Is the non-existent country basically Austro-Hungary? The present-day Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, part of Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, some of Poland, and others. Instead of collapsing after the 1914-18 War it continues into the post-war period.
Yes and no, the fictional country in the movie is decaying and falling prey to fascist militias, on the brink of war. More similar to a successor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, than to the Empire itself had it survived WWI
The country of The Grand Budapest Hotel is definitely a fantasy version of eastern European countries of the 1920s and 30s: becoming independent of the Habsburg rule in 1918, struggling with the establishment of nationhood, civil unrest and later on (as in the frame of the movie) communism and the post-communist era. The heritage of the now distant imperial past forms the background through architecture and cultural artefacts (like music, or the multi ethnic makeup of cities like the fictitious Lutz and the fact that, for example, the stops of its local tramway are written out in German). Sorry for rambling here, but I *really* enjoy how Wes Anderson captured this layer-like essence of the history and culture in that part of the world.
as a trained musician in austrian/czech music, listening to to this analysis makes it seem as if "El Jarabe Tapatio" is the pinnacle of "mexican" music. I do not disagree it is a good soundtrack, but it is as stereotypical as can be. it is closer to being a parody of central/eastern european music than an example of possible evolution.
Not only is the score inventive and interesting musically, it also fits so damn well with the nostalgic and sort of “era gone by” themes presented by the movie it’s really elegantly done by Desplat. Great video breaking it down!
My favorite Wes Anderson film, named after my favorite European city (visited twice!). I grew up reading literature, graphic novels and watching movies steeped in the Victorian/Late 18th Century Europe- my favorite historical period, so when I arrived at the grand train station in Budapest, I felt like I was stepping into an Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holms mystery- surely there would be a murder on the train before we arrived in Prague!!!!
Movie was so good with the nostalgia effect that I didn't know Mitteleropa wasn't real. I thought it was a real Hungarian place especially with the misleading name of the Grand Budapest Hotel. Google broke that illusion.
Desplat and Anderson are not just creating music and images teeming with borrowed or misplaced nostalgia for a world that was, but actually IS in the fullest sense. This is the same reason that Mahler’s music continues to be so powerful and shares a lot of the same characteristics of Desplat’s score here. Both are playing in worlds that, in their own times, do not exist anymore but are seeking to create a new, IDEAL, world of memory in the mind of the viewer/listener. I don’t know, just a thought.
"A nostalgic feeling for something that didn‘t exist" that perfectly sums up this movie I think! Thanks for the video! Grand Budapest Hotel is one of my favorite movies. This world that Alexandre Desplat has created with his music also brilliantly mirrors M. Gustaves character, I have just realized after watching your video. Monsieur Gustave was described as, in the end, someone who kept the illusion of the Grand Budapest Hotel alive. The hotel‘s - and therefore his - era has long passed (due to the uprising of fascist regimes etc.). His world was already "dead", so to speak. But he still managed to breathe life into it, if only for a brief moment. Just as Alexandre created this nostalgic-feeling music for a country that is "dead", non-existent.
I went from film scores to classical - so film scores are such an important stepping stone for many people. For me it was Lord of the Rings and Star Wars as a natural stepping stone (hence why my first videos on this channel are on LOTR and Star Wars - so other people can undergo the same journey). Many classical fans nowadays are starting their journey with film, so we may as well embrace it!
@@InsidetheScore I take it that step from soundtrack music to classical is only becoming much more common, I know for myself Star Wars, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Koji Kondo's work in the Mario and The Legend of Zelda games really established my love for orchestral music that led me to Beethoven, Mussorgski, Holst, and Chopin.
@@InsidetheScoreBack then I was like ten, I didn't categorised music in genres. Although I have interest in Music in films, video games, mobile games and other media, I actually started with Piano Tiles, Violin Magical Bow, Ringtones and Piano hd Piano+. Some of the ringtones apps even have info about composers and pieces .And , thanks to those, I became familiar with both popular and less popular composers and pieces ,even before I found out classical music or music itself is a thing.
“Grand Budapest Hotel” has a fantastic soundtrack, certainly one of the best ever created. Desplat does there what every important composer active before the First World War did. There’s nothing wrong with that style; the problem is, the general public stopped with Ravel.
As a huge fan of filmscores, this video was awesome! You should totally check out the score for Requiem for a Dream by Clint Mansell, it's an insane sounding score that's still very meticulously crafted to fit what's going on in the film. And he also achieves this without the use of a large ensemble, it's written only for string quartet and some synths/samplers.
Oh my god, I'm dying! 5:44 "There's a harp, a glockenspiel, a xylophone, and, for whatever reason... a recorder ensemble" as you splice in a clip of Team Recorder playing what looks like a 5$ plastic recorder :D Too funny
You see some of it in the few movies set in Weimar-era Germany, with Cabaret being the most famous example thereof, but those focus less on the death of the old world and more on the rise of the Nazis, a la the infamous "Tomorrow Belongs to Me" scene.
Thank you for making me aware of the full depth of the music in The Grand Budapest Hotel. Desplat has done a masterful job for a superb film - Oscar well deserved! - and you have done a great job in putting other artists' excellent work in the spotlight. That in itself is an accomplishment: to show the greatness of others without being in the way.
This film is one of my biggest favourites to watch and the score is especially great. The nostalgia is so strong and really does capture the forgotten era
One of the aspects of this particular soundtrack that I like is the tempo. For most of the film, there is a race against time and the themes and tracks carry a roughly 60 bpm (at least on the accent notes), which is the tempo of a clock :D. I don't know if this was intentional or even a *thing* but that is one of the things I find interesting and brilliant in this score.
