The Grand Budapest Hotel – an introduction

WES ANDERSON, 2014

WES ANDERSON'S Oscar-winning movie fairy tale takes the audience to the candy-coloured phantasy worlds of the GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL. On four narrative levels, this »story in a story« offers a nostalgic gaze at the 20 th century, bizarre incidents and charming settings with an international star cast.

TEXT: BARBARA EICHHAMMER

ILLUSTRATIONS: LEA LAFLEUR

THE FILM

WES ANDERSON’S THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL TAKES US ON A TOUR DE FORCE THROUGH ITS NARRATIVE STRANDS AND EPOCHS

A teenaged girl reads a book in the present frame narrative, in which its author remembers in 1985, how he met the Grand Budapest Hotel’s owner Zéro Mustafa (TONY REVOLORI) in the Sixties when he was a young man himself. Zéro had told him the phenomenal story, how he came to be the owner of the impressive building and how he worked his way up from a lobby boy under Concierge Gustave (RALPH FIENNES) to proprietor. (TRAILER)

THE FILM IS NARRATED ON FOUR DIFFERENT TEMPORAL LEVELS IN FIVE CHAPTERS, WHICH ENCOMPASS THE 20TH CENTURY. IN ITS CENTRE IS THE EPONYMOUS »GRAND BUDAPEST«, WHICH IS REMINISCENT OF THE LEGENDARY HOTELS IN SOUTHEAST EUROPE AT THE FIN DE SIÈCLE, THE HEYDAY OF EUROPEAN LUXURY HOTELS.

WES ANDERSON tells this »story in a story« in his unprecedented bizarre style. The narration is located in the fictional country

»ZUBRÓWKA«, which is named after a polish Vodka brand. With his invented Carpathian world, Anderson creates a touristic ideal image of a glamourous Europe, that is redolent with pastel bakeries, old monasteries and pompous castles like

NEUSCHWANSTEIN. Time and again in the focus: Postcard-like panorama shots of the scenery,

THE SOCIETY OF THE CROSSED KEYS

STEFAN ZWEIG

which are reminiscent of the picturesque landscape paintings by romantic artist CASPARDAVID FRIEDRICH. The director found further inspirations for his imaginary worlds in the works of Austrian writer STEFAN ZWEIG, who wrote his novels at the beginning of the 20 th century. This is also clearly marked in the film’s end credits where it says: »Inspired by the writings of Stefan Zweig«.

GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL can be seen as a postmodern pastiche, that integrates past image styles, nostalgically reconstructs filmic formats and cites works of art, literature and film. With this film, Anderson recreates the past century on screen, whereby he refers to its former media and their specificities.

THE FANTASTICIMAGES

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL LIVES FROM THE INCOMPARABLE FILMIC STYLE OF ITS US-AMERICAN DIRECTOR,WES ANDERSON.

WITH THIS AUTEUR FILM, HE TAKES THE AUDIENCE TO THE FAIRY-TALE LIKE WORLD OF THE FANTASTIC, WHICH RECONSTRUCTS THE PAST OF THE 20 TH CENTURY ON SCREEN THROUGH CITATIONAL IMAGERY AND INTERTEXTUAL REFERENCES.

ANDERSON uses diverse formalaesthetic stylistic devices, which cite and nostalgically recreate the respective time, in which the story is located. Thus, he represents each epoch with another cinema screen format. The narrative strand from 1932 is, for instance, shown in the format

4:3; the year 1968 is presented in Cinemascope format, 2,35:1, and for the present as well as 1985, Anderson chose a 16:9 format. What is special about this: Each format was actually Hollywood screen standard at the respective points of time they refer to. Thus, the 4:3 format in films like Alfred Hitchcock’s THE 39 STEPS (1935) was expression of the classical audience a temporal orientation within the different narrative strands and to generate on a formal level a nostalgic reconstruction of the Hollywood aesthetic of the respective decades. This is further underlined by the special colour coding of the imagery:

The main narrative of the film in 1985 is clearly organised in pastel candy colours such as pink, blue and violet, while those scene in the Sixties show strong yellows, orange and red tones. 1932 is Hollywood era during the Thirties. Cinemascope was ideal for extensive panorama shots such as in Western movies like ONCEUPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968). Thus, the diverse image formats help to give t h e shown in a bright, saturated look. Such a colour coding – especially of the landscape scenes – also plays with the film’s citationality: It refers to the photochrome printing method, which was highly popular at the turn of the 19 TH CENTURY and allowed to reproduce colours even before the invention of colour photography. The result were those typically pastel views.

PLACE OF THEFANTASTIC

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL

turns the hotel to a place of the fantastic, the imaginary and the magical, where not only temporal boundaries can be overcome playfully, but also a world of the Other and the bizarre is possible. During the course of the action, the fourth wall is deliberately shattered, when actors – in a seemingly documentary style – talk to the audience directly. Already at its beginning, the author, for instance, talks into the camera to tell his audience how he got to know Zéro. With this realistic narrative technique, ANDERSON grabs his viewers

GÖRLIWOOD

It was actually in the German town of GÖRLITZ, that the main part of the film Grand Budapest Hotel was shot. The Saxon small town near the border to Poland boasts an unparalleled concentration of historical buildings. Almost completely undamaged by World War II, the town counts more than 4000 restored historical buildings spanning the epochs of Renaissance, baroque, late Gothic, Jugendstil and Wilhelminian style. With its unharmed historical facades, Görlitz was the ideal setting for the fictive southeast- European country. One building in particular caught Wes Anderson’s attention: The »WARENHAUSGÖRLITZ« (which opened 1913 as department store and was closed in 2009). Its art nouveau interiors were refurbished to house the central location of the film, the lobby of the Grand Hotel. The fictive scenery was modelled after the appearances of European Grand Hotels at the turn of the century, such as the Palace Bristol Hotel in Karlsbad.

