Life is a tragedy in the near term, but a comedy in the distance

Filomena 2021-10-19 09:56:05

Charlie Chaplin said: "Life is a tragedy at close range, but a comedy at a distance." "The Budapest Hotel", which seems to be a comedy on earth, is actually full of sadness. Of course, this film is undeniable. The movie watching process is pleasant, but there is always a lingering darkness lingering in my heart, as if it is a feeling of beauty and easy loss. When the end of the film was inspired by Zweig, I finally understood the reason for this worry. Zweig was a Jew and a defender of traditional European culture. He was persecuted by Nazi Germany and committed suicide in Brazil. This film actually depicts a history of Jewish exile. In "The Grand Budapest Hotel", Gustav rescued the unidentified hotel doorman Zero twice on the train. This line also appeared twice in the movie, "Look, in the barbaric slaughterhouse, there are still some The glimmer of civilization is flashing, and that’s where humanity lies. Indeed, that’s our only modest and humble way", but the glimmer of civilization cannot eternally illuminate humanity. The first time Gustav met A friendly fascist officer, he was shot by the execution team without hesitation the second time. The film weakened this bloody scene, only through the verbal narration of the old doorman, as if it had been taken in a stroke, but it was more sad than facing directly. The colors of the two pictures are also different. The colors are contrasted with black and white. At the same time, the special travel pass issued by the previous officer was torn up, showing the audience that everything before the war was negated and re-establishing a new order. The light of humanity of the officer went out.
The film uses layered flashbacks, in three eras, different narrators, echoing each other, and tracing the story of the characters and the carriers of the era in which they lived, like a river of time. The film also tells about the love between the doorman Zero and the female cake master. They did not "live a happy life since then" as in the fairy tale. The woman died of illness very early, and the doorman remembered her until she was old. . When the writer in the film asked the elderly doorman, "You are willing to exchange all your property with the country for a broken hotel that is not profitable? Is it because only here can you get the closest to Mr. Gustav" , The old door boy replied: "No, I just miss my wife Agatha, because we have spent a very good time here, although it is very short." Although love is short, it is unforgettable.

View more about The Grand Budapest Hotel reviews

Extended Reading

The Grand Budapest Hotel quotes

  • M. Gustave: If this do be the end, "Farewell!" cried the wounded piper-boy...

    [Jopling stomps]

    M. Gustave: ...whilst the muskets cracked, and the yeomen roared "Hurrah", and the ramparts fell...

    [Jopling stomps]

    M. Gustave: "Methinks me breathes me last, me fears!" said he...

    [Zero pushes Jopling from behind; Jopling falls screaming over M. Gustave's head]

    M. Gustave: Holy shit, you got him!

  • M. Gustave: [sees soldiers enter the hotel] The beginning of the end of the end of the beginning has begun. A sad finale played off-key on a broken-down saloon piano in the outskirts of a forgotten ghost town. I'd rather not bear witness to such blasphemy.

    Zero: Me neither.

    M. Gustave: The Grand Budapest has become a troops' barracks. I shall never cross its threshold again in my lifetime.

    Zero: Me neither.

    M. Gustave: Never again shall I...

    [Zero spots Agatha]

    Zero: Actually I think we might be going in there right now after all!