Film and Director Research: Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel

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The Grand Budapest Hotel is a 2014 comedy film starring Ralph Fiennes as Monsier Gustave H, the famed owner of an aging premier hotel and also the mentor of the self-starting lobby boy Zero (played by Tony Revolori). The film, which was written and directed by Wes Anderson received critical acclaim for its outlandish humor and the use of “ornate visual environments to explore deeply emotional ideas” (Rotten Tomatoes, 2012). The movie centers around the exploits of Gustave, who started as a lobby boy at the Grand Budapest Hotel (a popular ski resort). Gustave rose through the ranks by seducing old, wealthy, and lonely guests, including the dowager Madame D, whom he services for 20 years before her mysterious death. When Gustave is bequeathed a renaissance painting by the elderly woman, he becomes a person of interest in her murder. The film follows the intrigues of Gustave and his loyal aide Zero as they contend with Madame D.’s son and Zubrowkan troops. This essay will analyze the use of color in the film as a visual symbol and how it advances the fairy-tale style approach of director Wes Anderson.
Wes Anderson’s films are known for their fairy-tale ambiance and ability to convey a feeling of coziness that is outside the confines of reality. Most of the characters in his films exist within the realm of possibility but on a grander scale than reality would allow. Wes Anderson’s characters live in a world that is “not unlike our own, but intriguingly askew – as the element of the fairy tale” (Friedman, 2014). Although the typical rules that define reality exist in Wes Anderson’s films, his characters have more freedom to bend them than in reality. The fairy tale created by the director is believable but is not consistent with reality (Li, 2021). The director allows the fairy-tale world he has created to move according to its own motion, a feature that is evident in his 2014 film, The Grand Budapest Hotel. One of the reasons the film is engaging is because it forces viewers to confront deep emotional ideas in a fairy-tale environment where “action is perpetual and transitions are seamless” (Friedman, 2014). Wes Anderson does not spare any effort in creating a vintage European universe in the imaginary Republic of Zubrowka filled with “Tymoshenko-style hair braids, twine-tied pastry boxes and perfume bottles with squeeze bulbs” (Friedman, 2014). Wes Anderson actualizes this fairy-tale universe through intense visual effects.
Production designers must consider the balance of visual weight in creating a stable environment: “Production design is a delicate piece of the puzzle, for visual aspects are the most significant in creating film perception and comprehension among audiences” (Vreeland, 2015). Visual effects help sell Wes Anderson’s fairy-tale world in the The Grand Budapest Hotel in a convincing manner. The ability of the director to manipulate the film’s perceived reality and win audiences’ hearts and minds in creating a titular hotel reminiscent of Old Europe is hinged on the use of a color scheme. Wes Anderson’s use of baby blue, deep purple, and pastel-pink is not just for aesthetic value but also to enhance the effects of his fairy-tale world and advance his narrative. The various colors comprise a color scheme that is effective in creating the fairy tale illusion (Visconti di Oleggio Castello et al., 2020). “Visual effects are coextensive with narrative film, and digital tools have made them more expressive, persuasive, and immersive” (Prince, 2014). The color scheme of blue, pink, and purple is essential to sustaining the whimsical world of European romanticism where hotel guests crave privacy, fine dining, and a chat with the charming concierge Monsieur Gustav. The colors help create a believable atmosphere where everything is possible within the hotel (Spencer et al., 2018). The visual effects of the color scheme are essential to Wes Anderson’s expansive and invented world of extravagance, aesthetic refinement, and poetry.
The believability of Wes Anderson’s fairy-tale world is not just hinged on the use of a three-color code scheme, but is also centered around the use of well-framed shots. The Grand Budapest Hotel is visually compelling because the shots are taken from the perspective of a painter: “In addition to centering his shots, Anderson also favors an immobile shot, allowing the world to shift about in the frame, as would be the case in an enchanted painting” (Friedman, 2014). Wes Anderson’s well-framed shots help create a stable fairy-tale environment: “By following the age-old and well-established rule of thirds, having the subject and counter-subject of a shot placed in the thirds of the frame, the shot feels balanced and natural” (Linford, 2020). Intentional center-framing ensures that the focus of the viewer is on the visual symbols that are employed throughout the film to convey deeper emotional truths. This filmic approach is effective in calling attention to the color scheme and visual elements of the film. For instance, Wes Anderson’s deliberate center framing emphasizes something about the uniforms in The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Although Zero and Monsier Gustave have very little in common, they both wear the same retro uniform of bright purple, a fact that helps sell the signature quirk of the Old Europe hotel. Through a series of well-framed shots and colorful microcosms, the audience become immersed in the fairy world and start to relate to the robust and idiosyncratic characters. Wes Anderson’s use of color in his films helps create visual illusions that audience can believe and immerse themselves in (Mulyani, 2019). The use of color in the film also helps advance the narrative. For instance, the narrative of the film takes place within four separate timelines, each with its distinct aspect ratios and color pallets. Although the film starts with a woman visiting the grave of the writer who authored the book The Grand Budapest Hotel, the main timeline is in 1932. In 1932, Monsieur Gustave is a renowned concierge at the quaint Old Europe hotel and Zero is the fastidious lobby boy. In the main timeline, Gustave is seducing old, wealthy, female clients while also mentoring Zero: the two are quite close and develop a father-son relationship. The historical references of the time period are made clear through color. Wes Anderson makes references to Eastern Europe’s past and present in various subtle ways. For instance, the pastel-pink exterior of the Grand Budapest Hotel on top of a snowy mountain top is a nod to earlier Europe Romanticism but also a signal of the establishment’s gradual death.
Moreover, the entirety of the main timeline occurs before the fictious mid-1930s world war. The conflict is the result of a Franz-Ferdinand monarchy crisis and fascist forces start to ravage the quaint European countryside, including the Grand Budapest Hotel. Most of the film’s narrative occurs during this period. In the main timeline Gustave has several sexual relations with rich widowed guests, including Madame D., who dies a month after her last visit to the hotel. The mysterious death results in Gustave’s arrest as the prime suspect in her murder (Zinman, 2021). In her will, she bestows the famed renaissance painting “Boy with Apple” to Gustave to the dismay of her eldest son, Dmitri, who accuses the concierge of murdering his mother. W...