The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel - by Matt Zoller Seitz (Hardcover)

About the Book

A behind-the-scenes look at the creation and filming of Wes Anderson's 2014 movie featuring interviews, essays, photos, ephemera, and artwork.

Book Synopsis

This book, part of the New York Times bestselling The Wes Anderson Collection series, takes readers behind the scenes of the Oscar(R)-winning film The Grand Budapest Hotel with a series of interviews between writer/director Wes Anderson and movie/television critic Matt Zoller Seitz.

Introduction by award-winning playwright Anne Washburn

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.

This beautifully designed book also contains 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 Previously unpublished production photos, artwork, and ephemera illustrate each essay and interview.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, offering an overview of Anderson's filmography.

Praise for 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."--The A.V. Club

Also available from Matt Zoller Seitz:
The Wes Anderson Collection
The Wes Anderson Collection: Bad Dads
The Oliver Stone Experience
Mad Men Carousel

Also available:
The Wes Anderson Collection: Isle of Dogs
The Wes Anderson Collection: The French Dispatch

Review Quotes

"A rare follow-up that equals its predecessor, and a welcome post-script from the critic who's become the definitive voice on all things Anderson."--Flavorwire

"Eye-popping!"--New York Times Book Review

"Like Anderson's work itself, this book's visuals will have you coming back to it again and again."--Boston Globe

"More than a companion piece to the previous book--it's a veritable companion, to be taken along on exotic trips, and to be talked to when nobody is looking."--Philadelphia Inquirer

About the Author

Matt 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 painting 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.