REACTION PAPER

The story of the movie The Grand Budapest Hotel directed by Wes Anderson is adapted
from the fictional Zubrowka Republic’s legendary hotel concierge Gustav H ( Gustave H), he
was charged with murder. To prove his innocence, Gustav desperately cooperated with his
lobby boy, Zero Moustafa. Set in a difficult period between World War I and World War II,
the film is inspired by Stephen Zweig’s writings and proves that there is a strong
relationship between luxury gatekeepers and lobbyists with very different backgrounds.
The relationship posed a challenge. Throughout Gustav and Zero's declaration of Gustav's
innocence, Gustav realized that Zero was more than just a lobbying boy and began to
establish friendship with him. Similarly, Zero started taking Gustav as a role model and
continued to learn from him throughout the film. Using themes such as sound and
symbolism, Wes Anderson developed an important idea that breaking social hierarchy
helps people understand each other better. The key is also used to represent the
management and leadership skills required as a concierge, as well as the responsibility of
pleasing and caring for hotel guests. However, the key itself is a symbol of unlocking
something, providing security. The cross brackets are also used to symbolize unity, similar
to the unity and security between the characters in the movie. Gustav and Zero have the
ability to unlock and remove each other's secret facades to understand each other.
Similarly, Gustav took off his senior appearance in prison to get to know and make friends
with his inmates. The cross key is used to remind the audience that if the social hierarchy is
removed, people can get to know each other better. "Mendl`s" is a shop in the movie that
offers exquisite cakes, but in the movie it is used as a symbol of deception. Mendl's cakes
were not only used in the movie to smuggle tools into the prison and help Gustave escape
from prison, they were also used as employees of Gustave and Zero dressed as Mendl in the
movie. Most importantly, Mendl's depicts the deceptive appearance of the movie characters
and helps to strengthen the different social classifications in the movie. Mendl's works
depict figures like Gustav. You appear boring and perfunctory in high-level positions in
society, but when you build relationships with Zero, inmates, and hotel guests, your true
qualities, bravery, and loyalty are reflected. Mendl reminds us that we must go beyond the
surface to truly understand people. On the surface, `Mendl`s itself appears to be a perfectly
presented, light frozen food, but the filling is described as rich and substantial. L`Air de
Panache is Gustav's favorite perfume in the film and a symbol of his reputation. L`Air de
Panache is described as a strong scent and, with its elegant French name, it complements
Gustave's elegant and high-end demeanor. Mustafa described the scent left by Gustav,
"This scent announced his approach from a great distance and lingered for several minutes
after he left." TL`Air de Panache represents the social hierarchy between Gustav and Zero
throughout the film. After Zero helped Gustav escape from prison, Zero forgot to bring a
bottle of his iconic perfume, which angered Gustav. Without L`Air de Panache, the social
hierarchy between the two seems to have been toppled. The lack of Gustav's trademark
scent initiated his abuse of Zero, prompting Zero to open up with Gustav, causing Gustav to
plead for innocence and learn to love Zero like a brother. After their alliance, Gustav shared
a new bottle of L`Air with Zero, symbolizing their new brotherhood and their ability to
break the social hierarchy that once existed between them. This further develops the
important idea that breaking down the social hierarchy helps people understand each
other better. At The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson successfully used themes like
sound techniques and symbolism to highlight social hierarchy in society, also showing that
social positions can be broken down. As a result, the audience developed an important idea
that if the social hierarchy is broken, people can get to know each other better. Throughout
history, social rankings have always been an extremely influential part of society. Today, in
our daily lives, it is easy to forget that modern social problems are constantly increasing
around us, including poverty and refugee crises. Many people ignore the fact that these
problems will cause social rankings to remain a very important part of society. Anderson
challenges readers to remove their social appearance and try to get to know people with
different social status. The film’s inspiration, Stefan Zweig, symbolizes this, who believes
that the complexity of Europe has gradually disappeared in many of his works with the rise
of the Nazi regime. Social hierarchy cannot weaken the ability of human beings to share
and understand the knowledge, wisdom and culture of others in order to further enrich the
modern and progressive world we live in today.