Grand Budapest

This thing that is the most obvious to me about Wes Anderson and Zweig, is the absolute level of complete adoration Anderson feels towards this guy. He has based so much of his works off Zweig's work or Zweig himself. It's almost like, he read every word of his writing and then wanted more so he read every aspect of his life and personality. I'm sure when the two met there was a bit of

It also surprises me that he flat out admits: "I also read the The Post Of ice Girl, which had been only published for the first time recently. The Grand Budapest Hotel has elements that were sort of stolen from both these books"

Like, um. Thats stealing. Isn't stealing bad? I guess not if it produces beautiful works.

I think the main aspect of story that anderson has taken from Zweig, was the importance of character.

What I mean is, in Zweig's stories, all of the characters are very flushed out. They each have a personality and a back story that make them very appealing. So even if the introduction of this character holds no importance to the story, and doesn't do anything for carrying the story forward, we learn about the character anyways.  This leads us into a network of "side stories" that can distract from the main focus of the characters, but personally I find it highly appealing. For example, in the grand Budapest hotel 

a notably insignificant character is introduced and flushed out. That guy who pardons them of their offense of the train. We learn all about his backstory and how he knows M. Gustave and how kind he was to him as a boy. this is an entirely unnecessary side story. But is it enjoyable to watch? And does it make the characters more appealing? 

Heck yeah.