DHAKA: Wes Anderson’s latest movie ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ has opened the Berlin Film Festival to rave reviews.
The Guardian gave the 1930s set crime caper four stars, while Variety praised its ‘sly intelligence and depth of feeling’, reports the BBC.
A notable absentee from Berlin is the late actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died on Sunday of a suspected drug overdose.
He had been due to attend the festival to promote his film God`s Pocket.
Instead, a screening of his Oscar-winning performance in the film Capote will be screened in tribute on Tuesday.
‘He was one of the greatest actors we had in the world,’ festival director Dieter Kosslick told media.
‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ stars British actor Ralph Fiennes as the famous concierge Gustave H, who woos octogenarian blonde widows at an Alpine hotel.
When one dies in mysterious circumstances and leaves him a valuable painting, it sets in motion a chain of murder and mayhem.
Wes Anderson is a European festival favourite. His last film, ‘Moonrise Kingdom’, opened the Cannes Film Festival in 2012 and earned him an Oscar nomination for best screenplay.
BDST: 1216 HRS, FEB 08, 2014