Symbols and Tropes

Symbols and Tropes

Boy with Apple

We bet you were just dying to see van Hoytl's masterpiece. You probably couldn't wait for Gustave to show it to Zero in the upper rooms of the Desgoffe estate. Both Gustave and Dmitri's reactions t...

Mendl's

Ah, Mendl's: the most delicate pastry shop in all of Nebelsbad, with the most delicious signature treat. The Courtesan au Chocolat is pretty, delicate, and its color palette fits perfectly with the...

L'Air de Panache

Gustave's favorite perfume is, above all, a symbol of his reputation. With its fancy French-sounding name and its apparently super-powerful scent, L'Air de Panache fits perfectly into the fussy, ov...

Poetry

Being the literary nerds we are, the first thing we did after watching Grand Budapest was rush home and type all of Gustave's wonderful verse into the internet to see what source material Anderson...

Checkpoint 19

Checkpoint 19 is the antithesis of the Grand Budapest Hotel. Like the Budapest, it's a large, multistoried establishment with many visitors—er—prisoners. It has a strictly-run staff and, hey!â€...

Society of the Crossed Keys

Just like Boy with Apple, the ever-so-secret Society of the Crossed Keys makes a few cameos before it's ever officially mentioned. We see the Crossed Keys emblem below M. Jean on the concierge desk...

The War

Is The Grand Budapest Hotel a war film in disguise?On the one hand, we would hate to make a strict allegory out of anything Wes Anderson made. On the other hand…well, there is a war, and it must...