Alexandre Desplat - The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

To anyone that says director Wes Anderson doesn't change, we say, take a closer look. Yes, his distinctive style is well, yes, very Wes Anderson, but he has been slowly shedding and disposing of some of his more well-known stylistic trademarks. Gone are the slow-motion shot at the end, the future font (replaced with cursive and other non-standard fonts) and the use of modern music. Anderson used to arguably feature wall-to-wall pop songs in his films, but that changed around the time of “The Darjeeling Limited” (which featured a Rolling Stones and three Kinks songs, but was largely dominated by the original music of director/writer/composer Satyajit Ray).

That trend continued with “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” a film featuring some Stones, The Beach Boys, et al, but largely defined musically by its Alexandre Desplat-penned score. The same applied for “Moonrise Kingdom” (some Francoise Hardy and Hank Williams, but mostly Desplat and or the music of Leonard Berstein). Pop music has taken a back seat and score and classical music has moved to the foreground.

This trend continues with the soundtrack to Anderson’s upcoming film, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” which contains no pop music whatsoever. As we wrote earlier in the year, “From what we've been hearing the film will be a strictly scored affair by Alexandre Desplat and has been highly influenced by Russian folk music as can be heard in the trailer.” It appears our sources were correct.

Aside from some European and Russian folk composers (Öse Schuppel, Siegfried Behrend, Vitaly Gnutov), the score is all Desplat and it’s a long 32-track score (which sounds like every music cue in the film). So yes, Anderson’s changed, although it’s been a slow, easy-to-miss transition. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" soundtrack arrives on March 4, 2014 via ABKCO Records (his soundtrack home since “The Darjeeling Limited”). The movie itself will premiere at the upcoming Berlin Film Festival and stars Ralph Fiennes, Tony Revolori, Willem Dafoe, Jeff Goldblum, Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and arrives in theaters on March 7. Tracklist below along with songs via Moviefone and Rolling Stone.

Tracklist:

01. s'Rothe-Zäuerli (Öse Schuppel)
02. The Alpine Sudetenwaltz
03. Mr. Moustafa
04. Overture: M. Gustave H
05. A Prayer for Madame D
06. The New Lobby Boy
07. Concerto for Lute and Plucked Strings I. Moderato hest, Siegfried Behrend & DZO Chamber Orcra
08. Daylight Express to Lutz
09. Schloss Lutz Overture
10. The Family Desgoffe und Taxis
11. Last Will and Testament
12. Up the Stairs/Down the Hall
13. Night Train to Nebelsbad
14. The Lutz Police Militia
15. Check Point 19 Criminal Internment Camp Overture
16. The Linden Tree, Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra, Vitaly Gnutov
17. J.G. Jopling, Private Inquiry Agent
18. A Dash of Salt (Ludwig's Theme)
19. The Cold-Blooded Murder of Deputy Vilmos Kovacs
20. Escape Concerto
21. The War (Zero's Theme)
22. No Safe-House
23. The Society of the Crossed Keys
24. M. Ivan
25. Lot 117
26. Third Class Carriage
27. Canto at Gabelmeister's Peak
28. A Troops Barracks (Requiem for the Grand Budapest)
29. Cleared of All Charges
30. The Mystical Union
31. Kamarinskaya, Osipov State Russian Folk Orchestra, Vitaly Gnutov
32. Traditional Arrangement: Moonshine