History Film / TheGrandBudapestHotel

* WhatIsGoingOn: * In the climax, a very spontaneous gunfight suddenly breaks out in the titular hotel, started by [[BigBad Dmitri]] noticing Gustave and Zero and opening fire on them, followed by other random patrons on different balconies [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext to start shooting for no particular reason]], up until Inspector Henckels and his entourage storm in and demand to know what the heck is happening:

* {{Homage}}: As pointed out by [[https://www.youtube.com/3GK_3KgZios&t=187 this video]], the sequence where Kovacs is pursued by Jopling is nearly a shot-for-shot recreation of a very similar sequence from ''Film/TornCurtain'', down to the way both characters turn before exiting the museum. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, Kovacs isn't as lucky as Paul Newman's character]].

** Gustave and Zero spend quite a lot of time running around in the snow-covered rooftops/country-side/mountains. While they'll fully dressed, they're notably lacking in coats, gloves or really ''anything'' to keep the warmth in -- Zero in particular has short sleeves and no shoes in one scene! -- but the cold never really seems to bother them too much. This ''really'' comes into play when Zero and Gustave chase after Jopling in a ''very'' high speed chase down snowy mountains.

* {{Homage}}: As pointed out by [[https://www.youtube.com/3GK_3KgZios&t=187 this video]], the sequence where Kovacs is pursued by Jopling is nearly a shot for shot recreation of a very similar sequence from ''Film/TornCurtain'', down to the way both characters turn before exiting the museum. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, Kovacs isn't as lucky as Paul Newman's character]].

** A character [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFuIYyXiD5w getting into hand-to-hand combat with a large amount of enemies, all of whom ultimately kill each other]], with the central character declaring that they "... guess it's a draw," nodding to [[Music/SellingEnglandByThePound "The Battle of Epping Forest"]] by Music/{{Genesis|Band}}.
** The Desgoffe und Taxis family are a nod to the real-world Central European aristocratic Thurn und Taxis family, who had a virtual monopoly of courier services in the early modern era and are still extremely wealthy. Which might also be a ShoutOut to ''Literature/TheCryingOfLot49'' by Creator/ThomasPynchon, featuring Thurn and Taxis.

* UncertainDoom: It doesn't bode well for [[spoiler:Henckels]] when the death squad tear up the pass written for Zero at the end. It's very possible that he's been killed in the war, or arrested for disagreeing with the government's fascism.

* PetTheDog: Gustave comes across mostly as an asshole when we first meet him. Our first indication that he's a good guy is when he emotionally defends Zero from arrest.

* ShootTheDog: Zero [[spoiler:pushes Jopling off the cliff]], an action that is a surprising act of violence for him, but allows him to save Gustave and resolve that whole plotline.

* {{Bathos}}: The early scene in 1985 of the writer monologing in front of a camera gets interrupted by a boy shooting a dart at him.

* ChekhovsGunman: The scar-faced inmate who likes the mush Gustave makes. [[spoiler:He lets him and his mates escape when his cellmate tries to call the guards on them]].

* EvilIsPetty: While M. Gustave is set to inherit "Boy with Apple" (said to be a very expensive work of art), Dmitri is still the heir to almost the entirety of his mother's vast estate. Dmitri's attempt to keep this ''single painting'' out of the hands of M. Gustave is the basis for the entire movie.

* KickTheDog: When [[spoiler:Jopling defenestrates Kovacs' cat in front of him, a couple of hours before murdering Kovacs himself]].

* LadykillerInLove: Gustave has some shades of this with Madame D: he had "relationships" with several of the older, richer women who visited the hotel, but he abandons his tryst with one of them to go to Lutz (a place which he apparently hates) in order to pay his respects to her.

* LikesOlderWomen: M. Gustave: specifically, blonde, shallow, needy, vain, and insecure, all very much like him. [[spoiler:Sadly, he never manages to become old.]]

* MyHeroZero: Zero Moustafa, the FirstPersonPeripheralNarrator.

