The Grand Budapest Hotel — a fairytale that uses humor to depict the tragedy (scene analysis)
When I watched The Grand Budapest Hotel for the first time, I was left amazed by its unique story within a story within a story narrative, but mainly by its fantastic color palette. The movie itself captures four different periods — 2014,1985,1968 and 1932. Each period is very self-contained and has a matching color palette that distinguishes it. The colors follow the story and change in line with time and mood. Something I had never seen before done in a movie. Each frame is done in such way that it looks like a painting. Following the movie, I felt like reading a tale, that at times bizarre, was beautifully told. What I loved about the movie the most was the fact that it hit every emotion. Following the story, it made me laugh but also kept me on edge, and then it made me a bit sad. The use of humor depicts the tragedy throughout the whole movie. The director uses the frame as a canvas to create a vividly colored picture. He uses central framing, focusing on symmetry, which directs our eyes to the subject of the composition. Even in his tracking shots, he can maintain the symmetry of the character, which in many scenes, was done in a very humorous way.
What made me choose the particular movie is the excellent use of the camera and color palette each scene had. The Grand Budapest Hotel follows the adventure of Gustave M.(Ralph Fiennes), a concierge at the legendary hotel in an imaginary European country, and Zero Moustafa (Tony Revolori), a lobby boy, who becomes his dearest friend. The story is told, such as Zero (F. Murry Abraham), himself, tells it years later, now a hotel owner, to the young author(Jude Law), who writes a book entitled “The Grand Hotel Budapest”. Zero Moustafa tells his story, but he focuses on people around him, leaving himself in the background, but also giving us as little as possible details about his most painful memories.
The scene I chose is the very ending of the story, told by Zero, and the movie itself. It’s when the whole mood of the story suddenly changes and we realize the tragedy in Zero’s life. But also brings us back to reality, as we now are reminded that the whole movie itself was driven by the question the author asked Moustafa about his link to the Grand Budapest Hotel. That question, however, triggered a painful memory of Zero Moustafa’s life, about a wild journey that ended unexpectedly. I chose it because it perfectly shows how lighting and color change can affect the emotional meaning of a scene and what impact does this on the audience. Also, during those nearly 3 minutes, we can perfectly catch the change of aspect ratio, as time periods swift within the narrative.
In the scene, Zero tells the author about the death of his dearest friend, Gustav, that was our main character till now and his wife Agatha (Saoirse Ronan). He uses just a couple of sentences to describe the most painful events in his life. And here comes also the amazing quote that sums up pretty much the life of Gustave. “To be frank, I think his world had vanished long before he ever entered it, but I will say: He certainly sustained the illusion with a marvelous grace!” That’s what the author did as well, he continued the illusion about the marvelous hotel by writing a book about it.
The scene begins by switching the ratio to 2.40:1 from the previous 1.37:1, to indicate that we switch from 1932 to 1968, where Zero is telling the story to the author. The changing of the aspect ratio is a narrative tool and helps us distinguish the different timelines of the story. There is a close up on the table, showing hands that put drinks on it and then a waiter dressed in purple serves the desserts. The waiter is dressed in the purple uniform, which shows that even after so many years, the color of the Grand Budapest’s staff’s uniform hasn’t changed. We can see the hands of Zero and the author placed on the table. As the waiter is moving out of the frame the camera dollies out into a medium shot, so that the characters are now in the frame, facing each other with hands still on the table. The author asks Zero how the story ends, and he answers calmly that his friend Gustave was killed and his wife Agatha, died later. In the previous scenes even the thought of Agatha made Zero cry and that’s why we don’t get much of details about Agatha. After telling the whole story, which despite the characters’ hardships, still managed to be extremely funny, we certainly didn’t expect such tragic ending. He manages to sustain himself and not show much emotion while telling the author about the death of his loved ones. And although he told us every detail about the long journey, he only says a couple of sentences about Agatha’s and Gustave’s deaths, and even makes a joke.
This is one of the many shots in the movie where symmetry is used. We can see how empty is the dining rooms, as the hotel is not as popular as it used to be.
Then the camera dollies out into a long shot and now the table and the character are put in the center. The director uses multiple central frames throughout the whole movie. The lighting also changes into a more theatrical and the table is better lit. Zero turns his head up as if he notices the sudden lighting change. Again symmetry is used, so that we can focus on the characters. The colors in the scene are much darker than in the rest of the movie, also the whole scene made me feel as the hotel has stopped in time and nothing happens in it anymore. It has long lost its shining beauty and great prestige, that Gustave maintained during his years of service. What is interesting here is that in the back, we notice a colossal painting that was previously shown in the movie as a scene. I didn’t see it in the first time I watched the film, but now it makes me think, even in the world of Zero did this journey really happened?
