The Grand Budapest Hotel

How this film uses it

Anderson uses centered symmetry throughout. Corridors, hotel lobbies, cell blocks and mountain cable cars are all filmed as if they were designed for a single viewer sitting at the exact center. Every location becomes a stage, and every character looks deliberately placed on it like an actor in a play.

Where to see it

The Grand Budapest Hotel's lobby and elevator shaft. The camera is centered on every vertical and horizontal line, so the architecture becomes pure composition.

How this film uses it

The film has 4 layers of storytelling. A girl reads the Author's book, the Author recalls his 1968 meeting with old Zero, old Zero tells the story and young Zero lives through the events with Gustave. Each layer puts more distance between you and what happened. It raises the question of how accurately Zero (and therefore anyone) can remember another person's life.

Where to see it

The film's nested frame introduction. The author, the book, the interview and the hotel are each set up as a layer before the story begins.

How this film uses it

Anderson shoots each era in a different aspect ratio, which is the shape of the frame. The 1980s and present-day frame is 1.85:1, the 1960s are in 2.40:1 widescreen and the 1930s story is in 1.37:1 Academy. Each ratio matches the main cinema format of its era. Alongside that, the color shifts. The 1930s sections are the most saturated and the present is the most muted.

Where to see it

The transitions between narrative frames. The shape of the picture changes as the film moves between time periods, and each era announces itself with its own look.

How this film uses it

Murder, prison, torture and political violence all get handled through the hotel's codes of service, courtesy and professionalism. Whenever Gustave meets an atrocity, he falls back on the correct form. The absurd comedy comes from the gap between his flawless manners and the monstrous world closing in on them.

Where to see it

Gustave's prison orientation. He treats prison like a hotel check-in that only needs the right social procedure, and he organizes his fellow prisoners as if they were guests.

How this film uses it

The Grand Budapest Hotel runs on ritual: the concierge's rounds, the lobby boy's training and the mutual aid rules of the Society of the Crossed Keys. Anderson's pacing respects those rituals. Through its long sequences of hotel procedure, the film argues that civilization is the sum of its ceremonies.

Where to see it

Zero's lobby boy training under Gustave. The rituals of hospitality are passed on as a moral education, and the ceremony itself is the subject.

How this film uses it

A girl reads a book. The book is by an Author. The Author recalls meeting Zero, and Zero tells the story of Gustave. You're 4 layers deep before you reach the events of the film. Each frame passes the story on and loses some of it. The story of Gustave only exists as a story about a story about a story, and Anderson makes that the central sadness of nostalgia.

Where to see it

The opening frame. A girl is at the author's grave, and the nested structure is set up before the first image of the hotel.