Erstwhile Texan Wes Anderson has cracked some rarefied air for an independent filmmaker. His latest, The Grand Budapest Hotel, opened in just 66 theaters this weekend and grossed over $3.5 million, good for a per-screen average of over $50,000. That’s the sort of fanatic appeal that few mid-low budget filmmakers get, and puts him in the same territory that, say, Woody Allen occupies as a box office force.
For those who can’t get enough of Budapest, and whose mouths watered at the suggestion of the Courtesan au Chocolat dessert that features in the film’s plot, Anderson has complemented the film with a short called “How to Make a Courtesan au Chocolat.” That short is exactly what you would hope for from a piece with that title.
Anderson’s highly stylized approach to filmmaking obviously has its adherents, but we’d also suggest that perhaps the director should consider three-minute instructional cooking videos as a sideline to his feature filmmaking career. At the very least, “How to Make a Courtesan au Chocolat” lovingly depicts a recipe that we’d be keen to try.
Watch the entire video below:
