The inspiration for Wes Anderson's "Budapest Hotel" was inspired by Stephen Zweig's autobiographical work "Yesterday's World", which is a text of memories of a Jew before he was exiled in Brazil until he committed suicide by poisoning. That generation, like Zweig’s friend Roman Roland, intended to use words to think about the society and culture of the time. This sense of responsibility for cultural inheritance and thinking may be difficult for Chinese people today to appreciate. But in Europe, this cultural essence is still being passed on.
So we can explore the shadow of Zweig from the "Budapest Hotel".
Some people say that the writer in "Cloth" is Zweig, which seems to make sense, especially in the opening, when the old writer was interrupted by the child's toy gun when he was making a monologue. Does the child in gray clothes symbolize Nazi aggression? So this kind of aggression interrupted the writer's confession, does it also hint at the sufferings suffered by the European continent? At the end of the story, the young writer went to South America to travel after listening to the story. Didn’t Zweig kill himself on drugs in exile in Brazil?
Some people say that ZERO is a symbol of Zweig, because it was his oral narrative that revealed a period of European history. He experienced war, lost all his family, and was displaced. But I met Gustafa at the Budapest Grand Hotel. He loyally defends Gustafa, can it be said that Zweig loyally defends his Jewish nation? ZERO sold all its assets just to keep the Budapest Grand Hotel. Is it Zweig's ultimate fortitude to persist in the memory?
Some people say that Zweig is actually the protagonist Gustafa, because Gustafa is a Jew, and the ending is to be shot on the ice field by the ZZ party soldier who symbolizes fascism! In the movie, the Lutz Castle symbolizing Germany, the logo is a black eagle swooping and pecking on white doves, just like the Jewish people under the power, facing the crisis of being torn and strangled. Gustafa's paranoid use of "feather scent" perfume also implies that he is the white dove being pecked.
These three people all reflect Wes Anderson's feelings about Zweig in fragments in the movie.
At the same time, in the "Budapest Hotel", we seem to be able to find extremely rich meaning in every scene. At the Budapest Grand Hotel in 1968, the facade of the old building is covered in old chrome yellow, showing perseverance. The Budapest Grand Hotel in 1932 was pink, with splendid colors, which seemed to symbolize the splendor of European thought in that era. But what about leaving the Budapest Grand Hotel? A blank white, it seems like a permanent winter, that is people's indifference on the eve of the war, populism blinded people's thinking, everything is gray. Lutz's castle is so dark, symbolizing German fascism.
The "Apple and the Boy" is also full of meaning. Apples are full of fantasy elements in continental European culture. The Goddess of Discord used an apple to ignite the Trojan War. Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden of Eden for stealing the apple. So the apple became a symbol of desire. This apple belonged to the Jews represented by Gustafa, but Dmitry, who symbolized fascism, wanted to forcibly occupy it. For possessiveness, Dmitry sent Joplin, a cold-blooded killer, a symbol of the SS killer. Joplin killed Kovac, the lawyer who symbolized law, notarization and order. After you vie for me, the painting was finally left in the Budapest Hotel and displayed publicly behind the reception desk. At that moment, Apple was no longer a matter of interest and desire, but the spirit of the Jews, and could no longer be taken and robbed. Up!
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