The secret world of the Grand Budapest Hotel
This is M. Gustave. H. Concierge at the Budapest Hotel
This is Zero Moustaffa M. Gustave H.’s protege and friend
Released 2014 | Rated R | 99 minutes | Adventure, Comedy, Drama In the 1930s, the Grand Budapest Hotel is a popular European ski resort. Gustave prides himself on providing first-class service to guests, including satisfying the sexual needs of the elderly women who stay there. When one of Gustave's lovers, Madame D., dies mysteriously, Gustave finds himself the recipient of a priceless painting and the chief suspect in her murder.
This is a movie concerned with — and influenced by — an especially rich and complicated slice of 20th-century European culture. The Grand Budapest Hotel is like a Faberge egg: so much whimsy, beauty and point-of-view wrapped up in a comparatively tiny 100 minutes.
This is Dmitri Desgo fe-und-Taxis
Son of Madame D. and wants the priceless painting
Designing the State of Zubrowka Atkins designed all the props for the Grand Budapest Hotel. She began planning graphics by reading the script. For this movie, she was tasked with designing the elements in a fictional world named Zubrowka. Atkins composed a list of items to design then did research.
She researched the time period, the type of typefaces and paper that was used in the past. This meant if the prop is a handwritten letter, the design should be drawn, not computer generated. It’s also vital to consider the environment that the film takes place in and the characters. “We’re not designing as designers, but for the character we’re making the props for,” she says. “It’s our responsibility, even though it may seem quite insignificant to everyone else.”
This is Annie Atkins The lead designer for the film
Designs Made for the Screen “If it was made by hand at the time, make it in hand now.” Annie Atkins made her designs by hand. Here’s some of the props she made...
Madame D.’s last note and Agatha’s passport These items are glimpsed briefly if at all in the film but all were paintstakingly crafted by Atkins. Here is Madame D.’s last note to her beloved Gustave written on hotel newspaper and a photograph of her body alongside the card of Dimitri’s enforcer and assistant J.P. Jopling.
Zubrowka stamps and mail Many of the visual references in the film were inspired by browsing through an archive that the Library of Congress has of these hand-tinted travel postcards, known for its photographic process called Photochrom. You can see this here.
Trans-Alpine Yodel newspaper Approximately 20 of these Trans-Alpine Yodel newspapers were crafted. All of them included the subtitle, "Tanks at Frontier,� as seen in the scenes when lobby boy Zero is carrying the stack of newspapers. Later in post-production, they changed the subtitle digitally to, "Tanks at Border,� for the close-up insert shot of the newspaper.
“Most of the time, we’re making graphics to blend in seamlessly with the rest of the world that the art department is creating. It is a bit of a secret world and it doesn’t get a lot of press.” —Annie Atkins
This is Henckels
Captain of the Lutz military police
This is Agatha Mendl Zero Moustaffa’s fiance
The devil’s in the details Atkins spelled a word wrong on a “hero props,” items which get significant amount of screen time or are important to the story being told. She misspelled “patisserie” on a Mendl’s Bakery box. It has reoccurring appearances throughout the film. In fact, there are hundreds of boxes in one scene. The spelling errors of closeup shots were fixed in post.
“This is what happens, you end up on the IMBd goofs page.” —Annie Atkins