As the camera is still dolling out, a voice-over starts. The voice is the author’s, who recalls his final moments with Zero. Together with the voice over, we can hear another non-diegetic sound, some music which played in other key points during the movie. But the music volume is low. Then there’s a cut and we see a medium shot of the both characters in front of the reception. We can see Zero, who is facing the camera and the author’s back. The voice-over is interrupted by some brief dialogue, but the music remains.
We see the camera dolling out again, as Zero goes behind the counter, fixes the painting, which he and Gustave stole years ago. And only now we realize that the canvas, which was so important to Gustave and also got him in so much trouble, is placed in the concierge spot of the hotel as if he remains a part of the hotel. The camera stops moving for a second, and the two columns create a frame within the frame.
As the author turns towards the camera, there’s a cut to an extreme long shot of the hotel’s reception, which is empty and poorly lit, indicating probably a late hour. The shot shows us the perspective of the author, who looks at it for a sec. Then the camera goes back to the medium shot of the concierge spot, where Zero is smiling at the author, while taking two keys. The camera dollies into a medium close-up, with Zero centralized in the frame. The concierge spot is colorful and better lighten up than the reception, which was previously shown. Zero Moustafa puts one of the keys in his pocket, and the other one places on the yellow bureau in front of him.
There’s an extreme close up, Zero’s hands placing the key, which has “M. Gustave Suite” engraved on it. Once again, confirming that the concierge spot still somehow belongs to him.
Zero and the author are shown walking down the stairs to the reception in an extreme long shot from a higher angle. We can only see their silhouettes in the dark as the reception itself is better lit. The volume of the music gradually goes up, but still allows us to focus on the voice over.
There’s a cut to a medium shot of the two characters standing in front of the elevator. The scene is dark, as we suppose the little light comes from the reception. The dialogue continues, and here comes one of the most important parts for me. The author makes an assumption that Zero kept this hotel in order to remind him of his friend Gustave. As it turns out, he kept the hotel as a tribute to his wife Agatha, for whom we don’t know a lot about and what turned to be his happiest years.
The camera whip pans in medium shots of the author and then of Zero, without breaking the 180-degrees angle. The music changes into a gently one, as Zero talks about his love Agatha, which again shows the use of sound to embrace emotion changes. We have an extreme close-up of his blazer’s collar, which he moves to show his pin. It then zooms out to a medium shot of him.
Then we have an over the shoulders shot of the author, who is looking at Zero entering the elevator. There’s a diegetic sound of the elevator arriving. As Zero enters the elevator, he switches on the light and turns to the author, while holding the door. The came whip pans into a medium shot of the author, and then we go back to the over the shoulder shot, as Zero continues speaking. Here he calls Gustave’s world dead. It’s interesting because the world he leaves in is also gone and he is trying to hold onto it, with the help of this slowly dying hotel.
A medium shot of Zero in the elevator follows, which again is a central frame with symmetry.
The elevator doors close and we hear some more elevator sounds as it starts moving up.
The voice-over begins again, as an extreme long shot from a higher angle of the reception is shown. The author sits on the little couch, where Zero sat at the beginning of the movie. The music gradually stops, as the voice-over continues. Then a wide shot of the author sitting is shown, this time, from another angle and different music begins. The author is shown writing something into his diary. The following shot of him again writing on his couch, in 1985, with a ratio change into a 1.85:1. This shot of him writing, as the voice-over continues, indicates that he is probably finishing up the book in 1985.
Then we have another timeline shift to 2014. An extreme long shot of the girl, that was reading the book in the beginning, sitting on a bench near the grave of the author. Each time period is very self-contained and has a matching color palette that distinguishes it. The colors follow the story and change in line with time and mood.
This sequence perfectly shows the connection between the periods and also shows that this story is told from the perspective of Zero and then retold by the author. So as in many stories that go from mouth to mouth, events may not have occurred precisely in the same way as they are presented to us. It shows us that after all, it’s a fairytale, and fairytales are meant to be beautiful and non-realistic. The director has done incredible work even on details, and every time I watch the movie I notice something new, whether foreshadowing events or giving some extra fairytale feeling to it. The Grand Budapest Hotel — a fairytale that uses humor to depict the tragedy of life.