* NiceToTheWaiter: Jopling, [[TheDragon of all people]], is shown tipping a gas station attendant who refuels his motorcycle, and patting him on the back.

* ObviouslyEvil: [[DastardlyWhiplash Dmitri]] and [[TheDragon Jopling]] couldn't look more villainous if they tried.

* QuickNip: Jopling always keeps a small bottle of whisky in his breast pocket, next to a gun.
* TheQuietOne: TheBigGuy prisoner, who Gustave befriends, doesn't talk much.
* RagsToRiches: Zero, who goes from a poor, uneducated immigrant to the richest man in Zubrowka. However, it eventually [[RichesToRags circles back]], as he ends up spending his entire fortune to keep the hotel open.
* ReallyGetsAround: Gustave, albeit usually with blonde older women. He does, however, state he might blow the black market profit of the sale of "Boy with Apple" on [[HookersAndBlow whisky and hookers.]]
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Inspector Henckels. When the soldiers rough up Gustave and Zero on the train, Henckels hears them out and tells Gustave to contact him if there is any further trouble with Zero's immigration status. He handles the deaths and crimes that take place very seriously, doesn't allow Jopling to hang around a crime scene (and makes it quite clear he knows he's somehow responsible for [[spoiler:Kovacs' murder]]) and makes finding the murderer of [[spoiler:Serge's sister]] top priority. [[spoiler:At the end of the movie, when a gunfight breaks out between Dmitri (who is trying to shoot Gustave) and the other soldiers staying in the hotel, he orders a full ceasefire and tries to find out who started everything. Upon learning that Dmitri began it but was shooting at a man already wanted for various other crimes including the alleged murder of Dmitri's mother, Henckels orders ''everyone'' to stay where they are until he's had a chance to get to the bottom of things. And when Agatha finds a letter hidden with the painting, he hears her out and reads it in front of everybody, clearing Gustave's name and getting him a fortune]].

* SilkHidingSteel: Agatha, the quiet put-on baker and real genius of Mendl's, runs through hails of gunfire and risks getting decapitated by an angry fascist to be with the boy she loves (and help out the man lording over the boy she loves).

* TokenGoodTeammate: Gustave is this among the group of escaped prisoners, being the only one who is not a criminal and who is wrongfully accused.

** Dmitri's similarly drawn-out pursuit of [[spoiler:Agatha]]. He even manages to easily corner her in an elevator and not-so-surreptitiously confirm she's holding [[spoiler: "Boy With Apple,"]] yet allows her to exit and waits for a few seconds before following, presumably for the opportunity to menacingly stroll after her for effect. This allows her to escape when rounding a corner puts her out of sight for a moment, during which she breaks into a sprint and is halfway up the hall before he realizes it.

* EvilIsPetty: While M. Gustave is set to inherit "Boy With Apple" (said to be a very expensive work of art), Dmitri is still the heir to almost the entirety of his mother's vast estate. Dmitri's attempt to keep this ''single painting'' out of the hands of M. Gustave is the basis for the entire movie.

** Gustave and Zero spend quite a lot of time running around in the snow covered rooftops/country-side/mountains. While they'll fully dressed, they're notably lacking in coats, gloves or really ''anything'' to keep the warmth in -- Zero in particular has short sleeves and no shoes in one scene! -- but the cold never really seems to bother them too much. This ''really'' comes into play when Zero and Gustave chase after Jopling in a ''very'' high speed chase down snowy mountains.

* LiteralCliffhanger: Twice.
** Gustave hanging from the cliff and being saved by Zero.
** Agatha and Zero hanging from below the balcony at the Grand Budapest Hotel. Their fall gets [[CarCushion cushioned by the Mendl's delivery van]].

** The "Boy With Apple" painting can be seen in the 1968 Grand Budapest Hotel (hanging behind the Concierge desk) before it becomes relevant to the plot. Also, Monsieur Jean has Crossed Keys lapel pins, and a similar design on a placard beneath his desk.

* VisualPun: When Dmitri throws a drawing of two women having sex on top of a bust statue of a man, thus destroying the drawing. Works on more than one level.

