The film I have chosen is called: “The Grand Budapest Hotel”. It is directed by Wes Anderson and it’s canadian release date was March 14th 2014. The filming was done entirely in several sites in Germany. This film, in short, is about an author meeting the owner of the Grand Budapest Hotel, Mr. Moustafa, and is told the story of how he took ownership of the now nearly deserted inn. “The Grand Budapest Hotel” isn’t categorized as a classical Hollywood narrative style, but as an art cinema film. The classical Hollywood style has a linear timeline, meaning that all the events happening in the movie are all in the present time. For the viewers, it is easier to understand what is going on and they do not have to stop and think about how a particular scene fits in the timeline. The hero and the villain are effortlessly distinguished from one another and their goals are clear. As the ending nears, all the loose ends are tied together and everybody lives happily ever after; the hero has successfully completed his/her goal while the villain is defeated. In view of this, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” differs from this style because of the magnificent mise-en-scene, the interesting cinematography, the fast-paced script, the use of non-diegetic sound and the discontinuing editing.
To start, “The Grand Budapest Hotel” has quite an impressive mise-en-scene. It was filmed entirely on location in Germany and the grand hotel is situated on top of a hill, which is quite odd but interesting nonetheless. Right when Mr. Moustafa goes on to tell his long tale, we immediately get this picturesque of a snowy landscape that is identical to the big painting at the back of the hotel’s dining hall. Then, there’s the Grand Budapest Hotel itself; the contrast between the symmetrical building’s pinkish exterior and the wintery forest landscape around makes it noticeably stand out. Each chamber in the inn has it’s own colour aesthetic for example: the bathhouse is pastel blue, yellow and beige whereas Mr. Gustave’s room is mainly pastel pink with the exception of the burgundy and gold carpet flooring. The other locations such as the prison and Madame D’s mansion also have their own aesthetic; the prison is mostly tinted in blue and grey while Madame D’s home is elegantly gold colored. For the workers of the Grand Budapest, the men have mustaches, crisp violet uniforms and little hats. The women have a violet dress, white apron and white bonnet-like headwear. Mr. Gustave is easily distinguished from them by his lilac pants, white dress shirt and black bow. There’s a nice contrast between the interior’s light atmosphere and their dark costumes. In the film, there are actors of different nationalities and unlike Classical Hollywood films, they were not asked to change their usual accent. The acting style is stylized, which is meant to fit with the whimsical and almost ‘childish’ concept of the film.
Cinematography: Despite “The Grand Budapest Hotel” being an art cinema film, it still has some characteristics of a Classical Hollywood film. For instance, the camera is steady, it isn’t shaky. In other words, it does not look like it was hand held. It does not move around often. Although, in some scenes for example when Mr. Gustave and Zero are leaded all the way to a Church to meet Serge, they encounter multiple priests. When they are speaking, the camera angle is straight, the level is horizontal, the height is at an eye level and the distance is fairly close. However, when they are afterwards shown running off to their next spot, the camera distance films from far away. The way they run and their little silhouettes in the distance resembles as if they were part of a Disney movie, a cartoon. This element brings out the playfulness of the situation. Another scene is when the policemen are at the Grand Budapest and they must place Mr. Gustave under arrest for the murder of Madame D. After Gustave realizes he’s been framed, he suddenly breaks into a run, the music cuts off completely and the officers chase after him. The camera stays in place, which let’s the viewer be amused by the absurdity of the situation. In addition, the audience somehow feels that they are watching the event from their own eyes, which is the camera. Because there isn’t all different types of camera shots(primarily straight and horizontal shots), the viewer has more of a connection and feels included within the film.
Script: Like the movie itself, the script is quite whimsical. At the beginning of the film when the young author is talking to the receptionist, his non-diegetic script is him telling his book for example, Mr. Moustafa had the time of his life when he was known as Zero the lobby boy after he was taken under Mr. Gustave’s wing. Even though there’s an uncertainty of who the main hero is, Mr. Gustave can be a good guess; his script is very fast-paced and busy which some parts can be lost by the viewer if he/she isn’t attentive enough. Although, unlike the Classical Hollywood Style, most of his lines don’t move the story along. For example, Instead of having an impact and causing something to happen later in consequence, it’s merely a humorous, very specific and elongated line. Within the whole script, there are uses of profanity, sexual connotations(for example, when it is mentioned that Mr. Gustave is fond of making love to elderly women that are: insecure, vain, superficial, blonde, needy) and the inclusion of another language(such as Madame D’s maid and butler Serge when they were communicating in French).
The non-diegetic soundtracks that play in the background were mostly made originally for the film itself. They were composed mainly by Alexandre Desplat, a French film composer, while the others were from an orchestra and Öse Schuppel, a Swiss group. They are all instrumental and they do not have any vocals. Unlike the Classical Hollywood Style, the music does not include any popular, dramatic or upbeat tunes that makes an emphasis on the current situation going on. In “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, there are moments when it’s simply the characters having a conversation without any background music. However, when they are in action, which results to barely no dialogue at all, an ambient soundtrack immediately starts playing in order to not break the film’s whimsical feeling. Examples of scenes are when Vilmos Kovacs was trying to escape from Jopling, when Mr. Gustave and Zero were being leaded all the way to a Church to meet up with Serge and when they were afterwards chasing Jopling. Even though Alexandre Desplat’s soundtracks used the same instruments quite a lot, he nonetheless succeeded in adding both an eerie and playful tone to the film. Some of his OST’s had similar tones(for example, ‘A Prayer For Madame D’ and ‘The Family Desgoffe Und Taxis’). However, he managed to change them just enough for the viewer to have a different emotion for each one.