The Horse's Head

The Plot: As told as a flashback within a flashback within a novel, Zero Moustafa (Tony Revolori) is hired as a lobby boy at Zubrowka’s elegant Grand Budapest Hotel. He is taken under the wing of Monsieur Gustave H. (Ralph Fiennes), the meticulous concierge who has had a number of dalliances with the hotel’s elderly dowager patrons. When his longtime conquest Madame D. (Tilda Swinton) passes away, she bequeaths Gustave the valuable painting Boy with Apple, much to the disdain of her adult son Dmitri (Adrien Brody), who plots to steal it. But you’re not watching a Wes Anderson movie for the plot; you’re here for his trademark vintage aesthetic and ever-expanding roster of A List ensemble members.

Why It Matters: The NFR praises the film’s “visually striking and emotionally resonant story” and hails Wes Anderson as “one of the most stylistically distinctive American filmmakers of the last half-century.” There’s also an extended quote from Anderson describing the major influence the Library of Congress Photochrom Prints collection had on the final film.

But Does It Really?: As with many a recent NFR inductee, it’s a bit odd watching a movie for this blog that I feel I just saw when it came out (and by “just” I mean 12 years ago). I recall enjoying “The Grand Budapest Hotel” at the time, even if it did feel like Wes Anderson had finally fully escaped reality into Wes Anderson Bingo Land. Looking back on the film with some historical context, “Grand Budapest” is the Wes Anderson movie where it all comes together. With this film, not only did Anderson achieve the full aesthetic we associate with “a Wes Anderson movie”, but he achieved success with audiences, critics, and the awards circuit, a hat trick that none of his subsequent films have surpassed. While I’m still on the fence about whether “Grand Budapest Hotel” is a worthy NFR inductee, Wes Anderson is an iconic and canonized director who should have more than one film on the Registry, and “Grand Budapest” will do in a pinch.

Everybody Gets One: As the most recent NFR entry (as of this writing), “The Grand Budapest Hotel” serves as the NFR debut for a number of major actors, including Adrien Brody, Jude Law, Edward Norton (along with his performance in “Frida”), Saoirse Ronan, Léa Seydoux, Tilda Swinton, and Tom Wilkinson. This is also the only NFR credit for Hugo Guinness, artist and New York Times illustrator who contributed paintings to previous Anderson films (though somewhat ironically he didn’t paint Boy with Apple).“Grand Budapest” is Guinness’ first writing credit.

Seriously, Oscars?: A rare Oscar contender from the first half of a calendar year, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” tied “Birdman” for the most nominations at the 2015 Oscars (nine) and most wins of the night (four). Although “Birdman” prevailed as the Best Picture winner, “Grand Budapest” won for its Production Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Costume Design, and Music (Original Score). While Wes Anderson went home empty-handed that night, he would finally win his first Oscar in 2024 for his animated short “The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar”.

• Of the ensemble, Tilda Swinton was the only actor who wasn’t Wes Anderson’s first choice. He had originally courted Angela Lansbury to play Madame D., but Lansbury had to back out due to her commitment touring with “Driving Miss Daisy” in Australia. Swinton’s good, and that’s a very impressive makeup job, but why not go for another elderly British actress? Were Rosemary Harris and Vanessa Redgrave unavailable?

• Zero’s encounter with the Nazi-adjacent immigration officers is unfortunately timely these days, though it does set up one of the best lines in the movie: Gustave’s “Take your hands off my lobby boy!”

