Okay, okay, I know, I know–I am super late!
I had never seen such a great, amazing, magnificent–(must I go on?) film in a long while and a few weeks ago, I finally took the time to watch The Grand Budapest Hotel, which was released around Spring of last year, 2014–yes, I know, a bit late. This film was like a breath of fresh air and a splash of water on my face! I don’t know where to begin of what my favorite aspect of it was. Probably all of them. (The writing, camera work, lighting, design–I am not exaggerating). As it is founded as a frame story, the film holds two different time eras–Europe, circa 1930s and 1970s Europe as the current day of the narrator. The art direction was so perfectly set up and the colors were so vivid. They had a way of being able to have everything remain elegant and very detailed with specific colors, and props; which I give another hands down to the lighting department. You could definitely tell there was a very unique and specific color palette for the film. I just love, love, love the colors and design and everything they did for the film! It’s just–ugghkfjdoahufoe;afjdka;fhidoa–so beautiful and wonderful and amazing! Four words I'd give for these colors and the quality would be smooth, rich, delicate, and intricate.
Some of my favorite color combinations shown in the film were:
- the light pink with hints of forest green from the mountains; sometimes mustard yellow
- the vibrant violet hotel worker uniforms against the rich red hotel carpet/elevator interior
- baby blue ribbons paired with the light pink frosting pastry boxes
I also liked the mustard yellow-y and peachy gold lettering for “The Grand Budapest Hotel”– even the font! And of course, I love the hotel look on the cover in general (the upper half in light pink and bottom half in a darker shade of pink; all with details of a grayish blue and the peachy gold I mentioned)!
A few more things I really liked is that although the film was based around the same time as when the (WWI) war was beginning, and although it definitely still slipped in scenes/hints of important aspects relating to the war; its personality remained a bit comical because of the situations the main characters would get themselves into. It was really revolved around their lives as diligent workers in The Budapest and not overly focused on the war. I also really really liked the scoring of the film (Symphonic, Intense, Upbeat, Eccentric)!
*SPOILER ALERT
As I reached the end of the film, I was left with a kind of lonely, empty and sad feeling. The hotel was so grand, and well-maintained in the beginning but as the story went back to the narrator’s current time, the hotel had gone through a complete transformation, as it was now in the ‘70s. It seemed empty, lonely and dull.
I asked myself, “How in the world have I been living with a penchant for art without knowing who Wes Anderson was the whole time up until now?” I had seen Fantastic Mr. Fox when it came out, but I was still too young to appreciate the production of it and to even acknowledge who Wes Anderson was. Maybe a few of you reading this have already acknowledged the well-viewed American film director and screenwriter and are laughing at my ignorance! I’m just glad I’ve found yet another artist to add to my “art inspiration” board!