re: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson is to comedy what Edward Gorey is to horror. Just like Gorey's works hint at horrible, terrifying stories that are never actually told, Anderson's movies hint at very funny films that were never actually made. And please understand me: this is not a criticism of their works. I love them both. I think it is kind of the "point" of their art, in a way. If Gorey just came out and told you what was actually going on in his - honestly I don't even know what to call his works; they certainly aren't stories - well, that concrete reality would be much less impactful than the seeds he plants in your mind with the atmosphere he creates and the disquieting little hints at unspoken events he throws in. Reading them is, in a way, merely the gateway to actually experiencing them, which occurs afterwards when you sit and try to puzzle out just what the hell they are actually about.

Anderson's movies work similarly. He creates an off-kilter atmosphere and populates it with quirky characters suitable for a comedy, but then he really doesn't tell any jokes. Sure, there are moments that make you chuckle, but I wouldn't classify any of his films as comedies (at least the ones I've seen; I haven't seen every movie he has made). In fact his movies generally leave me feeling wistful, not mirthful. And yet they hint at wanting to be comedies; you feel that hiding somewhere behind the general (and yet very distant) uneasiness there is a hilarious slapstick movie waiting to get out. But if he had made that movie it would be less impactful because it would be more concrete - that would be all there was to it. The jokes would be told and it would be over. But by hinting at very funny jokes while never actually telling them, he keeps his movies engaging beyond the simple experience of watching them play out.

To me that is the genius of Anderson. It has been understood for a long time that the monsters you can conjure in an audience's head are far scarier than anything you could ever show them on screen. Anderson is, I believe, really the first to show that the same can be true for comedy, too.