• Between this and “Birdman”, 2014 was a good year for Edward Norton. This is Norton’s second Wes Anderson film following “Moonrise Kingdom”, and the beginning of his return to mainstream Hollywood following his “difficult” reputation and showbiz exile. We also get Adrien Brody between Oscar wins, seen here as…Salvador Dalí’s evil brother?
• As Zero’s beloved Agatha, Irish actor Saoirse Ronan plays something she has never gotten to play before: Irish. After trying out various accents for Agatha (including American and German), Ronan and Anderson agreed that her natural Irish lilt worked best for the character. And while we’re here, Ms. Ronan’s first name is pronounced “sir-sha”, like it rhymes with inertia. Stop asking her.
• Willem Dafoe stroking Jeff Goldblum’s Persian cat and then throwing it out a window: great movie moment or the greatest movie moment?
• Shoutout to Tony Revolori as Zero, successfully navigating a character who spends most of his screentime observing in the background, but can still step up and influence the story when he needs to. I was curious what Revolori has been up to in the last 12 years: turns out he’s in those new Spider-Man movies that I’ve never gotten around to watching. Glad he’s getting that Marvel money. Bonus shoutout to F. Murray Abraham as older Zero, making this the second NFR movie that Abraham narrates in flashback (with no old age makeup required this time).
• I liked the “Society of Crossed Keys” sequence, particularly Bill Murray’s extensive mustache and the amusing “take over” runner. Also, one of the society’s members is played by Wally Wolodarsky, Wes Anderson go-to and longtime “Simpsons” writer who co-wrote, among other episodes, the one where Homer falls down the Springfield Gorge. 

• At a time when CG effects were under fire for being too prevalent in Hollywood movies, Anderson comes to the rescue with practical effects and a stop-motion ski chase sequence. That being said, there’s a handful of green screen shots throughout the movie, though they’re minimal and nonintrusive.

• Oh wow, Owen Wilson’s in this. This is Wilson’s first NFR appearance as an actor; he was previously represented as the co-writer of “Rushmore”.
• The credits give special billing to pretty much the entire production team before the traditional roll-up credits. Also keep watching for a Special Thanks to the Library of Congress, and animation of a dancing Russian man!

Bonus Clip: Way back in the day I co-hosted a radio show with stand-up comic Clay Newman where we talked about TV and movies and stuff. For our 2015 Bullshit Oscar Special we did an opening sketch where we pulled a Billy Crystal and inserted ourselves into all eight of that year’s Best Picture nominees, including “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. Clay ad-libbed most of his lines, and his “Grand Budapest” tag still makes me laugh. Now if only I had sprung for an actual microphone.

Hello dear readers,

This is a post to tell you that there is no post this week. I’ve been traveling for the last few days so I’m taking a quick break from the blog for some rest and relaxation. I’ll be back next week with the first in my Class of 2025 series. I also recently finished writing the post for movie #800 (!), which I’ll publish in a few weeks. No spoilers about which movie it will be, but I promise it will be a super post, man.

One quick story of my travels before I go: I have spent the last few days in New Orleans’ French Quarter for the first time. We visited lots of great places, including a tour of St. Louis Cemetery No. 1, which has an interesting NFR connection. I took this pic of the Charity statue at the Italian Mutual Benevolent Society tomb. You may notice that its right hand is missing, and it turns out it’s Peter Fonda’s fault. During the filming of “Easy Rider” in the cemetery, Fonda climbed up onto the statue’s lap (as seen in the film). After the take, Fonda grabbed Charity’s hand for leverage, only for it to break. This has led to less productions being allowed to film within the cemetery, so thanks a lot you stoned hippies.

I’m back in California this week meeting up with old friends, but we’ll return with your regularly scheduled Horse’s Head next week.

Happy Viewing and watch your hands,

Tony

December 20^th, 2005: Cutting things a little too close to the holidays, the National Film Preservation Board selects 25 more films for the National Film Registry, bringing our total to 425 films. I have just completed watching and writing about all 25, so you know what that means. Here again is the Class of 2005:

