What do you think the grand hotel looks like?
Is it magnificent and golden?
Or is it crowded and full of guests?
More than 7,000 kilometers away in the Czech Republic, there is a hotel called Bristol George House, which is pink throughout and is arguably one of the most fantastic hotels in the world.
The hotel, also used by director Wes Anderson as the prototype of "The Grand Budapest Hotel", became a witness to the history of Europe during World War I and World War II.
Released in 2014, The Grand Budapest Hotel is set in Europe during the two world wars and tells the legendary life of hotel manager Gustav.
Look closely at this face, is it somewhat familiar?
Yes, yes, Voldemort in Harry Potter was also him.
Speaking of movies, in Europe in the 1930s, the Grand Budapest Hotel was a place of celebrities, and Gustav, as the hotel manager, was also highly respected.
Although he is somewhat arrogant and outspoken, and has a leg with the owner of the hotel, Mrs. D, he is meticulous in his work.
One day, Mrs. D, 84, had a premonition that she would soon die, and invited Gustav to join her in her home.
But Gustav did not pay attention to it, and sent Mrs. D away as usual.
A few days later, however, Gustav read in the newspaper about Madame D's death. Feeling remorseful, he decided to take the train with Zero to Lutz on his last trip, accompanied by a new porter.
The train stopped as it passed a wheat field because it reached the front line nearby! Europe at this time was experiencing World War I.
A group of soldiers entered the carriage and examined their documents. But because of the war in his hometown, the exiled porter only had a third-level work immigration visa, and the soldiers wanted to take him away.
At this time, Gustav showed his extraordinary side.
In the face of a row of armed soldiers, Gustav was next to him, and said sternly: "He is my companion, his documents have been verified by me at the Labor Bureau personally, they are legal, and he cannot be arrested because he is an immigrant." ”
However, the soldiers on the side did not pay attention, grabbing the collar of the little doorman and going outside.
Gustav rose up and fought with the soldiers, but was immediately subdued. Gustav, who was pressed to the carriage, burst into a scolding, saying that they were brutal fascists.
Just as the soldier pointed his gun at Gustav's head, an officer walked in.
He recognized Gustav (after all, Gustav was still the manager of the famous grand hotel at the time), ordered the soldiers to let them go, and gave the little porter a temporary pass.
Then, Gustav sighed: "In this barbaric slaughterhouse, there are still some remnants of the light of civilization that was once called human nature." ”
At this time, the war did not make the glory of humanity completely disappear.
But what people did not expect was that Gustav's line actually opened his way to escape.
It turned out that Mrs. D had left a priceless painting ("The Boy and the Apple") to Gustav in her will.
The people who participated in the will reading were surprised, and Mrs. D's son, Dmitry, was even more extreme, saying that Gustav was a liar and a speculator, and wanted to call the police to sue Gustav, and beat him up, and the scene suddenly lost control.
In the confusion, Gustav and the porter left the hall and went to the storage room on the top floor to take the painting away.
As they were preparing to flee back to the hotel, they met Madame D's housekeeper.
The housekeeper helped them wrap up the painting and left. Gustav also took the painting with them on the return train.
But what they didn't know was that the housekeeper had quietly wrapped a confidential document in the painting.
When a large amount of wealth is within reach, human greed will flow like poison in the blood.
The angry son was not reconciled, so he reported to the police that Mrs. D had been murdered by Gustav and threatened the housekeeper to testify, but then the housekeeper disappeared.
So when Gustav and they returned to the hotel to hide the painting, Gustav arrested and imprisoned the police for murder.
A week later, when the porter went to visit Gustav, he was surprised to see his nose and blue face swollen.
Gustav said: "When you are in a place like prison, you have to be fearless, you have to start proving yourself from day one and winning the respect of others." ”
He is also happy to say that he has now become good friends with his fellow inmates who fought before, and the four people who have since helped him escape from prison together.
There are no tools in the prison, so Zero asks his girlfriend Agatha, the pastry chef at Mande Cake Shop, to help hide small iron pounds in the cake.
Mande Cake Shop is the only place in the whole film except for the Grand Budapest Hotel, where pink appears, and its stores, cake boxes, and cake delivery trucks are all pink.
Mande's pink cake box is always interspersed throughout the film, which also brings a touch of dreamy romance to the whole film.
This symbolizes both the beauty of Zero and Agatha's love, and the longing for beauty in war! This touch of pink is the only beautiful romance that people have left in the war.
Because of Agatha's skill, the prison guards did not find the small hammer hidden in the cake. After that, the Gustav five began preparations for the escape.
