The grand Budapest hotel - analysis

Caspar Hayes

The grand Budapest hotel is a unique and interesting experience of a film, creating a quick
paced, comedic thrill with use of its colour, camera work and framing, the mise-en-scene and
the other locations and it’s sound. All of this will be analysed as to how it benefits the film
and enhances the experience as a comedy, and what directors should learn from this film.
Colour
Wes Anderson, the film’s director, has become quite well known for his use of colour, how
he uses it to direct the feeling of a scene or to show the personality of a character.

Anderson uses his colours for the same reason here, the colours of character’s clothes, the
colours used in the rooms of locations and the lighting of a scene. Certain colour choices
portray certain moods to an audience, so the chosen colours are done to hold meaning or to
elicit a response or as previously stated characterise a character.
Example being the outfits of characters, M. Gustave primarily wears purple in his scenes.
Purple has association with the traits of: erotism, pride, luxury and wealth, dignity and
ambition. As we see throughout the film Gustave does indeed share these traits, he’s a man
that takes pride in his work as a butler, is very erotic with his relationships with the older
women in the hotel, he is a man of luxury and wealth seeing as he is in need of perfume and
cream after he escapes from prison and shows his ambition throughout the film as he tries to
find who framed him.

We also see the colour used for a scene's emotion in scenes such as the reading of the will,
where we are introduced to Madame D’s relatives, in comparison to the hotel the colours are
a mix of greens, blacks, browns and golds, contrasting with Gustave’s purple outfit. This
creates an uncertain and suspenseful mood as is fitting for the scene as Gustave is outed as
a potential murderer and his conflict with Madame D’s son starts here. Here we also see the
outfits of the family are black, fitting for their role as antagonists.

Later we see the use of red be used at the carnival where Zero and Agatha are falling in love
more and more, the use of the colours, white, yellow and red signify, purity, sunshine and
optimism and passion.
The film uniquely also has a scene with no colour whatsoever, being that it’s the death scene
of Gustav, the colours of black, grey and white are more pronounced and vivid, making this
scene immediately stand out to the audience, making the death more impactful and
portraying the sense of sadness.

There’s also the fact that the story is framed as a story book that is being read at the grave
of its author, so it could be argued the colours create a more fantastical feel to the story,
maybe making it seem more epic than it would be. Considering how we see the hotel at the
start compared to the retelling can prove this as the colours of the hotel and other locations
seem to fit that narrative framing. Though it can also show the age of the hotel and its toll
overtime and the change in its more depraved colours show this.
Camera work
The film’s camera work mostly consists of long takes and focused central framing. The long
takes remain a consistent feature of the film, adding to the comedic pace and build-up of
jokes, also allowing for Anderson’s fast paced comedy to shine. Example would be found in
Zero’s introduction in his retelling of his time at the hotel, the camera follows him and
Gustave through the lobby as the chaos unfolds around them, the long take presenting the
chaotic life at the hotel as a lobby boy.
Zero's Interview
Another example would be this small segment where Madame D’s son, Dmitri is chasing
Agatha, the long take building up the suspense as he attempts to chase Agatha without
causing any problems. The long take insights the build-up more and adds to the comedic
value of the scene giving it an over the top tone combined as well with the music and the
performance of Adrien Brody.
The walk

One final example of the use of long takes and its effectiveness is the beginning of
Gustave’s escape from prison, the scene starts with the camera remaining still once the
lights go out, then they spring into action as we follow their light down into the tunnel they
made through the sewers. We then linger on the lamp and pan up seeing them run off into
the darkness. We also see more uses of long takes from the escape, such as the descent
from the “dumbwaiter” to grab the keys and unlock the door, a slight bit of visual comedy is
found there, and it continues as they grab the ladder and take it to lower down throughout
the prison, another use of visual comedy with the absurd length of the ladder.
The escape
Anderson also uses his framing to allow for the film’s comedic tone to shine, as well as to
allow for audience engagement and important information to be clear when it’s needed.
Examples of its comedic use can be seen in the scene “The police are here”, within this clip
we start with standard back and forth dialogue, we then see Gustave and Zero move to the
window that overlooks the lobby the shot combined with their combined expression makes
for a comedic image. We then see the general and his men in the lobby, we see Gustave
and Zero enter frame, they’re also framed in the centre. We see the dialogue shared
between them and then Gustave runs off as the police chases from behind. As he runs off,
they stay in the focus of the frame as they run off, creating comedy through the perspective
of the framing, having them run in the foreground framed so the audience can see the chase
unfold laughing at the them running into the background.
The police are here
Sound and Music
Anderson’s use of music here is done to compliment the over the top nature of the story. It
can sound bouncy and charming, or grandiose and dramatic. It helps with the partnering of
the cinematography and direction. The sequence of Gustave and Zero climbing up the
mountain is a good example of the bouncy and charming music, that works with the direction
of the scene.
Are you Mr Gustave?

We see the framing of the scene is done via Zero and Gustave’s silhouettes in the snow, a
very cartoonish and exaggerated way of framing them in the snowy environment, coupled
with the surreal quick paced comedic interactions with the church members as well as the
stop motion presentation of the ski lift creates a very comedically charming tone, so the
music used in the scene adds to the tone and makes the comedy more fitting.
An example of its dramatic use can be found again in “Dmitri’s walk” but there is another
example, being the introduction to Madame D’s family, the music being as dramatic as it is
emphasising the family’s villainous nature in the story, combined with the set design, the
colours of their clothing makes for an entertaining introduction to the main antagonists of the
story.
The Will

Another factor to point out is when the film does not use music. This can be seen in “the
shootout”, the focus on the escalating sounds of gunfire, the echoes of the men joining in,
coupled with the sweeping shot of the unfolding chaos in the lobby allows for a simple
display of chaos and comedy, the lack of music here was probably done to not make the
scene overplay it’s chaotic nature. The sound design helps the scene especially as
previously mentioned focus on the sounds of the escalating gunfire helps the comedic nature
of the scene.
The shootout
Mise-en-scene
Finally, we look at the mise-en-scene. The locations of the film all incorporate their own use
of colour, done to display the mood of the scene, characterise characters and helps
compliment the tone of the film.

The hotel is made to look difference in its past and future to, as I stated earlier, convey the
passage of time, adding to the mood of nostalgia felt by Zero as he retells his life at the
hotel, the grey and beige colour palette of the prison is made to show Gustave’s depravity
from the hotel.
The locations themselves hold thematic meaning in the story, the story begins in a graveyard
where the author of the book is buried, which ties into the film’s theme of the past and
legacy, the story Zero tells is told in the restaurant area of the hotel, a place in which he has
spent a large amount of time serving people, tying again into the theme of the past and his
legacy as a lobby boy before-hand.

The Mise en scene also plays into the visual humour of the story, again “The shootout”
scene applies but another example would be the church, the rows of white robed men and
Gustave and Zero trying to fit in works as a form of visual comedy, the two of them acting out
of place in an otherwise serious location, with a combination of dark and bright colours.
(skip to 1:55)
The church

Conclusion
What a director can learn from the Grand Budapest hotel is that presentation matters when
you go for a comedy, I have documented how all of these factors, most of them being visual
all add to the comedic experience of the film as the film’s presentation elicits a comedic
response due to its style working with the over the top comedy. So, the lesson Anderson has
taught us is that visuals and audio make the experience all the better.