In various interviews, as well as in the closing credits of the film, Wes Anderson cites the works of Austrian novelist, poet, and translator Stefan Zweig (1881–1942) as the inspiration for his latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel. In the Hollywood Reporter article, Anderson was quoted joking that the film is “more or less plagiarism” of Zweig’s work, and saying, “I think people in Europe are surprised [Americans] don’t know this writer.”
The Grand Budapest Hotel, which kicked off the Berlin Film Festival, opens on March 7.
NYRB Classics has several titles by Zweig: Chess Story, Confusion, Journey Into the Past, The Post-Office Girl, and Beware of Pity.
On May 6, Other Press will publish George Prochnik’s biography of Zweig, The Impossible Exile: Stefan Zweig at the End of the World.