REALLY AWESOME BOOK!Through a series of interviews, short essays and excerpts, Seitz brings together a collage of the sources, inspiration, and methods used by Wes Anderson to create the film The Grand Budapest Hotel. As in real life, the film mixes up tragic and comic elements.The mood is one of a lost world, but how grand to actually have something you would regret losing, even if it is an imagined civilization. How is this beautiful world and its loss brought to the screen? Seitz explains technical details, such as adapting narrative devices from Stefan Zweig's fiction to the big screen. In fact he revels in details such as sourcing the facecloth used in the costumes, or aspect ratios. And he provides lots of information about locations and sets. While Anderson in his interviews speaks freely about complex logistics, he is unwilling to name the real-life inspiration for Gustave himself, just that there is one.I also found the interview with actor Ralph Fiennes, who brings the enigmatic concierge Gustave to life, charming but rather opaque; Fiennes is like a magician who doesn't want to reveal his tricks. Seitz compensates for these gaps by placing the GBH in the context of film history, referencing influences on Anderson from Ernst Lubitsch to Stanley Kubrick and on to Werner Herzog. One real joy is the interview with composer Alexandre Desplat, who is able to articulate the way the music is composed to support to shifting moods in the film. There are excerpts from Zweig's writings, but they are best read in their entirety. As one would expect from a publisher as visually savvy as Abrams, the color plates are stunning, providing a chance to notice fine touches that go by too fast on the screen to properly appreciate. There are photos of the sets and how they are used in filming GBH, all arranged on the page to jolt the eye with the contrast between illusion and how it is created, like the ending of the wizard of oz.Here you have some extra info that you may want to know:About the AuthorMatt Zoller Seitz, a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism, is the TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, as well as the editor-in-chief of RogerEbert.com.A Brooklyn-based writer and filmmaker, Seitz has written, narrated, edited, or produced more than a hundred hours' worth of video essays about cinema history and style for The Museum of the Moving Image and The L Magazine, among other outlets. His five-part 2009 video essay, "Wes Anderson: The Substance of Style," was later spun off into a New York Times bestselling hardcover book: The Wes Anderson Collection (Abrams, 2013).Seitz is the founder and original editor of The House Next Door, now a part of Slant Magazine, and the publisher of Press Play, a blog of film and TV criticism and video essays. He is the director of the 2005 romantic comedy Home.Anne Washburn's plays include Mr. Burns, The Internationalist, A Devil at Noon, and a transadaptation of Euripides’s Orestes. She lives in New York City and, occasionally, Buenos Aires.Max Dalton is a graphic artist living in Buenos Aires, Argentina, by way of Barcelona, New York, and Paris. He has published a few books and illustrated some others, including The Wes Anderson Collection (Abrams, 2013). Max started painiting in 1977, and since 2008, he has been creating posters about music, movies, and pop culture, quickly becoming one of the top names in the industry.This companion to the New York Times bestselling book The Wes Anderson Collection takes readers behind the scenes of the Oscar®-winning film The Grand Budapest Hotel with a series of interviews between writer/director Wes Anderson and movie/television critic Matt Zoller Seitz.Learn all about the film's conception, hear personal anecdotes from the set, and explore the wide variety of sources that inspired the screenplay and imagery—from author Stefan Zweig to filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch to photochrom landscapes of turn-of-the-century Middle Europe. Also inside are interviews with costume designer Milena Canonero, composer Alexandre Desplat, lead actor Ralph Fiennes, production designer Adam Stockhausen, and cinematographer Robert Yeoman; essays by film critics Ali Arikan and Steven Boone, film theorist and historian David Bordwell, music critic Olivia Collette, and style and costume consultant Christopher Laverty; and an introduction by playwright Anne Washburn. Previously unpublished production photos, artwork, and ephemera illustrate each essay and interview.The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel stays true to Seitz's previous book on Anderson's first seven feature films,The Wes Anderson Collection, with an artful, meticulous design and playful, original illustrations that capture the spirit of Anderson's inimitable aesthetic. Together, they offer a complete overview of Anderson's filmography to date.Praise for the film, The Grand Budapest Hotel:Four Academy Awards®, including Costume Design, Music - Original Score, and Production Design; Nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Directing, and Writing - Original Screenplay; Best Film - Musical or Comedy, Golden Globe Awards; Best Original Screenplay, BAFTA, WGA, NYFCC, and LAFCA AwardsPraise for the book, The Wes Anderson Collection:“The Wes Anderson Collection comes as close as a book can to reading like a Wes Anderson film. The design is meticulously crafted, with gorgeous full-page photos and touches . . .”—Eric Thurm, The A.V. Club