• San Francisco Earthquake & Fire, April 18th, 1906 (1906): “might be played up a bit for the cameras, but the footage is nevertheless welcome in the National Film Registry”.
• Jeffries-Johnson World’s Championship Boxing Contest (1910): “on the list for the event it is covering rather than anything noteworthy about the film itself.”
• The Making of an American (1920): “a surprisingly well made film that encapsulates the immigrant boom of the early 20th century”
• Hands Up! (1926): “an enjoyable, if not integral, silent comedy from an unsung artist.”
• The Cameraman (1928): “[Buster] Keaton’s last creative hurrah in a decade long hot streak”.
• The Power of the Press (1928): “exhibits the confident skill of a young director [Frank Capra] who will go on to help define the sound era.”
• H2O (1929): “it’s nice to know that avant-garde filmmaking was happening as early as the late ‘20s.”
• Baby Face (1933): “a hidden gem from the ‘30s”, “the unaltered version is definitely the superior film”.
• Imitation of Life (1934): “the handling of its subject matter makes for a cringe-worthy watch today.”
• Commandment Keeper Church, Beaufort South Carolina, May 1940 (1940): “You had me at Zora Neale Hurston”.
• Mom and Dad (1945): “one of the NFR’s more bizarre entries”.
• Miracle on 34th Street (1947): “wonderfully imbued with the Christmas spirit”
• Giant (1956): “still entertaining, but definitely doesn’t pack the punch it used to.”
• House of Usher (1960): “I am all for Roger Corman being on this list.”
• A Raisin in the Sun (1961): “continues to be an important film due to the strength and ongoing relevance of its source material”.
• The Music Man (1962): “a feel-good film that represents the end of the movie musical’s reign in Hollywood.”
• A Time for Burning (1966): “offers a more realistic approach [to Civil Rights] with its share of current-day parallels.”
• Cool Hand Luke (1967): “bountiful iconic moments, a never-better Paul Newman, and some stunning imagery”
• The French Connection (1971): “the high-energy antihero action movie that came to define the early ‘70s.”
• The Sting (1973): “still an entertaining movie”, “another ‘minor classic’ on the list.”
• The Buffalo Creek Flood: An Act of Man (1975): “a touching report of time and place”
• The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975): “the greatest B-movie musical in film history”.
• Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982): “an iconic slice of ‘80s pop culture”.
• Hoop Dreams (1994): “I can’t remember the last time I was so moved by a documentary.”
• Toy Story (1995): “Not since ‘Snow White’ has one animated film been such a big game changer”.

The Plot: The Youngers are three generations of an African-American family living in a cramped apartment in Chicago and expecting a $10,000 life insurance check following the death of patriarch Walter Lee Sr. His son Walter Jr. (Sidney Poitier) wants to use the money to open and run a neighborhood liquor store, allowing him to better provide for his wife Ruth and son Travis (Ruby Dee and Stephen Perry). Walter’s outspoken sister Beneatha (Diana Sands) wants to use the money to go to school and become a doctor, but is aware that their mother Lena (Claudia McNeil) is the only person who can decide where the money goes. When the check finally arrives, Lena uses the money to buy a house in the White neighborhood of Clybourne Park. What follows is an exploration of racism and discrimination in America, and a contemplation on who in this country is truly entitled to follow their dreams.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up on “A Raisin in the Sun” is two very brief sentences; the first calls the film a “[m]odel film adaptation”, and the second describes the cast as “a veritable who’s who of the civil rights era”. Compared to the lengthy paragraphs other 2005 NFR entries received, the “Raisin” write-up is disappointing, if not downright insulting.

But Does It Really?: It’s a miracle the film version of “A Raisin in the Sun” got made at all, especially in 1961 with almost all of its stage creatives intact and minimal Hollywood meddling. 65 years later, I’m happy to report that the film still works, packing the same dramatic punch as it always has (though it’s also disappointing how little of the film feels dated in regards to systemic racism in America). “Raisin” isn’t the most incredible film adaptation of a play, but continues to be an important film due to the strength and ongoing relevance of its source material, aided by some top-notch performances. “A Raisin in the Sun” is certainly worthy of recognition and preservation, if for nothing else the preservation of Lorraine Hansberry and her work.

