If ever there was a film that celebrated the use of narration to tell its story, it would be the 2014 Wes Anderson masterpiece, The Grand Budapest Hotel. This star-studded cavalcade of cinema genius not only received multiple Oscars and awards for its timelessly brilliant approach to storytelling but embraced the truest meaning of the word narrator. By providing viewers with the carefully articulated experience of a narrative tucked within a narrative, The Grand Budapest Hotel manages to employ a uniquely artful approach to story-telling and offers up the deceptively elaborate use of dual narration that not only drives its story forward but builds up a world of past and present.
MEGATold through cascading voiceovers, The Grand Budapest Hotel alternates between the perspectives of the author and subject to give us a unique contrast of the different layers of the story for a masterful experience of allegorical narration.
A Story within a Story
While The Grand Budapest Hotel is definitely not the first film to illustrate the ample use of multiple narrators to tell its story, the way it pulls this off is nothing short of creatively breathtaking, whimsical, and introspective. Every narrative element has its place and corresponding allegorical reference. By using a meta-narrative to encompass the perspectives of both author and subject, we not only get to see how the original story is told straight from the horse’s mouth but hear how a fellow observer interprets and retells it to their audience.
MEGARight from the beginning of the movie, we’re drawn into this story about a story, and shown a monument to the author, to illustrate the importance and relevance of his role – after all, his story is all that remains of the Grand Budapest following its demolition. Portrayed and narrated by Jude Law, our author provides us with a look at the current dilapidated state of the hotel itself. As if to almost demonstrate the story made tangible, we’re given a glimpse into what the once esteemed institution has become after years of neglect following its heyday. The patrons far and few between, the staff somewhat aloof, and the locale a monument to years of neglect, the visual setting alone serves as a kind of exposition to what we can expect of the second narrator – and true subject of the film, Zero. Any time Jude Law talks about the hotel, he may as well be speaking about its owner.
As far as metaphors go, the owner of The Grand Budapest, and the hotel itself, are virtually interchangeable. Unassuming, broken and larger than life; lonely, hollow and forgotten – these are all words that can be used to describe the subjects of this tale. When our author speaks about the utter solitude and heartbreak in the owner’s eyes, we know he’s talking about the state of the hotel – and when he talks about the former extravagance and grandiose history of the Grand Budapest, we know he’s talking about our second narrator. Like an ouroboros, the two narratives fit within and encompass one another seamlessly; we can’t have one without the other, and each propels the other forward. Without the narrative of our second storyteller, we couldn’t have the story itself – simple as that. All that remains of the Grand Budapest is its story; just like all that’s left of its owner, is the statue of the man who told us about him.
The Second Narrator
Even though he’s technically the second narrator, an aged Zero Moustafa is the true storyteller and so much more than a mere focal point of the overarching narrative. As a narrator, the worn presence of his voice-over is felt throughout the entirety of the film and punctuates every twist and turn the story takes. The moment he begins to unfurl his tale, we almost forget about the initial narrator, and all of our focus shifts to the perspective of an older Zero.
[embedded content]
Played by Oscar winner F. Murray Abraham, our prodigal hotel owner returns to the Grand Budapest as unsuspectingly as he first arrived many, many years before. On the surface, his story appears to be about a happier and more prosperous time for the hotel and how he eventually came to be in possession of it; but looking moderately deeper, it’s about a brief and whimsical window of happiness in his life that’s been all but lost to the ravages of time. All that’s left is a faint flicker of its former glory – just like the Grand Budapest Hotel. With the hotel being demolished in the opening scenes of the film, we’re set up to interpret that his life, and story, have finally ended as well.
The Contrast of Narrations
Interlocked and layered like an onion, the two-tiered narration used in The Grand Budapest Hotel not only serves as the primary method of story-telling but also demonstrates the utter differences between our two storytellers. The tone of curiosity and purveyance in one and a somber, brittle facade of perseverance in the other is no small accident and entirely deliberate. Any time you’ve been told a story, and then gone on to retell it, there’s an element that gets lost in translation. We can feel a personal connection to someone else’s story, but never quite in the same capacity as the person, it belongs to. For one, it’s something to be put on display like an object, but on the other, it’s the very air they breathe.
Accolades and Awards
The 2014 dramatic comedy played host to a wide array of A-lister talent that permeated the entirety of the film. Where some movies blindly cast famous actors to draw an audience to the box office, The Grand Budapest Hotel was selectively tasteful in its approach – and it shows.
Featuring big-name talent like Tilda Swinton, Ed Norton, Adrian Brody, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Willam Dafoe, Jude Law and F. Murray Abraham, among others, it’s no surprise that The Grand Budapest Hotel was nominated for 226 different awards.
Taking home more than half of its nominations as wins, Wes Anderson created a true modern-day masterpiece with 136 industry awards to its name; four of them being Oscars.
Kim Handysides is an award-winning voice artist, coach and thought leader in her industry. Her narrations have been heard on Discovery, Netflix, and the major networks, in iMax, the White House and the Smithsonian.
