People come people go~ The hotel looks at drama life

Edmund 2022-01-12 08:01:03

#5# (Grand Hotel) The 5th Oscar for Best Picture Award. The length of the film is 112 minutes. For the first time, MGM has adopted five big stars to act in group dramas, which was a great success. The silent film queen Greta Garbo speaks for the first time in this film. Unfortunately, due to her strong accent, her lines seem blunt and rigid. Joan Crawford has brought to life a little typist who is good at calculating and good at making things happen.
The film tells the story of five guests in the most luxurious hotel in Berlin, Germany. The five guests had never met each other, each had their own worries, but the wheel of fate took them to completely different places.
A bookkeeper who was sick and ready to spend a lot of money and died, an entrepreneur on the verge of bankruptcy, a baron who is struggling with life is a thief, a neurotic Russian ballet star (Garbo) has his career blocked, and a beautiful and shrewd typist (Crawford) Seek upward opportunities. With different purposes, they began their story in the hotel. The luckiest thing is the bookkeeper, who won a huge sum of money by a gamble, and got on the train to Paris with the typist to start a new life. The poor baron was beaten to death by the entrepreneur when he stole. Entrepreneurs went to jail. Encouraged by the passionate love of the baron, the ballerina has a turnaround in her career.
Compared with the previous four Oscar-winning films, this film has a novel way of telling the story. The five characters appear in parallel, converge in the same space, and interpret a dramatic story. The connection between the stories is natural and smooth. This method of storytelling was later widely adopted, especially in TV series, where many large hotels, small teams, and communities were used as themes to tell the fate of characters.
"Grand hotel, always same, people come people go. nothing ever happens" People come and go, and the hotel is silently watching the drama life. After watching the five Oscars for the best films, it is a peculiar feeling, as if watching a toddler, starting to learn to walk steadily, or even run slowly.
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Extended Reading
  • Germaine 2022-03-27 09:01:14

    Early Hollywood films were always full of humanistic concerns. Charming characters, great group play

  • Imelda 2022-04-21 09:03:01

    A very anti-routine film, where reality and film alternate constantly, and in the end, the Earl is really pitiful as the victim of everyone. In the early 1990s, it was really good. Everyone was stupid and had no money and simply fell in love with each other.

Grand Hotel quotes

  • Dr. Otternschlag: And what do you do in the Grand Hotel? Eat. Sleep. Loaf around. Flirt a little, dance a little. A hundred doors leading to one hall. No one knows anything about the person next to them. And when you leave, someone occupies your room, lies in your bed... that's the end.

  • [first lines]

    Senf: [talking on the phone in a phonebooth at the Grand Hotel after a brief scene of operators at the switchboard] Hello? Hello? Hello, is that the clinic? Uh this is Senf; the head porter, Grand Hotel. How's my wife? Is she in pain? Isn't the child coming soon?... Patience? Would you have patience?

    Otto Kringelein: [in the next phonebooth] Uh this is Otto Kringelein. I-i-is that you Heinrich? Oh Heinrich listen, I've got to talk very quickly - with every minute costs two Marks ninety. Y-ya know that will I made before I had my operation? Well I want you to tear it up... Huh? W-e-I came to Berlin to see a great specialist about that old trouble of mine; y-you know Heinrich, i-it's pretty bad. Uh he says I haven't long to live... I say he says I won't live much longer!... No, it isn't nice to be told things like that. You plague and bother and save and all of the sudden you're dead. I want to get something out of life! Listen Heinrich, I'm *never* going back to Frieveshof, *never*. I-I'm staying here at the Grand Hotel; it's the most expensive hotel in Berlin. Y-eh all the best people stay here, even our big boss Preysing is staying here. I'm going to tell him someday just exactly what I think of him.

    Preysing: [in the next phonebooth] Hello? Hello, miss? This is General Director Preysing. I want my home in Frieveshof, please. Hurry, yeah... Hello! Hello. Is that you mama? How are da children? What news have you found at da factory dear?... Ya. Is your papa there?... Good. Hello papa, is that you?... Ya. The conference with the Saxonia company's set for tomorrow morning papa... Ya, ya. If the merger does not go through, ve are in very bad shape papa... Ya, ya. Everything depends upon news from Manchester! If the deal with the Manchester Cotton Company does not go through, we are facing a very bad situation papa.

    Suzette: [in the next phonebooth] I'm Suzette - Suzette: Madam Grusinskaya's maid. Madam will not dance today. No she will not go to the rehearsal; she did not sleep all night. There is something preying on her mind... No, I give her a tablet of degranol. She is sleeping now.

    Baron Felix von Geigern: [in the next phonebooth] This is Baron von Geigern. Look here, I need money or I can't stay at this hotel much longer. Well I've layed the groundwork, know the exact position of her room, and I've made friends with her ballet master Pimenov.

    Otto Kringelein: [back in his phonebooth, sincerely] Listen Heinrich, I've taken all my savings - everything; and I'm going to enjoy spending it, *all* of it. I-it's terribly expensive here Heinrich, oooohh but it's wonderful!

    Senf: [back in his phonebooth, nervously] I can't, I'll lose my job! It's like being in jail.

    Preysing: [back in his phonebooth, adamantly] Rely on me papa. I will make this merger go through, I never fail.

    Suzette: [back in her phonebooth, frantically] Oh poor Madam, her mind is tortured. I'm afraid she will...

    Baron Felix von Geigern: [back in his phonebooth, slyly] I don't need advice, thanks very much; I need money.

    Otto Kringelein: [back in his phonebooth, excitedly] ... music all the time - oh it's wonderful.

    Dr. Otternschlag: [sitting in a chair in the lobby smoking a cigar] Grand Hotel: people coming, going... nothing ever happens.

    [the scene fades out]