Looking Inside The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Through Mise-en-scène
“I don’t want to have an invincible style, but I don’t care about having a trademark,”
said Wes Anderson in his 2015 interview with The Talks. Contrary to his statement, I would quickly recognise his film just by looking at certain elements from some screenshots of each of his films–his cinematography, colour, or storytelling, people would know right away that it is Wes Anderson. As an average film enjoyer, the first time I heard of Wes Anderson was from his 2014 hit, The Grand Budapest Hotel. However, I watched it some years later and was bewitched by the dreamy-like cotton candy colour tone, and I consider him my favourite film director afterwards. Due to my fascination with this specific film of his, I would like to analyse this hit film, which has won some Oscar and BAFTA Awards nominations in 2015¹, through its mise-en-scène.
As stated in the title, The Grand Budapest Hotel, the story of this film offers–as described by Laskin (2016)–“fictionalized history of an opulent grand hotel in a kind of pastel-coloured simulacra of Europe by way of Old Hollywood”. To put it in short, the Stefan Zweig-inspired film recounts the story of Mr Zero Moustafa (F. Murray Abraham) when a writer visits the Grand Budapest in the Republic of Zubrowka. Zero invites the author (Jude Law) to a dine together in which he tells his journey of working at the hotel. The year 1932 was the hotel’s peak², Zero Moustafa (the young version of this character is played by Tony Revolori) is hired to work as a lobby boy under the supervision of the legendary concierge, M. Gustave (Ralph Fiennes). Their friendship begins on an unforgettable journey when M. Gustave finds out that he inherited a priceless Renaissance painting, “Boy with Apple”, from Madame D (Tilda Swinton). Madame D is a regular guest at Grand Budapest Hotel and one day she was found dead at home. Knowing the fact that Dmitri (Madame D’s son, played by Adrien Brody) is not the one who would have the painting, he and his family challenge the will. As predicted, Gustave steals the painting with Zero. He asks for Zero’s help to keep the painting safe by promising him to be his heir. Later, Gustave was accused of murdering Madame D and he was put in jail.
The way Anderson tells the story of his films is like reading a book to his respective audience. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) opens with a scene of a young girl, who wears a creme-coloured outer and brings a book, at Old Lutz Cemetery (figure 1). She then walks inside the cemetery and stops at a grave (figure 2 and figure 3). Unlike the three men in the background, the young girl does not wear an item of dark-coloured clothing. In front of the grave, she opened a book titled The Grand Budapest Hotel and flipped it to the back cover of the book, revealing the author of the book (figure 4 and figure 5). The next scene shows the author of the book breaking the fourth wall and speaking directly to the audience. The scene is shot with an overhead shot, showing the audience of what the young girl is looking at while also functioning as a transition to the next scene which brings the audience to the main story of the film.
The picture above is a screenshot from the film, showing Mr Zero Moustafa during the dinner scene with the author. The scene takes place at the enormous restaurant inside Grand Budapest. It is clearly visible that the lighting of both scenes changes. The lighting (from the left scene) drifts from top to backlighting and creates silhouettes. On the left figure, Zero Moustafa is doing the “bridging” to the story that he is going to tell later. On the right figure, he starts to recount the story. By recounting the story, he is forced to relive the memories where he lost the two most important people in his life, M. Gustave and Agatha (Saoirse Ronan). The lights on the left figure are significantly brighter compared to the right figure. Looking closely at both shots, Zero also becomes the centre of attention on the right figure as his surroundings become subtly more blurred compared to the left figure. Alongside the blurred background, the camera also zoomed in on Zero’s face on the left figure. The dimmed lighting and Zero’s expression say it all that he becomes melancholic when he reminisces about his past memory. As a result of dark lighting, the wrinkles in Zero’s face become more accentuated. Even after a sixty years time gap, he still has not recovered from his pain.
Still related to Mr Zero Moustafa’s scene, the time setting in which he shares his story with the author is 1968. At that time, the colours in Grand Budapest were not as vibrant compared to the hotel’s condition in the 1930s. At the bottom right, there is a funicular that could go up and down. In the right scene, the narration goes “… a picturesque, elaborate, and once widely-celebrated establishment.” As it is described, the funicular goes up. Not only the funicular, the vibrant and vivid colour. Despite being brushed with highly saturated colours, there are also some dark elements within, such as Madame D’s death and World War. The duality of these poles apart events somehow reminds the audience of reality in a dream-like film. With its colours that have vibrant hues, 1930s Grand Budapest is an icon to hide the cruelty of war. Meanwhile in the 1960s, precisely in 1968, the colour looks more matte with a dark tone–almost low saturated green makes the interior look rusty and old. The funicular is still there. However, instead of going upward, it goes downward. The colour yellow itself is often associated with happiness. Unlike the majority use of the colour yellow, Anderson uses yellow to interpret loneliness, tragedy, and sorrow. The loneliness and sorrow that Zero endures when Agatha (his lover who became his wife) and M. Gustave died. All of it could be seen in figure 12, where Grand Budapest is no longer as celebrated as it used to be.
[1] The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) has won some nominations for the 2015 Oscar in Best Achievement in Costume Design; Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling; Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score; Best Achievement in Production Design, as well as nominated in Best Motion Picture of the Year; Best Achievement in Directing; Best Achievement in Cinematography; Best Achievement in Film Editing; Best Writing, Original Screenplay. It has won BAFTA Awards 2015 in Best Original Music, Best Costume Design, Best Production Design, Best Original Screenplay, Best Make Up & Hair, and nominated in Best Leading Actor, Best Cinematography, Best Editing, Best Sound, Best Film. The director, Wes Anderson, was also nominated in BAFTA Awards Film in David Lean Award for Direction. To conclude, the film won 4 Oscars, alongside 134 wins and 226 nominations in total.
[2] There are several time settings in this film; 1932, 1968, and 1985. 1932 is the core of the story, 1968 is when the author meets Mr Zero Moustafa, the audience meets the author in 1985 when he narrates the story of this film.
Reference:
Anderson, W. (Director). (2014). The Grand Budapest Hotel [Film]. Searchlight Pictures.
Barsam, R., & Monahan, D. (2015). Looking at movies: An introduction to film (5th ed). W.W. Norton & Company.
Bordwell, D., Thompson, K., & Smith. J. (2017). Film art: An introduction (11th ed). McGraw Hill Education.
Leeds, D. (2017). Beauty at distance: cinematic techniques of “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. Medium. https://medium.com/@davidleeds/beauty-at-a-distance-cinematic-techniques-of-the-grand-budapest-hotel-1a738924cf62
Laskin, N. (2016). The blissful poignancy of “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and “Inherent Vice”. Medium. https://medium.com/applaudience/the-blissful-poignancy-of-the-grand-budapest-hotel-and-inherent-vice-fb6e157d3c46
IMDb. (2014). The Grand Budapest Hotel. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2278388/awards/?ref_=tt_awd
Seitz, M. Z. (2015). The Wes Anderson collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel. ABRAMS.
Studio Binder. (2020). The Wes Anderson color palette: Bright colors meet dark subjects. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/wes-anderson-color-palette/
The Talks. (2015). Wes Anderson. https://the-talks.com/interview/wes-anderson/
