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Thursday, November 27, 2014

"Moonbeam Alley" by Stefan Zweig. -- A Homage to The Grand Hotel by Wes Anderson

There are still a few days left in German Literature Month IV.  Lots of time left to participate. There are many great posts, reading through them is much like a fine class in German literature at a top academy.  Take your Ipad with you and read them while you have a treat from Mendl's, relaxing in the lobby of The Grand Budapest Hotel, circa 1932.






Works I have so far read for German Literature Month 2014



1.   Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse

2.   Gertrude by Hermann Hesse 

3.  "Diary of a School Boy" by Robert Walser (no post)

4.  Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse

5.  Burning Secret by Stefan Zweig 1925

6.  Life Goes On by Hans Keilson

7.  Comedy in a Minor Key by Hans Keilson

8.  "The Wall" by Jurek Becker

9.  "Romeo" by Jurek Becker

10.   "The Invisible City" by Jurek Becker.

11.  Wittgenstein's Nephew by Thomas Bernhard

12. "Dostoevsky's Idiot" by Robert Walser

13.  "French Newspapers" by Robert Wasler 

14.  Jakob the Lier by Jurek Becker

15.  The Trial by Franz Kafka 1915,

16.  "The Seamstress" by Rainer Maria Rilke  1894

17.  "The Experiement or the Victory of Children" by Unica Zürn 1950

18.  "The Star Above the Forest" by Stefan Zweig. 1924

19.  "Saint Cecilia or the Power of Music" by Heinrich von Kleist 1810

20.  Amok by Stefan Zweig 1923

21.  Concrete 1982

22.  "Kleist in Thun" by Robert Walser 1913

23.  "Incident at Lake Geneva" by Stefan Zweig (1924)

24.  "The Governess" by Stefan Zweig 1927

25.  "The Sandman" by E. T. A. Hoffmann 1817

26.  "The Secrets of the Princess of Kagran" by Ingeborg Bachmann 1971

27.  "Twilight" by Stefan Zweig 1928

28.   "The Lunatic" by Georg Heym 1913

29.    "Dissection" by Georg Heym 1913 - no post 

30.   "Blackbird" by Robert Musil

31.  "The Kiss" by Robert Walser 1914. - no post

32.  "The Suspect" by Jurek Becker. 1980

33.  "A Favorite Family Story" by Jurek Becker 1982

34.  "Moonbeam Alley" by Stefan Zweig. 1928

35.  "Flower Days". By Robert Walser, 1911, no post.


Yesterday I saw The Grand Hotel directed by Wes Anderson, inspired by the work of Stefan Zweig.
I want to be transported back to 1932 and move into The Grand Budapest Hotel!  I love this movie, everything about it was great. Lovers of the fiction of Zweig will luxuriate in the visual wonders of this world.  Interspersed in my post on a tale of an encounter in a seedy back alley brothel in Marseilles will be some images from the movie.



As "Moonbeam Alley" opens a man has an unexpectedly long lay over in a French port city.  He decides to pass the time by going for a long walk.  He wanders into the very seediest parts of town, a section of brothels and bars replete with many scary seeming persons.  He goes into a brothel pretending to be a bar.  The plot is conventional melodrama.  One of the hookers was once the wife of a wealthy man who drove her away with his cheapness.  He is now reduced to a back alley bum still obsessed with a woman who does all she can to hurt and humiliate him. 



The story closes with the two men walking back to the hotel of the man on the layover, during which time tale of the hooker and the once wealthy man is told.  




If you have seen the movie, what was your reaction?

Mel von ü




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