Hannah Lin Smith

The Grand Budapest Hotel

The Grand Budapest Hotel, a Wes Anderson film released in 2014, has

been noted for its unique style. This movie received four of the nine Oscars

it was nominated for and, like many Wes Anderson films, it was distinguished

for its meticulous mise-en-scene. The film won awards for production design,

including set decoration, and music. These two elements of the film stood

out and were recognized for being particularly stellar. Through these

devices, the film is able to create a sense of nostalgia for something that the

audience has never known about, except for the one hour and 40 minutes it

takes to watch it. The question becomes, where does this nostalgia come

from? The Grand Budapest Hotels mise-en-scene and non-diegetic elements

establish that the hotel itself is a vessel for nostalgia.

At the very end of the movie, as Zero is telling the Young Writer his

story, he suddenly says, In the end, they shot him in reference to

Gustaves murder. This moment is very sudden and jarring. It is at this point

that the audience begins their abrupt separation from the Grand Budapest

Hotel. Suddenly, we know what happened to Gustave, and it was something

that stole him away. The moment Zero says this, he and the Young Writer

are centered in the middle of the frame. Then he continues by saying, So it

all went to me. Here, the camera zooms out, creating a loose framing of

Zero and the Young Writer. We are cued by Zero himself to look at the

scenery around them when he takes a moment to survey the room. We see

the desolation surrounding him. This shot shows the vast emptiness of the
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location and it mirrors the isolation Zero is alluding to at this moment. It

feels even more lonely because, since we have seen the film, we remember

all that happened in the Grand Budapest. We share in Zeros sudden

nostalgia and there is a dull ache when we take in the surroundings. There is

a picture in the background of an elk standing alone on a mountain that, with

this reframing, is demanding attention. This picture could also be seen as a

visual representation of Zeros isolation. It is also seen, in the scene before

this one, in the background of a picture of Gustave, Zero, and the staff at the

time. It is a looming, physical reminder of the past and, along with the sense

of isolation, the physical picture creates a sense of nostalgia.

At this point, a voiceover connects this scene to the next one, where

Zero and the Young Writer are right of the focus of the frame. In the center is

Boy with Apple, a physical connection to a time passed. Zero seems to be

content with the poor conditions of the hotel and with the hotel staffs

neglect. Here, the audience is equipped with all of the memories of the

Grand Budapest Hotel. We realize that the staffs negligence of the hotel is

related to its current standing. As Zero ducks under the counter the Young

Writer states, in an asynchronous voiceover, that In recent years, of course,

such holdings as the Grand Budapest had, with very few exceptions, become

common property. When the author says common property, Zero

readjusts Boy with Apple. This moment is critical because, as the film has

established, Boy with Apple was priceless but, due to circumstances such

as the war, and as hinted by the disheveled state the art was in before Zero
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adjusts it, it is clear that the painting is no longer worth anything, except to

Zero. Boy with Apple is treasured solely within the walls of the Grand

Budapest Hotel. The Grand Budapest, once again, provides a monument to a

time past. It provides the audience with physical nostalgia. This physical

location is a museum, with the pictures, that the audience gets to see in

passing. Each picture has a deeply personal story that we, as the audience,

have experienced with Zero. This is a museum of nostalgia for Zero as well

as the audience.

The Young Writer then asks, in a voice over, Was it merely

sentimental? after he had premised this question with information about

how Zero had spent a great fortune on this hotel, even though it was a

doomed one. When he asks this, we are shown image of the M. Gustave

Suite, in reference to Gustave. To Zero, the Young Writer asks, Is this your

last connection to that banished world, HIS world? The Young Writer himself

gets a sense that the physical location is meant to be a connection to a

deeply human experience, and to a deeply important person: Gustave. Zero

then replies with, The hotel I keep for Agatha. So, the Young Writer was

correct in sensing Zeros motives for buying the hotel. It was just the wrong

person. The hotel is a physical connection to Agatha. They are standing in

the ruins of a great time passed throughout this entire scene and, through

the magic of the Grand Budapest, there is a sense of a haunting nostalgia

surrounding them. Zero then moves to get into the elevator. In regard to

Gustave, he says To be frank, I think [Gustaves] world had vanished long

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before he ever entered it, but I will say: he certainly sustained the illusion

with a marvelous grace. Gustave, like Zero, was holding on to a memory

during his life at the hotel. He too was using the hotel as his vessel for

nostalgia.