Before the porter went to meet Gustav, he handed Agatha a small note with the location of the painting and disappeared into the snowy night.
Gustav, who successfully escaped from prison, knew that in order to exonerate himself, he must find a housekeeper, so he embarked on a search with the doorman.
At this time, the lawyer Kovac found that an important document was missing. Fearing a change in the will, he persuaded Mrs. D's son not to inherit the estate first, and hoped to inform the city inspector of the matter so as not to cause problems in the future.
But in the face of money, his son Demi lost his humanity. In order to get the entire inheritance, he sent someone to kill the lawyer.
Let's go back to Gustav.
Finding someone without a clue is like finding a needle in a haystack, but an interesting scene appears.
He just made a phone call, and the managers of the major hotels banded together and found the traces of the housekeeper. Such unity and efficiency in action is also a metaphor for the Jewish people during the war.
After some tortuous experience, Gustav met with the butler. Gustav wanted the butler to justify his name, but the butler revealed the secret of the second will and claimed that he had a copy.
But before the butler could say where the copy was, he was killed by the killer who was chasing him.
Since then, the two threads have been merged into one.
Gustav and the killer then engage in a chase in the snow. After pushing the killer off a cliff, they encountered the pursuing police, so they decided to flee back to the town to take the painting.
When they sneak into the town where the hotel is located, they find that because of the arrival of the war, the Grand Budapest Hotel has become the base camp of soldiers from all over the world.
Looking at the dilapidated scene, Gustav swore that he would never set foot in the hotel again in this life. Just then, they saw Demi enter the hotel, and just now Agatha had entered the hotel.
Worried about Agatha's safety, they still entered the hotel without hesitation! Turning his head, he forgot the oath he had just taken.
At this time, Agatha had taken out the painting and was confronted by Demi when she went downstairs. She immediately turned and fled, followed by Demy. After reaching the sixth floor, Agatha threw Demi around the corner.
Demy was enraged, but gustav and the two appeared in front of him, and Demy immediately took his gun and began to shoot. This angered the officers of various countries in the room, so they took guns and shots, like a war between countries.
And Agatha fell out of the window in a panic, Zero saw it and immediately disregarded the front of the body, did not expect to fall out of the window, the two just fell in the cake cart downstairs, there is no danger!
At this time, Agatha, who looked up for the painting, also found the secret document hidden in the painting!
The discovery of secret documents allowed Madame D's will to be made public, and all of her estate was inherited by Gustav, including the famous Grand Budapest Hotel.
Gustav also resumed his former hobbies and hobbies, and was still loved by the old ladies.
Soon after, due to the intensification of the war, the Republic of Jupoloka, where the hotel was located, was destroyed, and on the morning of the official dissolution of the country, Gustav and the porters again set foot on the train to Lutz.
But at this time the picture is black and white.
The train was still parked on the wheat field, and the soldiers entered the carriages again to check their documents, and the porter still had only the immigrant visa in his hand.
When Gustav took out the temporary pass given to him by the officer earlier, the soldier tore it up and insisted on taking the porter out.
Gustav still chose to defend the doorman as he had last time, but this time the soldiers did not allow anyone to resist.
Gustav was shot dead.
From Gustav's address of the soldiers to the death squads, it can be seen that Europe has entered the period of World War II.
On both occasions when the train was inspected, Gustav chose to maintain zero, but he misjudged the cruelty of the war, and the years of war had worn away the glory of human nature, so there were two different endings.
What inspired the director to make this film was Zweig's story and his Journey to Yesterday.
The protagonist of the story, Gustav, like Zweig, lived in Europe during the two world wars, due to war, genocide, and went into exile.
During the First World War, Zweig was able to continue his literary creations and attempted to end the war through humanistic care. Like Gustav when he first defended the doorman on the train, he could succeed.
But during World War II, Austria was annexed by Germany, Zweig lost his country, and as a Jewish people, he was also slaughtered by fascists. Unable to accept the decay of his spiritual homeland, he committed suicide with his wife in Rio de Janeiro in 1942.
Like at the end of the film, Gustav defends the porter in the same way, but gets the soldier's bullet.
Gustav's death is a metaphor for the disappearance of European civilization, but his integrity and kindness have always existed in the memory of the doorman Zero.
His deeds will also be preserved in the writer's books and will be seen by future generations, such as the girl at the beginning of the film.
And the pink Grand Budapest Hotel, after years of war, although it has become dilapidated, it still exists firmly and will always remain in everyone's heart, which is a symbol of the glory of European humanity.
The war has not erased human nature, the beauty of human nature still exists, which is why the pink hotel stands!