Cinematography (The Grand Budapest Hotel)

Part Three - Cinematography

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson (2014)

The Grand Budapest Hotel has perhaps the most complex and theatrical narrative of a film I have ever seen. Wes Anderson’s style as an auteur, means this film has a storybook quality which is accentuated by the fantastic cinematography he uses in collaboration with his cinematographer Robert Yeoman. From the camera shots to the very ratios of the film frame we are presented the stories of the characters "in an illustrative style that's both theatrical and cinematic." [1]

An example of a still that has portrait qualities, in this particular shot they were actually taking a photograph.

Corrigan and White state that “the shot is the visual heart of the cinema”. [2] Wes Anderson frames his shots, quite often a medium close up or a long shot, very similarly to portraits. Yeoman explains in an interview that at the beginning of every day he will have the distances from the camera to the walls measured to "ensure that the camera is perfectly centered." [3] He says this is "pretty standard practice." [3] This means that every still shot is almost perpendicular to the ‘horizon’ of the shot. The film actually draws inspiration from posed group photographs from the 1930s. Yeoman said that Anderson had done research into these old photographs and "those old photos influenced the way we framed some of those scenes." [3] This not only links the film form to the era that the content is set in but also creates a picture image for the audience to look at that is aesthetically intriguing. An example of this is when Zero is getting ready for the day in his small room. The camera is set almost dead center and the shot is a level angle. This creates the impression that the camera is sitting where the mirror would be sitting as Zero traces his mustache on with a pencil. It could be argued this techniques makes the shots monotonous, but with Anderson "varies his images by departing from straight-on angles" [4] and thus creates a more visually stimulating experience for his viewers.

Long shot from a high angle

Mid shot from a level angle

Another important aspect of Anderson’s cinematography is the aspect rations that he uses. He switches between different ratios for the different time periods that a particular scene takes place. Bordwell writes that it is 1.85 for the present and the authors recounting of the meeting in the 1980s, it is 2.40 during this meeting in 1960 and it is 1.37 or 4.3 in the central story of the 1930s. In effect each era gets an aspect ratio that could have been used in a movie of that time. This aspect of the film form reflects the changing temporal structure of the content. It emphasizes for the audience the elasticity of time within the film.

Perhaps the most remarkable film convention that Anderson uses is the ‘whip pan’ that he uses to transition the bulk of his shots. It’s a tricky maneuver that required precise control over the camera. "The idea was to keep the rhythm of the scene very quick when the characters are speaking much faster than they would in regular life," said Yeoman. [3] He said that instead of the decisive cutting of a shot this type of tilt transition tied everything in together because it was the same shot. This convention of film form also added an element of chaos to the already hectic display in the film. This technique coupled with the repetitive use of shot reverse-shots during some parts of dialogue makes an audience feel as though sequences are going at a faster pace.

This film technique and some other intriguing sequences can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fshq_HlXroQ

Works Cited:

[The Grand Budapest Hotel. Dir. Wes Anderson. American Empirical Pictures, Indian Paintbrush, Babelsberg Studio, 2014. Film.]

[1]The American Society of Cinematographers. 29 April 2015. Web. <https://www.theasc.com/ac_magazine/March2014/TheGrandBudapestHotel/page1.php>

[2]Timothy Corrigan and Patricia White, The Film Experience, 3rd ed. Boston, New York: Bedford/St Martins, 2004, 2009, 2012. Print.

[3]Fast Company Create. 29 April 2015. Web. <http://www.fastcocreate.com/3042296/shooting-the-oscars-most-centered-movie-the-precision-filmmaking-behind-grand-budapest-hotel#1>

[4]David Bordwell's Website on Cinema. 29 April 2015. Web. <http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/2014/03/26/the-grand-budapest-hotel-wes-anderson-takes-the-43-challenge/#top>

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