*** Look closely at one of the news articles. There are three people with Zero as rebels, dressed exactly as convicts were during escape.

** To those who know how "Kovacs" is properly pronounced - it is "Kovatch" ("cs" is pronounced as "tch" in Hungarian), actually a common last name for Central and Southern Europe and "tch" being a very typical ending of the last names there in general - hearing it uttered all the time as "Kovax" is an additional small source of laughs. Possible FridgeBrilliance here is that this may be how the student reading the Author's book pronounces it (provided she herself hails from outside the region).

* ForegoneConclusion: Zero, decades later, at first refuses to talk about Agatha and then says how he's overcome with emotion whenever he speaks of her, so we know right away something bad is going to happen to her. [[spoiler:The film initially leads us to believe she was murdered by Jopling, but she survives the adventure only to die a short time afterwards of 'Prussian Grippe']].

* TheAlcatraz: Check-Point 19 where Gustave is held awaiting trial.
* AnachronismStew: In a few ways, ranging from props (e.g., Henckels using an electric megaphone) to people using terms that would not be seen for decades (e.g., "candy-ass"), to historical references: after PuttingOnTheReich all through the war and suggesting that CommieLand immediately follows, the film informs us that [[spoiler:Agatha and her baby]] died after the war from the "Prussian grippe," a clear Expy of UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu which killed millions right after World War ''One''. This is likely to reflect the movie being a memoir... and also being directed by Wes Anderson.

* MilkmanConspiracy: A late part of the movie involves the Society of the Crossed Keys, a clandestine international network of hotel concierges, which provides help to Gustave (who is a member himself) to discover [[spoiler:where Serge, Madame D.'s murder witness, is hiding]]. Likely based on the real-life Society of the Golden Keys, a network of concierges that exists within Great Britain and the Commonwealth. Even the emblem and lapel pins are nearly identical, two crossed gold keys.

* MyCard: Jopling hand his business card to Serge's sister.

* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: The Grand Budapest Hotel resort was inspired by the Czech spa town of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlovy_Vary Karlovy Vary]] (Karlsbad in German), more precisely the [[https://joellemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Is-the-grand-budapest-hotel-real-tour-of-the-locations-in-karlovy-vary-and-gorlitz-inside-deer.jpg deer statue atop a rocky peak]], the [[https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5266b2bde4b08e763cc132d2/1412142777183-US8WQA2LTV1DU4D6TWE0/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kNCH0IFo-E28D0rm_d_wnF4UqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYxCRW4BPu10St3TBAUQYVKczdH3qUBwO6oWXP_OkYMa5KbLFw5Om5Yp_Nt25Y6nc5ZZuUUY1FOqARMqv9i1pcqr/image-asset.jpeg Hotel Bristol Palace]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandhotel_Pupp Grandhotel Pupp]].

** The "Two Lesbians Masturbating" painting is in the immediately recognizable style of the early-twentieth-century Austrian artist Egon Schiele.

** A character [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFuIYyXiD5w getting into hand-to-hand combat with a large amount of enemies, all of whom ultimately kill each other]], with the [[Music/PeterGabriel central character declaring]] that they "... guess it's a draw."

''The Grand Budapest Hotel'' is a 2014 comedy film released written and directed by Creator/WesAnderson, inspired by the writings of Stefan Zweig. The film stars Creator/JudeLaw, Creator/FMurrayAbraham, Creator/RalphFiennes, Creator/TonyRevolori, Tom Wilkinson, Creator/AdrienBrody, Creator/SaoirseRonan, Creator/BillMurray and Creator/WillemDafoe among [[TheCameo many]], [[AllStarCast many others]]. Music/AlexandreDesplat composed the soundtrack.

