cupboard lined with boxes of vintage board games. Anyone to whom board games had intense childhood signii cance will experience a pang. Over-investment in school plays; indoor camping; the effort to manage the unruly adults in one’s life; i rst love: it’s all vividly caught. Indeed, Anderson’s investment in childhood trappings can be strong enough to stimulate nostalgia-by-proxy for life experiences the viewer never had. You don’t have to have experienced American summer camp to be stirred by the view of it posited in Moonrise Kingdom. 5 VIGNETTES AND MONTAGES Anderson loves little visual rundowns of action or character information, highly theatrical and
stylised, and set to that killer music. One of the best examples is the quick spin through the life of Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow) provided in The Royal Tenenbaums. With these sequences, Anderson operates like a graphic novelist or illustrator, providing information via tableaux and dry intertitles. Fans of American artist Edward Gorey – the great chronicler of sad childhoods, odd mysteries and moneyed melancholia – often note the director’s debt to him. 6 THOSE FAMILIAR FRIENDS Anderson’s casting, like his use of music, has a certain magic. Though his talent is drawn from a wide pool, rarely is a wrong note struck. He’s made space for legendary character actors like
Gene Hackman, Anjelica Huston and Seymour Cassel; legit A-listers of the Paltrow, Stiller, Blanchett and Clooney stripe; and one veteran vaudevillian and juggler, the late Kumar Pallana. His most recognisable core staff members, however, are his longstanding friends Luke and Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman, and his most signii cant older muse, Bill Murray. The Grand Budapest Hotel stars many of his favourite performers, as well as new recruits such as Ralph Fiennes, Léa Seydoux and Jude Law. Practice your faintly wistful poker faces, everybody!
The Grand Budapest Hotel, Glasgow Film Theatre, Thu 20 & Fri 21 Feb. General release from Fri 7 Mar. ➙
23 Jan–20 Feb 2014 THE LIST 23