The Grand Budapest Hotel

(2014) ★★½

Sky Movies Showcase: Monday 15 June, 1.55pm

Bellhop Tony Revolori is tutored in the rules of refinement by legendary concierge Ralph Fiennes, a fastidious bon vivant behind bars in 1930s Ruritania. Wes Anderson’s affectionate pastiche is a gaudy, giddy comedy celebrating the Viennese whirls of To Be or Not to Be director Ernst Lubitsch. An elaborately layered fairy-cake confection with extra frosting fit for a wedding, it’s liberally sprinkled with familiar-face placemats. Like all of Anderson’s pictures, but especially The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, it’s a fey film of delicate, deliberate, lovingly designed… affectation. As a recreation of 20th century Europe between the wars it’s gauche. And it’s presented in a variety of different screen shapes and sizes like a pop-up pastry book: Academy ratio for the 30s, ArriScope for the 60s, full-screen for the boookends. Like the effete Fiennes, it’s dripping with panache. It advertises itself as such. It neglects to mention the bucketful of artificial flavourings, none of which put off the arbiters of cinematic taste: 11 Bafta nominations, nine Oscar nominations and the Silver Bear award at Berlin 2014. Jeff Goldblum has the funniest line: “Did he just throw my cat out the window?” And – voila! – it was gone.

Certificate: 15
Duration: 96min