"In the end they shot him, so it all went to me."

By the time Mustafa's speaks this line, we've almost forgotten the reason that Mustafa and the Author had dinner in the first place: because the Author asked Mustafa how he came to buy the Grand Budapest.

In a sense, the movie has been driven by the question of Mustafa's link to the Grand Budapest, but in the end we learn that the answer was merely a catalyst to open up a wild and unbelievable story—a story that goes by the name of Gustave H.

That's why The Grand Budapest is both deeply sad and totally life-affirming: It's sad because the force of nature that was Gustave H. was killed in a devastating manner, but it's life-affirming because, even in death, Gustave's personality takes over the tale of The Grand Budapest Hotel in such a way that we remember him as totally alive.