Our Movie Critic's Picks

The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel Matt Zoller Seitz (Abrams, $35). Wes Anderson obsessives already know about - and, no doubt, own - last year's luxe coffee table tome, The Wes Anderson Collection, which surveyed the entire idiosyncratic oeuvre of the Oscar-nominated writer and director, starting with the mid-'90s Bottle Rocket, and onward. But the book ended with 2012's runaway love story, Moonrise Kingdom. So critic and Anderson pal Seitz has gone back to the source to interview the seriously whimsical filmmaker and fetishist on the influences and inspirations for his star-studded period comedy - and Best Picture Academy Award nominee - The Grand Budapest Hotel. Lovingly illustrated with photos, storyboard panels, sketches, designs, props, and paraphernalia, with a long section devoted to the writings of the early 20th century Viennese wordsmith Stefan Zweig (the movie's guiding spirit), this is more than a companion piece to the previous book - it's a veritable companion, to be taken along on exotic trips, and to be talked to when nobody is looking.

31 Days of Oscar Turner Classic Movies, Feb. 1 - March 3. The default TV station for movie geeks across the land, Turner Classics celebrates the Academy Awards with a month-long program of Best Picture winners, nominated films and performances, starting today with a late afternoon showing of Around the World In 80 Days (1956) and moving on (or back) to the very first Best Picture winner: William A. Wellman's airborn World War silent, Wings (1927). Things come to a glorious end Tuesday, March 3, with a trio of recent Oscar-anointed titles: the Silent Era homage The Artist (2011), The King's Speech (2010), and the Coen Brothers' No Country for Old Men (2007). In between: Grand Hotel (1932), Gone With the Wind (1939), Casablanca (1942), Kramer vs. Kramer (1979), and scores of other Best Picture winners, nominees and Academy Award-winning turns from actors and actresses, still working and long-gone. For complete schedule and info: www.tcm.com.