Grand Budapest Hotel's Story of Worker Solidarity
Wednesday, April 2, 2014
(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)Wes Anderson’s new film “The Grand
Budapest Hotel” is a lovely paean to a lost era “but it’s also a subtle
story of workers and worker solidarity,” writes DC Labor FilmFest Director
Chris Garlock in a recent
post on Working America’s Main Street blog. “Set
mostly in the 1930′s in the fictional central European nation of Zubrowka, the
film’s heroes are the concierge and lobby-boy at the Grand Budapest, a
luxurious hotel where bejewelled and top-hatted Old European nobles — the 1%
of the day — enjoy the finer things in life,” says Garlock. “As usual in
Anderson’s films, the story, as convoluted and entertaining as it is, is less
important than the quirky characters and intricately detailed sets on which the
film plays out. After all the rushing
about, what stands out this time is the sympathetic portrayal of the nobility of
the work done by what today are simply called service workers.” Click here for the complete post.
photo: Ralph Fiennes (right) as
M. Gustav the concierge and Tony Revolori as Zero the Lobby
Boy.