The Zweigesque in Wes Anderson's "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

THE ZWEIGESQUE IN WES ANDERSON’S “THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL” Malorie Spencer A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS August 2018 Committee: Edgar Landgraf, Advisor Kristie Foell ii ABSTRACT Edgar Landgraf, Advisor This thesis examines the parallels between narrative structures, including frame narratives and narrative construction of identity, as well as poetic and thematic parallels that exist between the writings of Stefan Zweig and the Wes Anderson film, The Grand Budapest Hotel. These parallels are discussed in order to substantiate Anderson’s claim that The Grand Budapest Hotel is a zweigesque film despite the fact that it is not a direct film adaptation of any one Zweig work. Anderson’s adaptations of zweigesque elements show that Zweig’s writings continue to be relevant today. These adaptations demonstrate the intricate ways in which narrative devices can be used to construct stories and reconstruct history. By drawing on thematic and stylistic elements of Zweig’s writings, Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel raises broader questions about both the necessity of narratives and their shortcomings in the construction of identity; Anderson’s characters both rely on and challenge the ways identity is constructed through narrative. This thesis shows how the zweigesque in Anderson’s film is able to challenge how history is viewed and how people conceptualize and relate to their continually changing notions of identity. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank my family for their encouragement throughout the process of writing this thesis. I am unable to express how important their kind and reassuring words have been to me. To my parents, specifically, I would like to express my gratitude for instilling in me a love of literature at a very early age. My friends and colleagues are also deserving of much thanks for their willingness to put up with my passionate rants about my research and writing and for all of the help and reassurance they provided me when I was stressed out. I would also like to thank my advisors, Dr. Edgar Landgraf and Dr. Kristie Foell, for their patient reading of endless drafts of this thesis and for their helpful critiques, suggestions, and feedback. Their belief in my abilities was crucial to my completion of this thesis. Additionally, I would like to thank my wonderful high school German teachers, Frau Kelly (Rostedt) Jessup and Frau Karen (DeBaldo) Greenwood, without whom I would have never been able to pursue an MA in German. iv "...ich bin noch heute überzeugt, dass man ein ausgezeichneter Philosoph, Historiker, Philologe, Jurist und was immer werden kann, ohne je eine Universität oder sogar ein Gymnasium besucht zu haben…So praktisch, handlich und heilsam der akademische Betrieb für die Durchschnittsbegabung sein mag, so entbehrlich scheint er mir für individuell produktive Naturen, bei denen er sich sogar im Sinn einer Hemmung auszuwirken vermag." - Stefan Zweig, Die Welt von Gestern 81-82 v TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER I NARRATIVE STRUCTURES ........................................................................ 7 Frame Narratives ........................................................................................................ 9 Narrative Construction of Identity ............................................................................. 22 CHAPTER II POETIC AND THEMATIC ELEMENTS ..................................................... 30 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................................... 49 WORKS CITED .................................................................................................................... 51 1 INTRODUCTION The film The Grand Budapest Hotel, both written and directed by the acclaimed American filmmaker Wes Anderson, was released in the United States in March of 2014. Despite the fact that this was not a prime release date, the film was an enormous success (Crothers Dilley 52). The Box Office earnings for the film were approximately $175 Million, and the film went on to be nominated for and win several awards including the 2014 Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture in the category of Musicals and Comedies. The film had a wide viewership, and was especially well-received among European audiences, winning numerous awards at various European film festivals. Additionally, the soundtrack of the film, composed by the equally well- known and highly acclaimed composer Alexandre Desplat, received the 2014 Golden Globe Award for best soundtrack. In addition to having a spectacular director, writer, and composer, the incredible cast list is also worth noting. A cast of talented actors is no guarantee of success, but at least with regard to The Grand Budapest Hotel, the long line-up of A-list actors certainly did not harm the film’s chances for success. Among the film’s cast are Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Jude Law, Tilda Swinton, and Adrien Brody, just to name a few. Notoriety and talent are helpful elements in the production of a successful film, but without a story to be told, there can be no film. Wes Anderson wrote the screenplay for The Grand Budapest Hotel, a screenplay that is a literary work in its own right. Anderson is a talented writer and story-teller, but behind the idea for the film and the screenplay is excellent source material upon which he was able to build his own story. There is one particular literary 2 figure to whom Anderson attributes much of his inspiration for the film, but that important figure is not immediately mentioned. Approximately ninety-three minutes after having first been drawn into the movie, the viewer is made privy to whose works provided the impulse for the film and resulted in the birth of such a stunningly captivating cinematographic work. As the yodeling of the soundtrack continues, the screen turns black and the words “Inspired by the Writings of Stefan Zweig” appear. But who is this Stefan Zweig fellow? Why is his name so unfamiliar despite the fact that his writings were the inspiration for a film as vivid and captivating as The Grand Budapest Hotel? Although most American viewers have probably not stumbled across the writings of this Austrian Jew who lived from 1881 to 1942, Zweig was one of the most widely-read and extensively translated authors of his time. To assist curious viewers in filling in this gap in their knowledge of 20th century Austrian literature, Wes Anderson gathered English translations of the Stefan Zweig writings to which he attributes the greatest amount of significance for The Grand Budapest Hotel, and they were published together in the collection entitled The Society of the Crossed Keys. This book is prefaced by an interview between Wes Anderson and George Prochnik, the author of the biography The Impossible Exile: Stefan Zweig at the End of the World. In this interview Prochnik makes the following statement: When I was first reading Zweig…I would ask very educated friends of mine in the United States about him, and none of them knew who he was. Part of what really got me to also write a book about him was the sense that his erasure was so violent. I came to know slightly Zweig’s step niece…I remember at one point she told me that he would be completely forgotten. (The Society of the Crossed Keys 21) 3 After hearing this, Anderson goes on to express his distress at the thought of what it would be like “to be erased in his mother tongue” (The Society of the Crossed Keys 21). The level to which Zweig was erased within the German-speaking world is slightly exaggerated by Prochnik and Anderson, but there was certainly an attempt to erase Zweig. Having been deemed “degenerate” like all other Jewish authors, books written by him were burned during the Nazi era. Despite the fact that it was well-received by the public, the Strauss opera Die schweigsame Frau (The Silent Woman) for which Zweig wrote the libretto was banned by the Nazi Regime shortly after its premiere because Strauss insisted upon continuing to credit Zweig in the program as the librettist despite the fact that Zweig was a Jew (The Society of the Crossed Keys 21). An author as important as Zweig could not be completely erased from Austrian Literature, and his Schachnovelle (Chess Story) is still commonly read in schools in the German-speaking world today. Additionally, there have been many German-language film adaptations of his works. The most recently-released film related to Zweig is the 2016 biographical film Vor der Morgenröte (Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe) by director Maria Schrader. Stefan Zweig would, without a doubt, have remained an even stronger presence in the world of international literature had there not been such efforts to erase him, but thanks to the avid appreciation of many admirers, Stefan Zweig’s works were ultimately able to weather even the harshest efforts to eliminate him from literary history. Wes Anderson’s film The Grand Budapest Hotel continues to expand that effort to restore and preserve Zweig’s writings for a worldwide audience. Anderson happened to stumble across the Stefan Zweig novel Ungeduld des Herzens (Beware of Pity) in a Paris bookstore (Crothers Dilley 52). That particular novel is an example of Zweig’s use of the frame narrative. Among the many topics and themes of

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