Grand Budapest Hotel: Editing
An evaluation of the editing used in chapters 28-29 “The Second Copy of the Second Will.”
The title card lingers on the screen for a few seconds before and edit to an extreme wide shot of the hotels exterior to establish the location of the next scene. This is then mirrored with an edit to the service desk bell in exactly the same place as the building from the previous shot. This then begins a quickly edited sequence of shots containing typical hotel objects such as keys but to emphasise the new ZZ symbol on all of them to show how the once clearly wealthy and highly regarded institution has been taken over by the fascists.
The lobby is then contextualised as a Nazi headquarters through the wide shot of the banners that cuts to the long crab shot of the full lover floor to the front of the hotel- stopping on a wide side angle of a man at desk interrogating the people entering the hotel. We are shown through titles that 24 hour have passed, and Agatha walks into the side angle wide shot that is unchanged from the earlier time period. As she sweet talks the man at the desk (literally, she gives him cake) their interaction is captured through a shot reverse shot following both of the characters eye line so Agatha is captured through low angle and the guard sitting down is captured through high.
This then cuts to a wide contextual shot of the concierge desk and stairs symmetrically either side, which then cuts again to a closer shot of the staff. As the conversation ensues, there is a glance object shot between the centralised character and a Nazi ping pong table which when moved out of the frame reveals a long shot in deep focus of the whole lobby- a clever way of removing unnecessary edits through physical transitions.
As Agatha then moves though the hotel to retrieve the painting there are a number of rapid edits until she walks into the staff only room, with the camera panning on the outside of the room using an invisible edit until she turns the light on (visible from the widow centrally composed in the frame) which then edits inside the room and the pace continues. Similarly to the ping pong table earlier, Wes Anderson reduces the need for additional edits by changing the composition of his shots; in this case a smaller font of writing on a close up piece of paper is highlighted by a magnifying glass.
There is then a parallel edit to Gustave and Zero outside where the soft yellow and orange hues of the hotels interior colour grading are changed to a pastel and slightly cold exterior. The conversation between the characters is from a single angle rather than the usual shot reverse shot, capturing both their speech and their reactions. When Dimitri enters the scene he is show in a wide shot that visibly zooms rather than cuts closer to his face- possibly signifying the change characters plan. These two parallel scenes end when all the characters reconvene in the hotel, with Dimitri recognising Agatha through analepsis and following her around the hotel.
The chase between the two is initially conveyed through long anxious takes, building tension through glance object shots between Dimitri, Agatha and the painting. Simultaneously through a parallel edit, Gustave and Zero are now in the lobby and are shown moving through the hotel in a long tracking shot that pans 90 degrees to the reactions of the staff recognising them. As Dimitri follows Agatha there is a shot reverse shot of him looking forward and her looking back from his point of view.
When Gustave, Zero and Dimitri meet on opposite side of the balcony their conversation takes place in a shot reverse shot manner until a side angle shot of Dimitri and then his ankle as he pulls out a gun. The shooting alerts the hotel full of Fascist officers, who all symmetrically and identically poke their heads out of their doors- each shot edited in exactly the same way at exactly the same length. As the shooting intensifies, Henkles returns to stop it and the conversation between him, Dimitri and then Zero and Gustave is shown through a 3 directional 360 degree pan to Henkles right and then returns back to him.