Aesthetic Color Allegory and the Return of Civilizational Metaphors in The Grand Budapest Hotel

Journal: Arts Studies and Criticism DOI: 10.32629/asc.v3i1.682

Yiqiao Wang

The Juilliard School, New York, USA

Abstract

Hue is a physiological phenomenon that is produced by the human eye and brain, and it is a concentrated expression of color characteristics. One of the most important ways to convey hue through film is through hue, which is considered the color soul of film. "The Grand Budapest Hotel" highlights Wes Anderson's distinctive creative personality, but breaks traditional narrative structure by combining ancient history, culture, art and aesthetics of Europe with the spirit of Hollywood entertainment. This narrative with strong metaphorical interpretation makes the film extremely personal. The purpose of this research paper is to analyze in depth not only the visual aesthetics of the film but also the dramatic conflict in the film. Which is a metaphor for the centralized power of Europe's upper classes and a philosophical metaphor for the faces of society at that time. As well as illustrating the ugliness of human nature, the decline of European civilization, and the display of national exile culture, the metaphors also reveal the strong humanistic concern of the original author Zweig.

Keywords

The Grand Budapest Hotel, Wes Anderson, Stefan Zweig, color theory

References

[1]Vreeland, Vaughn A. (2015). Color Theory and Social Structure in the Films of Wes Anderson. Elon Journal of Undergraduate Research in Communications. 6 (2):37-39
[2]Gegenfurtner, K., & Sharpe, L. (2000). Color vision: From genes to perception. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
[3]Grobar, M. (2015). Minding the details. Deadline Online. Deadline.com. Web.
[4]Tractinsky, N., 2020. Visual Aesthetics. [online] The Interaction Design Foundation. Available at: https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/book/the-encyclopedia-of-human-computer-interaction-2nd-ed/visual-aesthetics [Accessed 30 November 2021].
[5]Zettl, H. (1973). Sight, sound, motion applied media aesthetics. Belmont, Calif: Wadsworth.
[6]Who is Stefan Zweig and How Was He an Inspiration on "The Grand Budapest Hotel"? | Read | The Take. 2015. Who is Stefan Zweig and How Was He an Inspiration on "The Grand Budapest Hotel"? | Read | The Take. [online] Available at: https://the-take.com/read/who-is-stefan-zweig-and-how-was-he-an-inspiration-on-the-grand-budapest-hotel [Accessed 30 November 2021].
[7]Zweig, S., & Bell, A. (2014). The world of yesterday. London: Pushkin Press.
[8]Ma, Yun-peng. A Brief Analysis on the Use of Color in Film Scenes Taking The Grand Budapest Hotel as an Example. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Arts, Design and Contemporary Education (ICADCE 2019).
[9]Anderson, W., 2014. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) Film Script | Script Slug. [online] Script Slug. Available at: https://www.scriptslug.com/script/the-grand-budapest-hotel-2014 [Accessed 30 November 2021].

Copyright © 2022 Yiqiao Wang

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License