Photo credit: Courtesy of Fox Searchlight
The Grand Budapest Hotel wasn’t always that way – grand, that is. According to Peter McPartlin, whose Paintbrush production company produced the Oscar nominated film, it was actually shot in a vacant, run-down department store…….Görlitzer Warenhaus department store to be exact……… and in Germany, far more than a stone’s throw from Budapest……….903.5 km to be exact.
“The first thing that really comes up in filmmaking is you have to decide where you want to shoot the movie and a lot of that is driven by tax incentives,” McPartlin told us. “For Grand Budapest, it was Germany. Wes Anderson (director) found this fantastic department store and of course has to have it, has to have it!! You look at the picture and you know it’s a Wes Anderson movie. Come to find out, the department store was in bankruptcy. The first idea from Wes of course was ‘just buy it’ and then sell it. I didn’t think we wanted to be in the real estate business with Görlitzer. This actual department store, just by Wes going the extra mile, ended up being a huge blessing and it was really cool.”
Peter McPartlin – Photo credit: Janet Donovan
We thought it was cool, but wanted to see if Gyorgy Szapary, The Ambassador of Hungary, was cool with it………..The Grand Budapest Hotel being shot in Germany and all. We were somewhat surprised by the answer: “What’s so interesting about the movie that you mention,” he told Hollywood on the Potomac, “is that it has nothing to do with Hungary. I saw the movie because I was very curious. It has nothing to do with Budapest, it’s not even in Hungary and the word Hungary is never mentioned. But it’s a movie that is nominated for an Oscar. If it wins the Oscar, then Budapest will be on the radar screen for many people.” Translation: Cool. Think Tourism.
Film synopsis: As the owner of a once-luxurious Alpine hotel relates its history to a visiting writer, he describes his youth as a lobby boy at the Grand Budapest, where he was the protégé of the hotel’s concierge, Monsieur Gustave. Gustave runs the five-star establishment with panache and an iron fist, while also offering his services as a lover to the older, wealthy women guests.
Monsieur Gustave
An amazing cast: Ralph Fiennes, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Harvey Keitel, Jude Law,B ill Murray, Edward Norton, Tom Wilkinson, Owen Wilson and Fisher Stevens. Can’t beat that.
Welcome to The Grand Budapest Hotel:
