If you're a fan of Wes Anderson, you have to own Matt Zoller Seitz' tome The Wes Anderson Collection.  It goes deep into all of Anderson's films except for The Grand Buapest Hotel, which is unfortunate since Grand Budapest is the most Wes Anderson-y of all of the directors' films, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.  It's like the collection, excellent as it is, had missed its culmination.

Thankfully, that culmination has now arrived with Seitz' The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel.  Publisher Abrams has released a delightful trailer from Sirk Productions (directed by Kristian Fraga) detailing what the new book offers, and it looks like it will fit quite nicely next to the previous installment.

While you can say, "Oh, there will be a Criterion along eventually anyway," I'll respond by saying A) You don't know if that disc will have everything this book has (I doubt it will); and B) You don't know when that Criterion is coming out.  This book comes out on February 10th.

Click here to go to the book's website.

wes-anderson-collection-grand-budapest-hotel-book-cover

Here's the press release:

The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel

By Matt Zoller Seitz

With an introduction by Anne Washburn

Nominated for Nine Oscars®

Golden Globe® Winner for Best Picture, Musical or Comedy

ABRAMS kicks off awards season with the highly anticipated The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel (Abrams; February 10, 2015; U.S. $35.00/Can. $40.00), by cultural critic Matt Zoller Seitz.  A companion to the New York Times bestseller The Wes Anderson Collection (Abrams 2013), this is the only book to offer readers an in-depth look at Anderson’s acclaimed eighth feature film, which is nominated for nine Oscars® including Best Picture, and is the Golden Globe® winner for Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy.

 

The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel will launch with a six-city book tour, sponsored in part by Ace Hotel, with author Matt Zoller Seitz: Book Soup in Los Angeles; The Booksmith in San Francisco; Powell’s City of Books in Portland; The Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle; Alamo Drafthouse Cinema in Denver; The Strand in Manhattan; and BookCourt and Nitehawk Cinema in Brooklyn.

 

Seitz describes The Grand Budapest Hotel perfectly: “It’s a twelve-layer wedding cake of a film, yet, as you’re devouring it, you don’t necessarily think about all the work that went into it—only that it’s delicious.” Now he takes readers behind the scenes to dissect every layer.

 

Through a series of interviews with Seitz, Anderson shares the story behind The Grand Budapest Hotel’s conception, personal anecdotes about the making of the film, and the wide variety of sources that inspired it—from author Stefan Zweig to filmmaker Ernst Lubitsch to photochrom landscapes from turn-of-the-century Middle Europe. The book also features critical essays by Ali Arikan, Steven Boone, David Bordwell, Olivia Collette, and Christopher Laverty; interviews with costume designer Milena Canonero, composer Alexandre Desplat, lead actor Ralph Fiennes, production designer Adam Stockhausen, and cinematographer Robert Yeoman; and an introduction by playwright Anne Washburn. Previously unpublished behind-the-scenes photos, ephemera, and artwork illustrate these interviews and essays.

 

The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel stays true to the first book with its meticulous design that captures the spirit of Anderson’s films. Together they complement one another to offer the definitive word on Anderson’s filmography. One volume is not complete without the other.

 

The cover is designed by graphic artist Max Dalton, who also illustrated the cover for The Wes Anderson Collection.

 

About the Author

 

Matt Zoller Seitz, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for criticism, currently writes for New York magazine, serves as editor in chief of RogerEbert.com, and is the author of The Wes Anderson Collection (Abrams 2013).

 

Anne Washburn’s plays include Mr. BurnsThe Internationalist, A Devil at Noon, and a transadaptation of Euripides’ Orestes. She lives in New York City and, occasionally, Buenos Aires.

 

About the Book

 

The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel

By Matt Zoller Seitz

Introduction by Anne Washburn

Abrams / February 10, 2015

U.S. $35.00 / Can. $40.00

Hardcover / 256 pages

9 3/8 x 11 ¼" / 150 color illustrations

ISBN: 978-1-4197-1571-6