I want to talk about one of my all-time favourite films: The Grand Budapest Hotel. For me, it’s a joyous, stylish, endlessly funny and rewatchable classic and in my opinion, the very best of Wes Anderson’s impressive collection. The challenge in writing about it was therefore not in coming up with things to say but in choosing only one scene to focus on, as practically every frame of the film is a masterpiece in its own right.
I have decided to go with the “The Police Are Here” scene which takes place roughly a half hour into the film and signals the first big twist in the narrative. The full scene can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzrJBcwcm_o
The Camera:
Now if anyone has ever seen a Wes Anderson film, or even if you have heard anything of the acclaimed director at all, you’ll know that his trademark style and camerawork has a reputation all of its own. It’s basically become it’s own genre at this point: A Wes Anderson Movie. And one of the defining components of that style is symmetry. Perhaps the most common shot in an Anderson film is the character being perfectly centre-frame with the background behind them deliberately designed to be as balanced and even as possible.
Even more astonishing is that for The Grand Budapest Hotel, Anderson actually changes the aspect ratio of the film for each separate time period in which it takes place. I won’t bore you with the technical details but essentially he makes the 1920’s scenes appear like the films of the actual 1920’s, just by the way he shoots them, and that is just beyond inspired.
Anyway, back to the scene. It starts with lots of different shots, with the focus switching from the Hotel worker delivering the message, back to Zero and Monsieur Gustave, back again as the messenger departs and then into two trademark symmetrical frames where Gustave and Zero look out the window and then speak to each-other, a gap in the curtain between them.
However, once they leave that room and head downstairs to the lobby, the camera then doesn’t move for nearly an entire minute, fixed in a position, waiting for Gustave to arrive in its centre. Even better is that it remains even after he sprints away from the police. This is done to show that at this point in the narrative, the entire world of the story revolves around Gustave and rather than the camera leaving him at this moment of crisis, instead it is as if he has chosen to leave the frame.
The Comedy:
I’m going to talk about both dialogue and performance together here because the two work in perfect harmony to create another key facet of the scene: its humour. Ralph Fiennes has an absolute ball as Gustave throughout the entire film, bringing an exaggerated energy to the extraordinary character. Even in the simplest exchanges where no obvious jokes are present, like Gustave’s response to the messenger, there is still lots of humour, with each line delivery and pause perfectly timed.
And then in this exchange between Gustave and Zero, it’s just a brilliant piece of scriptwriting, though once more the timing of the lines by the respective actors elevates it to higher levels of hilarity:
G: Have you ever been questioned by the authorities?
Z: Yes, on one occasion.
G: What?
Z: I was arrested and tortured by the rebel militia after the desert uprising
G: Right, well you know the drill then; Zip it!
The Colour
This is something I would almost never point out in a scene analysis as whilst never incidental, it is rarely as important as other aspects like the music or acting, but in The Grand Budapest it forms such a crucial part of the world that Anderson creates. Why the film works so well, and why it has such a charming and feel-good quality to it is because it never appears to us like the real world, but rather a glamorised, slightly surrealist version of it. And Anderson’s use of colour is central to that.
The background of the first room is simultaneously both bright and dull, with the colour scheme being a kind of beige and orange combination. This is to ensure the eye is always on the characters who are dressed in a much more vibrant purple. Even when the action moves to the far grander lobby, with the hotel’s bright, red carpet visible, that becomes more or less obscured when Gustave and Zero approach, and instead the only background colours are once more bright and bland.
Finally, the difference in the clothing between the police, decked in a dull grey, and Gustave and Zero in their luxurious purple is an obvious comment on the characters and a veiled anti-Military message. These are subtle details but every single thing is deliberate and meticulously planned in The Grand Budapest Hotel and that is why it has such an enduring and intrinsic charm.
George F Brown 