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The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) by Alexandre Desplat


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Desplat's third consecutive work with Wes Anderson. And it might again get him an Oscar nomination yet again.

It works great in the film and contains Desplat's most attractive main idea in sometime, it is a very wistful and sentimental little riff for the Zero Mustafa character. You can listen to it on the album. Can't find it on youtube.

The movie is basically a caper and has lots of chase music and scherzo type stuff, and it is all rather fun in a kind of pastiche manner. But the main idea is a keeper.

Anybody else like it?

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On 25/06/2014 at 12:09 PM, TheUlyssesian said:

Desplat's third consecutive work with Desplat.

:conf:

 

I recently saw the film and enjoyed the score in it quite a bit. Really supported the film very well, gave the whole story a forward drive.

 

I had previously listened to the OST on it's own and not been impressed, but now that I've seen the film I look forward to giving it another chance.

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I've been enjoying the album too. It feels more like background music/wallpaper than some of Desplat's other recent work, but it's a lot of fun. Canto at Gabelmeister's Peak is my favorite track.

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Its incorporated well in the movie. That entire cue is passing off a theme form section to section of the orchestra as the characters escape various situations. It is very interesting that when they enter a church, the entire church joins in on the chorus of the background score! I think that was interesting.

The film itself is Wes Anderson's masterpiece.

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That's a nice touch. I do appreciate all the various styles and instruments Desplat incorporated. And I was surprised how much buzz the film seemed to get... there was a long line at the local art cinema opening night, which I don't see often.

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I've seen it six times on the big screen. It is, to me, a perfect film, everything is how it should be. Including Desplat's amazing score!

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Desplat always gets nominated for boring shit like Argo and what not. This would be a not unwarranted nomination.

But more importantly, I hope this film breaks through and gets nominated across the board. Its about time a Wes Anderson film hit big at the Oscars and I think this could be it.

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  • 2 months later...

it's my favorite Desplat score with Benjamen Button

At first it seems quite repetitive, and in many respects it can be, but there so many little motifs and themes. It's really cool combination of ethnic influences. Witty.

Karol

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I was actually really disappointed with this one. I consider myself a Wes Anderson, and I liked the growing scale of his style, especially with Moonrise Kingdom. But I felt things got out of hand in The Grand Budapest Hotel, where all the desserts and colourful sets began to overcrowd the film, that narrative and character got lost in all of it. And the usual awkward silences in Wes Anderson's films weren't as whimsical and entertaining as they were in past efforts. This time, it was actually just awkward, ultimately affecting the pacing negatively. I was also not a big fan of the bookend bits the older version of the bell boy.

Ralph Fiennes was great though, but it's a shame the film as a whole couldn't have been better.

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That's the kind of the point. It's a stylistic choice Anderson uses to give it a kind of poppy, whimsical, storybook feel.

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  • 4 years later...
  • 8 months later...
  • 1 year later...

Yea, I liked the movie a lot too

 

It's nice to go through these physical CD OST editions and see all the little things you'd never learn just by listening to the album on streaming.  It's extra fun now knowing that Desplat himself is one of the whistlers

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One of my favorite scores in recent years. Glad you got to revisit it!

Not sure if anyone has ever laid out all the differences between the Film, OST, and FYC, but if anyone is curious I'd be happy to do a big long post about it since the FYC is almost exclusively made up of notable Alternates & Alt Mixes that are not present on the OST or even in the film.

 

Also, there's a great little behind the scenes look at the recording sessions on the Criterion Collection Blu-Ray, mainly featuring the Orchestra de Balalaikas Saint-Georges and an interview with Music Supervisor Randall Poster:

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Jay said:

Wow, soooo many differences!! 

 

Indeed. "No Safe House" blew me away when I heard it on the FYC. Lol. Still more differences to come! 

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28 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

 

What's the advantage of a Criterion release for such a recent film?


Bonus features!  Criterion have been releasing Wes Anderson’s movies for 20 years.  It’s a tradition.

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33 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

What's the advantage of a Criterion release for such a recent film?

 

Here's everything new to the Criterion release, to be exact:

  • New audio commentary featuring Anderson, filmmaker Roman Coppola, critic Kent Jones, and actor Jeff Goldblum

  • 3 New Featurettes 'Vising The Grand Budapest Hotel'

    • Design/Special Effects (25:21)

    • Music (5:24)

    • The Models and Miniatures of The Grand Budapest Hotel (2:10)

  • The Making of ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel' B-Roll (21:28)
  • Storyboards Animatics

    • Hotel Intro (5:18)

    • Washer Woman (1:00)

    • Killing of Kovacs (2:37)

    • Prison Escape (3:07)

    • Gabelmeister's Peak (7:27)

    • Hotel Show-down (6:10)

  • Video Essays

    • Wes Anderson Takes the 4:3 Challenge" by David Bordwell (23:23)

    • "The Grand Budapest Hotel" by Matt Zoller Seitz (16:08)

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  • 2 months later...

Just realized I'd never actually seen a photo/video of Mark Graham before this, despite seeing his name so many times in credits or print interviews.  He's older than I imagined, though I hadn't consciously decided on how old I thought he was.

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  • 9 months later...
On 28/3/2022 at 12:59 PM, TSMefford said:

From the Instagram of JoAnn Kane Music Service - Mark Graham discusses working Desplat's "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/CbiultkFa7S/

Does anyone know what exactly went down with this score? Because it seems like Graham did a lot of work and Desplat wasn’t at recording session??

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5 hours ago, Gibster said:

Does anyone know what exactly went down with this score? Because it seems like Graham did a lot of work and Desplat wasn’t at recording session??

 

Not entirely sure. I wish I knew more, for sure, as well. I hesitate to imply that Graham did most of the work and Desplat did very little. That's likely not the case. We only have footage and photos of the Balalaika Ensemble and a single photos of the Organ being recorded and Alpine Horns being recorded.

 

The vibe that I get is that all the different groups of instruments were recorded at different times and different locations. So it's unrealistic to expect Desplat to be attending in person for all of them I would think. The Balalaika's were recorded in France at Studio Guillaume Tell. Air Studios, Abbey Road, and St. Jude-on-the-Hill (a church) were also used to record in. Graham does mention a "brass session", we know there were Balalaika sessions, the Alpine Horn session, the organ in there somewhere. Desplat was definitely at some kind of session as he is one of the whistlers.

 

I'm only assuming this is the case of how it was done, as I haven't yet seen any group comprising of more than one type of instrument pictured together. They also drop in and out certain things in the film mixes (present on the OST, the FYC seems to use what was originally intended by Desplat) so it would make sense that they recorded so separately.

 

Really not sure myself though, just guessing. I'd love to know more about the process. I'd also add it does seem there was a lot of creativity and ideas thrown around late in the game and while they were recording.

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