All These Creations: “The Grand Budapest Hotel”

As A Discussion About The Power Of Art

Year: 2014

Director: Wes Anderson

Writers: Stefan Zweig (inspired by his writings), Wes Anderson, Hugo Guinness

Stars: Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric, Tony Revolori, Adrien Brody, Jeff Goldblum, Jude Law, Edward Norton, Saoirse Ronan, Tilda Swinton

Great painters tell stories not only with their sheer talent and thematic sensibilities, but by creating their own unique color pallet, by meticulously composing everything in the scene and even picking the frames for the paintings. With masterful technique in composition, stunning colors, magical soundtracks and unforgettable faces, Wes Anderson does the same with his films.

“The Grand Budapest Hotel” is the perfect example for that and while some consider Anderson’s film-making superficial, isn't it what the movie is all about – the “faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity”? It’s about the “glimmers” that barely survive trapped between the beautiful, but surfacy colors of the hotel. It’s about Monsieur Gustave H., who’s trying to sustain the illusion of refined, cultured world with the use of immaculate speech (poetry is extremely important here), looks and, of course, lots of “L'air de Panache” that mask the darkest realities of the modern world, as well as his own flaws. A great example for this is the scene after the prison break when Monsieur Gustav shows his own prejudices, because there’s no “L'air de Panache” to hide his unpleasant smell – literally and metaphorically. And just like any painter trying to capture all the beauty and vibrancy of the world, even Wes Anderson has to step back and drain the screen of its colors when the heroes are finally confronted with the monstrous reality of the war in the last train scene. Sadly, that’s what the Reich wanted – a very white world.

This really reminded me of a song, so here it is. From another “flamboyant” man questioning some modern values.

With the use of colors (or none in the train scene), with the deliberate change of the aspect ratio according to the time period, with the transforming appearance of the hotel, even the contrast between the two paintings in the film, the director seems to emphasize on the fragility of culture, on the ever-changing understanding and significance of art, which sometimes loses the battle to make the world a better place. What art seemingly does is to mirror reality and to transform along with it - just with a little bit more colors and… “panache”.

And in a way Monsieur Gustav is the artist in the story – the extravagant dreamer that awakens the bright colors in the world of “The Grand Budapest” making it more like an art album than a history book. Most of the time he simply prefers to ignore the changing world - at one point he’s given a newspaper and completely dismisses the news of the war starting. When we are introduced to the author he also seems a bit detached from society - he talks about his loneliness, treating it like a disease. Because of that he needs to visit the hotel in attempt to find something that's missing from his world. And yet, as we can see in the most recent time period, he transcends the harsh realities of history, becoming a national treasure.

This shows that despite often having just decorative purposes, art has the power to help us survive. Although the inheritance of the old lady is split just as the war is shattering Europe into pieces, the drama is still focused on the stolen art. And while the war ushers the world into a new era - the old priceless masterpiece is replaced by a piece by the modern painter Schiele. It's quickly destroyed, probably because before the war Schiele was seen more as an art criminal, rather than a modern master.

However, the work's not actually a Schiele masterpiece - it's a painting by Rich Pellegrino, commissioned specifically for the movie. Wes Anderson wanted it to look like a painting by Schiele, just as he wanted "Boy with apple" to resemble Flemish mannerist painters from the XVI century. This one was commissioned to Michael Taylor. So, both paintings are in fact fakes that emulate a certain artistic aesthetic, just as the "The Grand Budapest Hotel" as a film immerses us into different historical periods, re-imagined with Anderson's distinctive paintbrush. Even the characters in the movie are “fake” in a way. They are not historical figures, but both the author and Monsieur Gustav are loosely based on Stefan Zweig, who had the reputation of passionate idealist. And while The Grand Budapest is still standing it will remind the world that no matter how “fake” and ethereal art is by its nature, it is necessary in order to make us human.