Triumph of the Quirk

"The Grand Budapest Hotel", a comedy-drama film about the golden age of traveling, became an art-house blockbuster. Boasting of an impressive cast led by Ralph Fiennes, a two-time Academy Award nominee, the movie racked up a stunning 260,000 US dollars on Friday in just four theaters, and then an additional 40,000 US dollars in late night showings on Thursday. It also earned rave reviews, winning the Grand Jury Prize at the recent Berlin International Film Festival. It was the best showing of a Wes Anderson flick, but the awards season looked like lights years away. Still.

"The Grand Budapest Hotel" had all the trademarks of a Wes Anderson picture his fans would love, namely eccentric characters, oddball love story, and visually detailed settings. It was a satirical comedy too, set during a bygone era in Europe when tradition was the norm. It couldn't be better, a compliment for the Texan filmmaker. He's only 44 years of age, earning three Oscar nominations so far, two for Best Original Screenplay ("The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Moonrise Kingdom") and one for Best Animated Feature ("Fantastic Mr. Fox").

"You know, Jonathan, the world needs dreamers."

- Abe Henry (Bottle Rocket, 1996)

Anderson made his debut in directing in 1996, turning "Bottle Rocket" into a full-length feature. (There was a short-film version, which he directed and co-wrote, released four years earlier.) Owen Wilson and Bill Murray were part of the cast, both of whom would appear in his later films. They were his muses, so to speak, but his reputation grew, such that stars like Gwyneth Paltrow and George Clooney would collaborate with him. His best work would be "Rushmore", his second feature, starring Jason Schwartzman. It was his first feature, his first lead role. Moviegoers don't have an idea back then that he's the son of Talia Shire, the nephew of Francis Ford Coppola, the cousin of Nicholas Cage and Sofia Coppola. Showbiz royalty.

Co-written by Anderson and Wilson, Schwartzman played Max Fischer, a promising high school student who was more interested in extracurricular activities than homework. Not an ideal role model, but Anderson told his story in quirky fashion, not much different from Roald Dahl's narrative in his children's books. So viewers saw Max as a different kind of dreamer, which was somehow romantic. This romanticism was also present in "The Grand Budapest Hotel", as the movie title implied that the hotel struggled to hold on its glory days, which was about to come to an end. It seemed like someone was about to crash the party.

Anderson's other works included "The Royal Tenenbaums" (starring Danny Glover, Gene Hackman, and Angelica Huston), "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" (featuring Cate Blanchett, Willem Dafoe, and Jeff Goldblum), "The Darjeeling Limited" (Wilson, Schwartzman, and Adrien Brody), a stop-motion animated version of Dahl's "Fantastic Mr. Fox" (voiced by Clooney, Meryl Streep, and Michael Gambon), and "Moonrise Kingdom" (Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, and Frances McDormand). His next project would be "She's Funny That Way", but he would be producing. No exact year on his next directorial work, but his fans would be waiting.