* AmbiguouslyBi: M. Gustave is foppish, claims, "I go to bed with all my friends", and responds to the remark, "We think you're a real straight fellow," with, "Well, I've never been accused of that before." He's accused of being gay (and then bisexual) by Dmitri, despite his affairs with elderly women, but it's implied he sees his dalliances with the women as a means of keeping the hotel alive, and that he keeps closer acquaintances with men.
-->'''Gustave:''' I thought I was supposed to be a "fucking faggot."\\
'''Dmitri:''' ''[beat]'' ...You ''are,'' but you're bisexual.

* AnachronismStew: In a few ways, ranging from props (e.g., Henckels using an electric megaphone) to people using terms that would not be seen for decades (e.g., "candy-ass"), to historical references: after PuttingOnTheReich all through the war and suggesting that CommieLand immediately follows, the film informs us that [[spoiler:Agatha and her baby]] died after the war from the "Prussian grippe," a clear Expy of UsefulNotes/TheSpanishFlu which killed millions right after World War ''One''.
** Quite understandable, considering the entire story is that of a woman reading the Author's interpretation of a story he had heard decades before, from thirty year old memories.
** Take note also that alternative historical/geographical fantasy tropes are in play here, so the timeline differences are very likely intentional.

** Jopling's pursuit of Kovecs also happens entirely at normal speed, with Kovecs first in a streetcar and later walking at normal pace through a museum.

''The Grand Budapest Hotel'' is a 2014 comedy film released written and directed by Creator/WesAnderson, inspired by the writings of Stefan Zweig. The film stars Creator/JudeLaw, Creator/FMurrayAbraham, Creator/RalphFiennes, Tom Wilkinson, Creator/AdrienBrody, Creator/SaoirseRonan, Creator/BillMurray and Creator/WillemDafoe among [[TheCameo many]], [[AllStarCast many others]]. Music/AlexandreDesplat composed the soundtrack.

** To those who know how "Kovacs" is properly pronounced - it is "Kovatch" ("cs" is pronounced as "tch" in Hungarian), actually a common last name for Central and Southern Europe and "tch" being a very typical ending of the last names there in general - hearing it uttered all the time as "Kovax" is an additional small source of laughs. Possible FridgeBrilliance here is that this may be how the student reading the Author's book pronounces it (provided she herself hails from outside the region).

** To those who know how "Kovacs" is properly pronounced - it is "Kovatch" ("cs" is pronounced as "tch" in Hungarian), actually a common last name for Central and Southern Europe and "tch" being a very typical ending of the last names there in general - hearing it uttered all the time as "Kovax" is an additional small source of laughs. Possible [[FridgeBrilliance]] here is that this may be how the student reading the Author's book pronounces it (provided she herself hails from outside the region).

** To those who know how "Kovacs" is properly pronounced - it is "Kovatch" ("cs" is pronounced as "tch" in Hungarian), actually a common last name for Central and Southern Europe and "tch" being a very typical ending of the last names there in general - hearing it spoken all the time as "Kovax" is an additional small source of humour.

* NoCommunitiesWereHarmed: The Grand Budapest Hotel resort was inspired by the Czech spa town of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karlovy_Vary Karlovy Vary]] (Karlsbad in German), more precisely the [[https://joellemagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Is-the-grand-budapest-hotel-real-tour-of-the-locations-in-karlovy-vary-and-gorlitz-inside-deer.jpg deer statue atop a rocky peak]] and the [[https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5266b2bde4b08e763cc132d2/1412142777183-US8WQA2LTV1DU4D6TWE0/ke17ZwdGBToddI8pDm48kNCH0IFo-E28D0rm_d_wnF4UqsxRUqqbr1mOJYKfIPR7LoDQ9mXPOjoJoqy81S2I8N_N4V1vUb5AoIIIbLZhVYxCRW4BPu10St3TBAUQYVKczdH3qUBwO6oWXP_OkYMa5KbLFw5Om5Yp_Nt25Y6nc5ZZuUUY1FOqARMqv9i1pcqr/image-asset.jpeg Hotel Bristol Palace]].

* FoodPorn: Everyone in the story is obsessed with Mendl's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fx5lZkpDxnc Courtesan au Chocolats.]] Given how pretty they are, can we blame them?