Shout Outs: Beneatha and Ruth briefly mention both Mrs. Miniver and Scarlett O’Hara while teasing Lena about her new gardening hat.

Everybody Gets One: Lorraine Hansberry’s writing career began in 1951 when she moved to New York and joined the staff of Freedom, a progressive Black newspaper whose writing team included Paul Robeson and Alice Childress. Hansberry was able to become a full-time writer when her then-husband Robert Nemiroff co-wrote the hit song “Cindy, Oh Cindy”. “A Raisin in the Sun” was based on Hansberry’s childhood in Chicago, including her father’s legal battle against a racist White neighborhood, culminating in the 1940 Supreme Court case Hansberry v. Lee (which paved the way for later cases that deemed restrictive covenants unconstitutional). “Raisin” premiered in New York in March 1959, making Lorraine Hansberry the first female African-American playwright on Broadway.

Wow, That’s Dated: The $10,000 check would be worth over $100,000 in today’s money. Other than that, not a hell of a lot.

Title Track: The title, of course, comes from a line in Langston Hughes’ 1951 poem “Harlem”: “What happens to a dream deferred?/Does it dry up/like a raisin in the sun?”

Seriously, Oscars?: Although the film received a number of precursor awards and nominations (and won a special prize at the 1961 Cannes Film Festival), “A Raisin in the Sun” failed to be nominated in any category at the Oscars. Columbia’s major contender that year was the far less controversial WWII movie “The Guns of Navarone”.

• This is definitely one of the few NFR movies to consistently pass the Bechdel test. Yes, Lena, Ruth, and Beneatha spend a lot of time talking about race relations and that check, but at least it’s not all about Walter.
• Like Lorraine Hansberry, Diana Sands was a remarkable talent who died far too young. Beneatha is as close to a stand-in for Hansberry as we get, with her vocal activism and atheist beliefs, the latter leading to Lena’s very powerful line “In my mother’s house, there is still God.” Fun Fact: Diana Sands and I share a birthday!

• Rounding out the lead quartet is the always great Ruby Dee. Ruth isn’t as flashy as the other characters, but she ties everything together. And when Ruth finally smiles at the prospect of a new house, it’s one of the most uplifting moments in this or any movie. It’s still unfathomable how Dee or anyone else in the cast didn’t get an Oscar nomination. For the record, Ruby Dee would get her first and only Oscar nomination 46 years later for slapping Denzel Washington in “American Gangster”.

• I recently re-read the original play, and when it got to Ruth discovering she’s pregnant and putting a down payment on an abortion, I assumed this was all cut for the movie. To my shock, it’s all still there. Nobody directly says the word “abortion”, but it is made very clear what is going on. As far as I can tell the Hays Code only objected to the film’s depictions of racism, and the abortion storyline slipped under their radar. Another instance of the Hays Code being chipped away at in its final years.
• Sorta shoutout to veteran cinematographer Charles Lawton Jr. While most of the cinematography fares well within the confines of a cramped apartment, there are a few obvious moments where no one could figure out the best place to put the camera, with actors awkwardly upstaging each other or not in full view of the camera. Still, there are decent compositions throughout, plus creative blocking that moves the characters around organically.
• Both of Beneatha’s suitors are played by actors on their way to bigger and better things. Her Nigerian boyfriend Joseph Asagai is played by Ivan Dixon, who went on to star in future NFR entry “Nothing But a Man” and direct “The Spook Who Sat by the Door” (he was also Kinch on “Hogan’s Heroes”, but who cares about that?). The more straight-laced George Murchison is played by future Oscar winner Louis Gossett Jr. in his film debut!
• One of the handful of “opened-up” scenes that remains in the final film is a sequence of the Youngers visiting their new house before they move in. In a depressing case of life imitating art, while filming these scenes in a Chicago suburb, a White neighbor contacted the homeowner of the house being filmed at, afraid they were selling their house to a Black family. This is just one example of the constant racism faced by the cast and crew during this film’s production, including the cast’s difficulty finding housing when filming moved to Los Angeles.
• Showing up near the end as token White character Mark Lindner is John Fiedler, aka the voice of Piglet, aka Juror #2. It is so weird hearing Piglet nervously navigating a misguided conversation about race relations. Oh d-d-dear indeed.
• My one major complaint about the movie is the score by Laurence Rosenthal, particularly in the scene where Bobo tells Walter about what happened to Willie Harris. In what is already the most intense scene in the film, the score unnecessarily ramps things up, becoming too intrusive and oversaturating the moment.
• Despite everything that’s happened, the film manages to end on a hopeful note, or at least leaves it up to your interpretation. Despite all their hardships, I believe the Youngers…oh man I just got it! Lena’s plant is a metaphor! It’s growing and flourishing despite its stifling environment. It all makes sense now!