During the last ten years, so many films were shot in the Saxon small town of GÖRLITZ – especially US- American movies – that its nickname »GÖRLIWOOD« pays tribute to this Hollywood boom. Görlitz had already been a film location during DEFA-times for several TV productions. But its great breakthrough came after the fall of the Berlin Wall with Hollywood-productions such as AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (2004) with Jackie Chan and Arnold Schwarzenegger or THE READER (2008) with Kate Winslet und David Kross, which made Görlitz practically overnight known internationally. Görlitz has nowadays come to perform as setting for New York, Berlin, Königsberg, Paris and even Venice in well-known Hollywood movies such as INGLORIOUSBASTERDS or THE MONUMENTSMEN.

THE ACTORS

For his German-British-American co-production WES ANDERSON chose an international star personnel: He gathered together the crème de la crème of known actors like RALPHFIENNES, WILLEM DAFOE, JEFFGOLDBLUM, HARVEY KEITEL,JUDE LAW, TOM WILKINSON,

BILL MURRAY, EDWARDNORTON, TILDA SWINTON and OWEN WILSON. The tragic comedy was nominated nine times for the Oscars and won in four categories, such as for costumes and production design. The film was not only a success with critics but also a veritable box-office hit.

Photos: DEMEL

Text: Elisabeth Stursberg

An interview with the real successor of master confectioner Mendl

The confectionery MENDL and its speciality, the wonderfully fluffy COURTESANS au Chocolat, play an important role in the GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL. In this issue, our hunt for the real-life version of the bakery in the movie led us to VIENNA (where else?). Since 1786, the royal confectioner DEMEL has been providing the town with sugary delicacies.

Wes Anderson's film shows master confectioner Mendl and the young confectioner Agatha covered in flour while they patiently make mountains and mountains of Courtesans au Chocolat. The guests of the Grand Budapest Hotel and the inhabitants of the sleepy village seemingly can’t get enough of them.

But what does the day-to-day life of a confectioner really look like and what would MENDL'S day look like today? We know the usual assumptions: getting up in the middle of the night, working hard, but at least you get to try something in between… Usually, helping convicts escape prison isn’t a part of those days (you’ll know what we mean when you watch the film) – still, a confectioner’s work is always special. At DEMEL in Vienna, we found and interviewed the real successor of master confectioner Mendl: head confectioner OLIVER CSAPO.

Oliver Csapo

Confectioner

»I am allowed to continue the tradition of Demel with my work and pass my knowledge on to the next generation.«

The question about getting up early is answered quickly when Oliver starts describing a regular day at the >office< which starts between 5.30 and 6AM.

»We usually start by talking about how much needs to be made and assigning people to certain processes. We also coordinate special decoration orders with the team. We freshly produce our confectionery every day and have multiple tastings to ensure great quality.«

How wonderful that tastings really are a part of the job. But aren’t there days when the sugar is just too much? Oliver confirms that this can happen around Christmas time. DEMEL stands for tradition in everything, not only considering the quality. The selection hasn’t changed muchsince the days when it suppliedthe Viennese court. A few newproducts support the wellknownclassics: apple and creamstrudel, Annatorte, Fächertorte,Schaumrolle, Fragilité and DEMEL’S Sachertorte. (The Fragilitéis Oliver‘s personal favourite! Seemslike a reliable source.) The recipeshave been adapted in places, thequantities of sugar have changeda little and the seasonal productsare adapted for each time ofthe year. This is one of Oliver’sfavourite tasks. Is there any taskwhere he often forgets time? Aresounding »yes«:»Whenever I think about new creations and how we could make them!«

As head confectioner, it is Oliver’sresponsibility to make sure thatevery product (strudel and tartsfor the coffee house and articlesfor the shop) always meets thehigh quality standards. He knowshis responsibility and sees thebiggest daily challenge in »meeting the expectations of our customers whiledelivering on quality.«

His dedication to DEMEL as abrand clearly motivates and driveshim. Oliver’s answer to our lastquestion is too beautiful not to bequoted in full length. We asked himwhy his work is important to himand why he chose his profession:»I am allowed to continue the tradition of Demel with my work and pass my knowledge on to the next generation. We can make customers and guests happy with our work. On wedding days, birthdays or on a regular day with a great cup of coffee and a beautiful piece of cake. I love my job, I love designing and really value working on a team. I would choose this job againany day.«

What a beautiful motto for futureconfectioners!

Fox Searchlight, the production company, published this how-to video .

In the movie, the original Courtesans au Chocolat were made by the Görlitz confectioner Anemone Müller-Großmann at her Café CaRe in Görlitz.

HERE is the recipe.