'The Grand Budapest Hotel' recounts the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend.
The crux of the story involves the theft and recovery of a priceless Renaissance painting, and the battle for an enormous family fortune. Of course, all these complex events happen against the backdrop of a suddenly and dramatically changing continent.
The exteriors of the Grand Budapest Hotel visualised in the film, is actually a nine foot tall, 14 feet long and 7-foot deep handmade miniature model.
Unlike most films, everytime a newspaper article appears, it contains a complete depiction of the events in the headline, all written by writer/director Wes Anderson.
The scene where Ludwig (Harvey Keitel) says "Good luck, kid!" before slapping Zero (Tony Revolori) across the face was shot forty-two times until Bill Murray was satisfied. Keitel actually slapped Revolori each time.
This is the highest-grossing of writer/director Wes Anderson's films to date.
Wes Anderson reported that the cast stayed in the same hotel, the Hotel Börse in Görlitz, Germany during principal photography. He insisted all make-up and costume fittings happen in the hotel lobby to speed up filming. The owner of the hotel appears in the film as an extra working the front desk of the Grand Budapest Hotel. After filming would end for the day, the crew would often return to find him the front desk of their own hotel.
Tilda Swinton spent five hours on make-up to play eighty-four-year-old dowager Madame D.
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