• “A Raisin in the Sun” has continued being performed on stage throughout the last nearly 70 years, and has returned to Broadway twice (three times if you count the 1973 musical “Raisin”). The play’s first revival in 2004 starred Phylicia Rashad, Audra McDonald, Sanaa Lathan, and…I forget who played Walter. The second revival in 2014 starred Denzel Washington, Sophie Okonedo, Anika Noni Rose, and LaTayna Richardson Jackson impressively serving as a last-minute replacement for Diahann Carroll.

• “Raisin” has been filmed for television twice. A 1989 taping for “American Playhouse” starred Danny Glover, Esther Rolle, and Starletta DuPois, with John Fiedler reprising his role from the original Broadway production and film 30 years later! A 2008 TV movie saw almost the entire cast of the 2004 Broadway production reprising their roles, plus John Stamos for some reason. They even got Morgan Freeman to narrate!

The Plot: The legendary “steel-driving man” of folk lore comes to the big screen in “John Henry and the Inky-Poo”. Born a fully grown man, John Henry (voice by Rex Ingram) goes working on the railroad (presumably all the live long day), hammering steel rails into the track more powerfully than any other man on the job. One day, the railroad workers are threatened by the appearance of a steam engine (an “inky-poo”) that can do their job in a fraction of the time. But John Henry, believing that a man can beat any machine, challenges the inky-poo to a steel-driving contest. George Pal’s classic Puppetoons series brings this beloved tale to life in one of the first animated shorts to showcase African-Americans in a positive light.

Why It Matters: The NFR write-up gives context on both John Henry the legend and “John Henry” the film. There’s also a quote from Ebony that praises the “dignity, imagination, poetry, and love” the short gives to the John Henry legend.

But Does It Really?: Longtime readers may recall that this is the second Puppetoon short I’ve covered on this blog, the first was “Tulips Shall Grow” way back in 2017. On its own, “John Henry” is an engaging short and another great encapsulation of Puppetoon’s unique stop-motion aesthetic, but its NFR standing begs the question: Do we really need two of these shorts on the list? I dunno, it just feels like overkill. Then again, we have multiple cartoons on the list from the big dogs at Disney and Warner Bros., so why not a second Puppetoon? I’ll give “John Henry” a pass for its positive-in-its-day representation of African-Americans and get on with this post.

Seriously, Oscars?: “John Henry” received an Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short, losing to the Tom & Jerry short “The Cat Concerto”, which is still widely considered one of the best animated shorts of all time (plagiarism issues aside, but that’s another story). The “John Henry” nomination was the sixth of George Pal’s seven consecutive nominations in the category, and although he never won an Oscar, he did receive a special plaque from the Academy in 1944 for his Puppetoons series.

• I’ve covered George Pal/Puppetoons in greater detail in my “Tulips Shall Grow” post, but I will take this time to remind you that George Pal would go on to produce the sci-fi movie “When Worlds Collide”, which earned him a name drop in the song “Science Fiction Double Feature” at the beginning of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”.