Monsieur Gustave In Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel

Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) uses the human figure of Monsieur Gustave (Ralph Fiennes) and his pattern of behavior within the mise-en-scene of the film to show that acts of kindness drive the plot of the film forward in order to illustrate the power of kindness and the positive results that it can have on our lives. Over the course of the film, the narrator for the majority of the movie, Zero Moustafa (played by both Tony Revolori and F. Murray Abraham) reflects on his life as a young lobby boy at the Grand Budapest Hotel who is mentored by Monsieur Gustave, the owner and manager of the building. Throughout the majority of the film, there are multiple acts of kindness that Monsieur Gustave exhibits including allowing Zero

the chance to be a lobby boy at the Grand Budapest Hotel, stepping up for Zero and not allowing a Nazi-like army to take him away, serving prisoners mush during his time in Check-point 19 Criminal Internment Camp as well as sharing his delightful Mendl’s pastries with his cellmates, and Gustave even delivers a sermon on how rudeness is merely the expression of fear within the film. In addition, the film reaches its climax at the point when Monsieur Gustave is shot and we learn how Zero Mustafa is given all of his riches and fortunes – by will of Monsieur Gustave.
When leading up to my point about Monsieur Gustave giving Zero the chance to become a lobby boy, the movie starts out as a simple girl walks upon the grave of the author of the book, The Grand Budapest Hotel, which she holds in her arm. As she flips the book over, we see a picture of the author and dive back in time to the author as an old man, explaining that he wrote this book based on a story he was told as a young man. The movie then delves even deeper into the author’s life as a young man, showing us where and how he met the man who told him this story. As the young versioned author of the book sits down to eat with Zero Moustafa, the man that shared this story, the film dives back in time once more, depicting Zero as the young lobby boy of the Grand Budapest Hotel, and his grand adventure with Monsieur Gustave. When this scene begins, Monsieur Gustave asks Zero who he is and who hired him as a lobby boy, then stating that he has never laid eyes on him. Zero then states that Mr. Mosher hired him and Monsieur Gustave then asks the man about it. Eventually Monsieur Gustave approves of the hire after interviewing Zero for a short amount of time. This is the most noticeable act of kindness portrayed by Monsieur Gustave throughout the movie. Without hiring Zero out of the goodness of his heart, the entire film would not have been able to progress and furthermore, this story would not have been told at all. However, some may say that it is a possibility Monsieur Gustave hired Zero not out of the goodness of his heart, but because he may have wanted to add another staff member. Yet, when Gustave was interviewing Zero, he claimed that Zero had “zero experience,” “zero education,” and “zero family,” surely making him unfit for the job. However, when Gustave asked Zero why he wanted to work as a lobby boy, Zero states, “Who wouldn’t at a place like The Grand Budapest? It’s at institution.” It can be seen that Gustave hired Zero only because he wanted to work at a place that he considered so magnificent, ultimately showing that Gustave hired him in out of kindness and empathy. As I said before, I believe the movie was trying to show the power of kindness and the positive results it can have on our lives. In addition, towards the end of the movie, Gustave is being chased by an assassin and is on the brink of death, hanging from the side of a cliff. As the assassin is about to push him into the abyss below, Zero comes out of nowhere and instead, pushes the assassin into the abyss and then pulls Gustave up from the brink, ultimately saving Gustave’s life. This small act of kindness that Gustave displayed at the beginning of the film ultimately came back to save his life in the end, showing that the power of kindness can have such a positive effect in our lives.
Later on in the movie after Madam D, Monsieur Gustave’s lover, is killed, both Gustave and Zero take a train over to her estate in order to see her once more before she is laid to rest. However, on the way there, a Nazi-like army stops the train and storms inside, demanding to see legal papers for the two. After Gustave hands the militia troop his legal papers, Zero hands them a ragged, torn up piece of paper, which they do not accept. Monsieur Gustave explains to them that it is a migratory visa and that Zero is with him. However, they once again do not accept Zero’s papers and ask him to come outside. As Zero gets up to go outside, Monsieur Gustave tells him to sit down and yells at the soldiers saying that Zero’s papers are in order. The soldiers then respond by grabbing Zero and trying to pull him outside, only to have Gustave grab him and pull him back inside. However, the soldiers heavily outnumber the two and reprimand each of them. Following this, the captain of the soldiers (Edward Norton) comes onto the train and recognizes Monsieur Gustave, reminding him that as a boy, he and his parents would spend much time at the Grand Budapest Hotel. Edward Norton’s character immediately demands his soldiers to release Monsieur Gustave and Zero, and apologizes for the disturbance. His character also gives Zero additional papers to help him with travels and then says to Zero, “Your companion was very kind to me when I was a lonely little boy.” Once again, Monsieur Gustave’s kindness, even though it took place long before the syuzhet of the film, comes back to save Zero’s life, further reinforcing that being kind will produce positive results, just as it does in this film.
In addition, what I found to be one of the most important, yet subtle, kind acts in the film happened during Gustave’s time in the Check-Point 19 Criminal Internment Camp.

Firstly, Monsieur Gustave was put in prison because he had been accused of the murder of Madam D. Furthermore, one role Gustave had while he was in the internment camp was pushing around a cart filled with “mush” which he offered to the prisoners. The film happens to show one specific time in which he offered this mush to a set of cellmates. When he offered them the mush, they, in return, ignored him until he pointed out the “large man with a scar on his face,” who was laying on his bed within the cell. In doing so, the man jumped down from his bed and seemingly stormed over to him, portraying that he wasn’t happy about his time being interrupted. However, Gustave then poured him a bowl of mush and even tipped that, “it needs a bit of salt,” then pouring a bit of salt in the bowl of mush for the prisoner. After the prisoner tasted the mush, he then nodded approvingly, as if pleased with Gustave and this kind act of his. In addition to this, Gustave also received Mendl’s pastries while he was in prison, which are basically small slices of cake from the Grand Budapest Hotel. However, instead of eating them himself, he decided to share them with his cellmates. After bringing his pastry in to share with them one day, his friends stopped him and closed the cell door so that they could be in private. They do so in order to talk to Gustave about the idea of a prison break, which is a crucial point in the movie. It’s very doubtful that they would have included him in their prison break plans if he hadn’t done these smalls acts of kindness for them. By being kind to his cellmates, he is ultimately offered another chance at life through the prison break. Furthermore, the following scene is the actual prison break, where the small act of kindness he had done for the large man with the scar on

his face plays a huge difference in the success of the prison break. While Monsieur Gustave and his cellmates are in the middle of the escape during the night, a man that was in the same cell as the large man with the scar on his face notices them. Because of this, he begins yelling, trying to alert the guards. However, the large man with the scar on his face comes to the rescue, ripping the other man back from the cell door and beating him up in order to keep him quiet so no one is caught during the prison break. Monsieur Gustave then thanks him greatly for this kind act and the man, once again, nods back approvingly. Monsieur Gustave and his friends then end up escaping from the prison without being caught. Now this tiny act of kindness that Monsieur Gustave did for the large man with the scar on his face came back and ultimately saved his life, allowing him the chance to escape. Without this scene, the end result of the movie could not happen, and most likely, Zero would have never seen Monsieur Gustave outside of prison again, let alone be given all of Gustave’s wealth and fortune. These small acts of kindness in the movie continue to drive it forward by keeping Gustave alive, therefore drawing on the emphasis on kindness and its importance in our lives. Although the movie seems to take on an exaggerated view on kindness because of how many times it saves Monsieur Gustave’s and Zero’s life, it still can lead to positive impacts in our lives.