether it's the buzz from the door, the clicking of polished heels on marble or that all-Italian beach swoosh, the sound of this film sweeps you away and draws you in at the same time. 

I think I know what the title stands for now: the 8½th heaven.

8½

1963 • Italy • Italian/ English/ French/ German

director Frederico Fellini

authors Frederico Fellini, Ennio Flaiano, Tullio Pinelli, Brunello Rondi

★ Marcello Mastroianni, Claudia Cardinale, Anouk Aimee

FINAL FRAME

„What is this flash of joy that's giving me new life?“

Spread the Word | Happy Mother's Day!

www.fuckyesjennifermorrison.tumblr.com

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Spread the word!