{"id":161,"date":"2025-09-09T22:40:42","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T22:40:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/?p=161"},"modified":"2025-09-09T22:42:35","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T22:42:35","slug":"the-grand-budapest-hotel-a-cinematic-gem-dissected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/2025\/09\/09\/the-grand-budapest-hotel-a-cinematic-gem-dissected\/","title":{"rendered":"The Grand Budapest Hotel: A Cinematic Gem Dissected\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"The Grand Budapest Hotel: A Cinematic Gem Dissected [Cinematography, Color, Character]\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Ilzngc0J8rs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Throughout my viewing experience of <em>The Grand Budapest Hotel<\/em>, I was deeply conscious of the <em>Film Art: <\/em>Ch. 4:&#8221;The Shot: Mise-en-Sc\u00e8ne&#8221; reading from the week. I tried to pay close attention to the intentional mise-en-sc\u00e8ne aspects of each shot. However, after watching this video, I realized that I had mainly been paying attention to the lighting and camera angles in the movie. This quick analysis pointed out many other interesting details that I had missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Youtube video highlights many subtle mise-en-sc\u00e8ne moments going on throughout the film. One technique mentioned that really stood out to me was how the color scheme and aspect ratio of the film shift after the first scene that takes place in the 1980s. The colors in that scene are dull and realistic, demonstrating present day reality, and the scene&#8217;s aspect ratio is 1.85:1, which the speaker explains is the conventional aspect ratio of the modern era. Then, when the movie cuts to the story of the author, the aspect ratio shifts to 2.35:1, which was the conventional ratio of the 1960s. The colors also become slightly more vibrant. Shortly after, when Zero begins telling his story to the author and the audience gets transported into Zero&#8217;s story, there is another shift. The aspect ratio changes to 1.37:1, which was conventional sizing of the 30s, and the colors become even brighter and more unrealistic. This symbolizes Zero&#8217;s warped, nostalgic memories of the past, and the grandeur and fondness that he associates with his time spent at the hotel with M. Gustave. The vibrant and fantastical colors that fill the scenes suggest that Zero may be looking back at that time through rose colored glasses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another part of the video that stood out to me was the mention of Wes Anderson&#8217;s use of symmetry. Anderson is known for integrating symmetry frequently in scenes of his movies. However, this is frequently criticized, as people seem to think that the use of symmetry can put too much of a focus on how the shot is put together, rather than the emotional content of a scene. The video points out that in a comedy drama that is &#8220;veiled with satire and tragedy&#8221;, it goes perfectly with the way that Anderson is attempting to portray Zero&#8217;s memories. It is mentioned how the symmetry of the shots go right along with the overly romanticized version of the past that Zero is presenting. Symmetry represents the unattainable, as nothing in real life can ever look as perfect as a planned out, evenly staged film scene. It shows the perfection and cleanliness that Zero associates with the time. The symmetry and frequent use of wide shots in the hotel bring us directly into the inaccurate memories inside of Zero&#8217;s head.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overall, I really enjoyed watching this analysis of <em>The Grand Budapest Hotel<\/em>. I thought that this was a concise, well-thought-out video that fit an impressive amount of content into just eleven minutes. I always like to look up book reviews and analysis&#8217; after I finish reading a book to try and get as much out of it as I possibly can. I don&#8217;t do this very often with movies, and I appreciated hearing another perspective and getting some new insights on the film we watched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Throughout my viewing experience of The Grand Budapest Hotel, I was deeply conscious of the Film Art: Ch. 4:&#8221;The Shot: Mise-en-Sc\u00e8ne&#8221; reading from the week. I tried to pay close attention to the intentional mise-en-sc\u00e8ne aspects of each shot. However, after watching this video, I realized that I had mainly been paying attention to the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9793,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-searcher"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9793"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":185,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161\/revisions\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scholarblogs.emory.edu\/introtofilm2025\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}