There's a lot of comments here about the legacy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and it is absolutely the real-life source of Zubrowka. Wes Anderson openly stated in interviews that he was trying to create, "a pastiche of the greatest hits of Eastern Europe," desiring to revive the whimsical fiction of Stefan Zweig. So what is this ostensibly fictional country? Americans (and British) know of the heavyweights of Western Europe: France, Germany, Italy, Spain. As it happens, this comprises the major nations that were not occupied by the Soviets after 1945. Eastwards was closed. By the time Americans began to pay attention to the Continent (since 1917), Eastern Europe was a strange assortment of obscure nationalities all living on top of one another, where great empires swelled and began to disintegrate at the start of the 20th Century, whereupon a few decades of violent nationalism culminated in a half-century of Soviet (Russian) repression. The story was already past its peak before American culture was able to take notice of it. So yes, Zubrowka has this Teutonic overlay, but in a slapstick manner where even the fascists can't be taken seriously. It has a Slavic sensibility underneath; itself a blend of Croatia, Slovakia, Czechia, Slovenia, Poland, Serbia, Ukraine, and Bulgaria. It has the ethno-linguistic outliers; the Hungarians, the Romanians, the Moldovans, the Bosnians, the Macedonians, the Jews. And just hinting around the edges are the vanguard of the exotic orient of the Mediterranean; Albanians, Turks, Greeks, Gypsies. It has a bizarre and difficult to categorize identity because it was never built around a modern nation-state sensibility. This is the leftovers of the Hapsburg Dynasty's attempt to carry on the legacy of the Roman Empire. It's not that it was a doomed effort, but the transition from aristocracies to democracies requires a demos, a People to take over, not a vaguely defined multiculturalism fronting for a not-so-secretly posh world of inherited money and privilege. It's a transition that leaves behind places like Zubrowka bereft of their history and heritage on the other side of a national border, a transition that can't afford to keep up the lavishness of past glory (especially after both the Fascists and Communists loot it), and a transition that has no place for a gentleman like Monsieur Gustave H.
When I first watched the film as a child, my imagination was swept up by this fictional place. It felt like it had more worldbuilding than 90% of the fantasy genre, without mentioning a detailed list of royal succession going back 1000 years or the names of battles fought centuries ago
The Grand Budapest Hotel is my all-time favourite movie. From the amazing cast (who all did a fantastic acting job), to the story, and of course *the music*, it will remain my top 1 for decades
That's really how his name is pronounced, "Des-plat"? The whole time I thought for a French composer his name would be something like "Deh-pla" or something. 😅
my french isn't amazing but the name was probably originally Des Plats (of the plates or dishes.) so you get a liason on the first s that ordinarily would be silent: dez-plats. then the name probably went to desplat but kept that liason. idk just guessing.
My favorite Wes Anderson film, named after my favorite European city (visited twice!). I grew up reading literature, comic books and watching movies steeped in the Victorian/Late 18th Century Europe- my favorite historical period, so when I arrived at the grand train station in Budapest, I felt like I was stepping into an Agatha Christie or Sherlock Holms mystery- surely there would be a murder on the train before we arrived in Prague!!!!
Why is it such an obscure movie? It sounds really interesting, not only the music but also the plot... Why do such things always pass by without being noticed?
Another great video!--but again, with some mistakes. I see you read my comment on your last video about your German pronunciation. For proper names, you could simply consult Wikipedia, as it usually provides pronunciations for foreign names. To be fair, as for the song "s'Rothe-Zäuerli," I couldn't find a pronunciation for non-German speakers with a quick Google search. I would suggest consulting something like Olly Richard's "Complete Beginner's Guide to German Pronunciation." You might want to follow these steps for languages other than German, as well. Also, it's "Benjamin BUTTON," not "Benjamin BRITTEN."
Why create a fictional central European country that may have the name of some Polish region (voivodship) or village or small town or something based in either Czech or Slovakia? Great Slavic and non-Slavic music though by Monsieur Desplat.
I couldn't get in😔.. guss it doesn't work with Gmail. But the video itself was incredibly informative. I am now I'm going to keep an eye on the artist and learn from his work.😁
this video is really good but the mixing on your vocals makes s noises really loud, sharp and abraisive, I had to turn the audio down very low to not hurt my ears
I'm musically deaf, I don't mean I have ears problems in fact my hearing is 10/10 (i guess) but I never noticed musics in movies, I so a video for someone watching ost for undertale video game and his eyes started to tear up without knowing anything about the game, which is very bizarre to me.
Great video…such a great score!! And unique film. While he certainly deserves the Oscar’s he has received….Hans Zimmer should have one that year for Interstellar
Off topic... I was just wondering if you could explore more composers that are American born or of African descent. You could bring a great deal of awareness to composers of African descent in the classical music world. Just curious. Enjoy your videos very much!! Thank you!! But don't stop analyzing and sharing your love for this great art!!! ~From USA
"How to Write Music for a Fake Country" - It would be really interesting to make a video on Bear McCreary's score for Lord Of The Rings: The Rings of Power. While it does feel in general Lord-Of-The-Ringsy, each location and character has some really individual themes and instrumentation that would be a blast to dive through, especially Numenor and Durin.
I suddenly feel the urge to write a symphony for alternate history scenarios like Paradox Interactive games (Europa Universalis 4, Hearts of Iron, etc). Inspiring stuff.
