A Review on the Artistic Creativity of The Grand Budapest Hotel
The Grand Budapest Hotel is known not only for its pleasant cinematography but also for its vibrant set design. It is no surprise as to how this wonderful film managed to take the Oscar award for Best Production Design. When reviewing a film's artistic production, it is essential to first see what the production team's main ideas were upon creating such a set. This is where Adam Stockhausen chimes in.
According to a recent interview on an online article in The Dissolve, Stockhausen pointed out several key styles that he said inspired the team to make the sets. He mentioned that they were heavily inspired by the buildings found on the location on which The Grand Budapest Hotel was filmed. He also mentioned the presence of Art Noveau in the towns they visited in order to find inspiration. The biggest example in which this art movement was seen in the film would be the portrait Zero and Mr. Gustav replaced the Boy with the Apple painting with which showed two women partaking in sexual actions with one another. The way it was drawn was closely relevant to the styles shown in many Art Noveau types of paintings.
Moving on to the bigger plot of the film, we are told of a “priceless” painting. The painting, referred to as “Boy with the Apple” is simply a portrait of what the title suggests. A boy with his apple. Upon looking at the painting we see how it is quite similar to several portraits made during the 1500s. These paintings are made using a style known as Mannerism. In fact, it draws inspiration from an actual Mannerist painting made in the 1500s. This painting would be the portrait of Lodovico Capponi by Bronzino. Mannerism is the art form that came forth after the Italian Renaissance. It was brought forth after many artists started to feel everything had been done already after the Renaissance era. It was the result of younglings trying to find something new to show off and boast about. The main resemblance the Boy with the Apple has with Mannerist portraits would be its structure based on how the boy is posed. It is through intricate placing of his fingers for example, in which we see the style commonly used for the anatomical features of Mannerist paintings.
Finally, we look deeper into Wes Anderson's style when it comes to directing his films. Upon reviewing his former works such as Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Royal Tenenbaums, one certain feature seems to stand out. Most of the landscapes behind the characters are quite flat. The most 3-D feature would be the characters themselves. It's as if the backgrounds itself were really just paintings. In this certain perspective that Anderson uses in films, he makes the subjects stand out quite well. Whilst backgrounds would often have an expressionistic feel to it. Usually he'd have vibrant colours taqking over the background like red and yellow. Whilst the subjects, characters of the film in this case, would wear costumes that stand out even more from these colours. It is a playful manner on making the characters stand out and yet show how impressive the background still is.
All in all, as a final rating I would say that the film has done its best in terms of artistic production. They very much deserve that Oscar and the team that worked on it should be proud of their wonderful work. The Grand Budapest Hotel will certainly be cemented as one of Wes Anderson's wonderful cinematography as well as, so far, the best designs that came from Stockhausen and Pinnock's team of talented artists.
SOURCES:
On Stockhausen's Inspiration: https://thedissolve.com/features/below-the-line/464-art-director-adam-stockhausen-on-creating-the-worl/
Additional Info: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2278388/