This next moment, the mise-en-scene is crucial to understanding the

significance of the dialogue. Zero is framed within the walls of the elevator,

as if he is in a display case. He asks, Are you going up? He is expressing

his intention of exiting the conversation. The Young Writer says that he is

going to stay on the main floor, with the hotel. The elevator doors close and

Zero exits the scene by going up in the elevator. He exits the story

permanently and the audience knows that it is the last time they will see

him.

Then, after the Young Writer talks for a little while, music starts to play

very quietly. This song, titled S'Rothe-Zauerli, establishes the beginning of

an exiting from the hotel and from the story. The other time it is played is at

the beginning of the film, when the girl is going to the grave. This song

starts in order to establish the ascent back to the modern time. The

audience sees the Young Writer in the hotel, reflecting and writing in the left

side of the frame, creating an imbalance onscreen. It can be assumed that

the Young Writer is writing about the hotel or that he is writing down

information for the book that he writes in the future. He then states, with a

voiceover, that the Grand Budapest was an enchanting old ruin. The

audience then goes up a level in time to when the author is older and in
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his house. In this continuing voiceover, he says that he never returned. On

screen, there is a picture on left and the author is on the right. Here, this

picture is in the same style as the elk picture in the dining area of the Grand

Budapest. This automatically signals that the story impacted the author in

such a way that it stuck with him. However, unlike the elk picture, the main

mammoth in this painting is not alone. There is a herd of other mammoths

with it. It is not isolated. The Young Writer left the location, but having a

picture that is in the same style as the elk picture in the Grand Budapest is

his physical connection to the hotel. It is also important that it is on the left

side of the on screen space. The mise-en-scene here mirrors the visual

earlier with the picture, Boy with Apple, on the left and with the actor on

the right. The left side of the screen seems to be reserved for physical

representations of the Grand Budapests magical ability to create nostalgia.

The Young Writer carried on the legacy of the Grand Budapest by

transcending its sense of nostalgia to print; to a novel. Due to him, more

people have been exposed to Gustave and Zeros story and more people are

linking their passion for the story to the Grand Budapest. Here, the

placement of all of the objects on screen takes the focus away from the

author and to the picture. The audience knows that the picture is important

because the author is not in the center of the shot. His role is to balance out

the painting. Also, the author doesnt say anything on screen. Everything

that the audience is hearing is in a voiceover. In this moment, the author is

essentially a prop. This is an interesting choice because the actor(s) on

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screen are typically focused on. By having the mise-en-scene have as much

attention on him as the picture stresses the importance of the picture.

Then the music starts to get louder. The louder it gets, the closer to

the modern time the audience gets and the farther away from the physical

Grand Budapest Hotel we become. The last moment of movie is with the girl

from the beginning reading the authors book about the Grand Budapest at

the authors grave. Again, the mise-en-scene continues this pattern of

having a physical representation of the impact of the Grand Budapest on the

left, and something else on the right to balance it out. Here, the girl is on

right and the physical connection to the hotel is embodied on the left. It is

the grave. Similar to how the mammoths in the second painting is no longer

alone, the authors grave is covered with keys. By consistently having the

actors pushed to the right side of the frame, the mise-en-scene forces the

audience to look at what else was visible. The monuments on the left are

what these shots focus on. As Pramaggiore and Wallis said, Asymmetry may

suggest a lack of equilibrium, but, as with all aspects of mise-en-scene, the

composition must be interpreted in context (114). The asymmetry is

intentional and it is meant to shift the audiences attention. The story of the

Grand Budapest Hotel clearly impacted many people. So much so that

people came to the authors grave and placed keys to signify its impact. It

can be assumed that the Grand Budapest is no longer a physical place that

those from the modern time can go to. The hotel itself no longer exists,
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but this grave, which is a physical connection to the hotel, is a monument to

the story.

At this point, the audience has ended their ascent to the modern

time. They have fully left the Grand Budapest Hotel. It was done suddenly

and efficiently. There is not a chance to take in the fact that we are leaving it

permanently. The audience is forced to exit or go up out of the Grand

Budapest. We follow Zero up. The audience has to part ways with the hotel

and the audience has to let it go.

Andersons meticulous attention to the mise-en-scene created a subtle,

but crucial aspect to the film that manipulated how the audience responded

to The Grand Budapest Hotel. The film is able to create a deep sense of

connection to the hotel within the time it takes to complete the film. This is

done through the mise-en-scene and through the non-diegetic elements.

The placement of the actors and the pictures on screen, with the

asynchronous dialogue and the reoccurring use of the song S'Rothe-

Zauerli, are crucial to creating this nostalgia. These elements connect to

the hotel and, through these elements, the audience connects a sense of

nostalgia to the Grand Budapest. The hotel becomes a vessel for nostalgia.