Last night we were lucky enough to see the BFI Southbank's preview screening of Wes Anderson's marvellous new film The Grand Budapest Hotel. A joyous cinematic adventure, set in a fictional inter-war eastern European country with a cast list that very few other directors would be able to pull together. Inspired by the 30s and 40s works of Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, it has all the wit, painstakingly detailed set design and framing that so many adore Anderson for and others can't stand. (For the record, I love his films.)
The writings of Zweig, whom Anderson, a usually self-professed slow reader became obsessed with, are clearly a perfect match for the filmmaker's highly visual imagination and The Grand Budapest Hotel is perhaps the director's most rounded film and accordingly, the most likely to please mainstream audiences with a story that encapsulates classic elements of cinema from murder mystery to jail-break via film noir. It also packs a little more emotional heft thanks to three actors new to Anderson's regular troupe - Jude Law, F Murray Abraham and the undoubted star of the film, Ralph Fiennes as Monsieur Gustave, enigmatic concierge of The Grand Budapest. All of whom who act beyond the director's usual mannered style and add a little more human warmth and reality that one could argue is stylised out of some of his other films.
We loved it all, but as always, with one eye on grooming, we couldn't help but notice the wise magnificence of Jeff Goldblum's salt and pepper facial hair which falls somewhere between a goatee and a beard, being as it is, full on the front and chin but clean shaven on the upper cheek.
The Grand Budapest Hotel is released in UK cinemas March 7th.
Watch Goldblum's grand beard in relaxed, behind-the-scenes chat mode in this featurette from Fox Searchlight here:
And watch the film's trailer here: