MAVFX

Categorisation: 

A masterpiece of the surrealist cinema that emerged from the French avant-garde movement. The story told in the film is a love story of a break-up caused by a lack of synchronization between the awakening of male and female sexuality. From a civilised point of view, it is a development of social attitudes towards sexuality, moving from sexual repression to a confrontation with sexuality. The tone of the whole film is rather depressing and dull.

Form and Function：

There is no specific plot, only a set of illogical shots and a dissonant joining of strange and grotesque images: a man trying to embrace the woman he desires, but tripping over a long rope tied to a pumpkin; a dead donkey piled bloody on a piano; the director’s use of the cinematic form for unexplained absurdity and his fascination with poetic new metaphorical techniques. Brutal imagery and shocking visual effects, such as a sharp razor cutting open a human eye, a human head hanging under a giant clock, etc., are used to convey the painful emotions of despair and anarchic rebellion.

Process:  

In the film’s narrative approach throughout, the director breaks away from the traditional linear classical narrative telling and adopts a hybrid, fractured narrative style, conveying an absurd and bizarre ideological character for the audience through a dreamy, fragmented and unique cinematic narrative vision.

Formal Elements; 

The depth of the space and the cross-cutting between the outdoor and indoor areas allow the viewer to follow an underlying axis of consciousness from the seemingly illogical leaps into the surreal. The “light” has already been mentioned, and the dreamlike quality of the film can be seen in the contrast between the style of lighting in the opening credits and later sections. The lighting of the film is fantastic, as the bright style seems to emphasise the realistic nature of the film’s plot – the dream world is often done with high contrast, high shadows and darker images, false focus, etc. The overall brighter style of photography allows the film to provide the viewer with a richer perceptual message 

The Grand Budapest Hotel

Stasis

In order to concentrate on his work, Jude Law went to the Budapest Hotel, where he met its owner, Moustafa, who invited him to dinner, where he told him about the past and present life of the grand, weathered hotel. The hotel was once owned by Monsieur Gustave H., and the young Moustafa was just a porter following him at the time. The conversation leads to the real protagonist of the film, Monsieur Gustave H.

Trigger

Monsieur Gustave H., a man of integrity and shrewdness, ran and organised the Grand Budapest Hotel, which became one of the leading resorts of the time, and his love affair with the elderly Mrs D., who, on her death, left a valuable painting to Monsieur Gustave H. in her will. This act angered her son Dmitri, and so began the doom of the Grand Budapest Hotel and Gustave.

The quest

Shortly after Madame D.’s last visit to the hotel, Monsieur Gustave H. learns of her mysterious death from Zero Moustafa. He and Zero then went to her estate, Schloss Lutz, to pay their respects and met her surviving relatives listening to Deputy Vilmos Kovacs, a lawyer, read out the will. Kovacs read out the latest addendum to the will bequeathing a priceless Renaissance painting, The Apple Boy, to Gustave. Monsieur Gustave H. and Zero Moustafa leave and escape with the painting as a safety precaution.

Surprise

Back at the Grand Budapest Hotel, Monsieur Gustave H. is arrested for the murder of Madame D. During his time in prison, he becomes friends with a group of prisoners who secretly organise an escape plan. Zero Moustafa’s girlfriend Agatha is an apprentice at Mendl’s, so Zero Moustafa puts the digging tools given to Monsieur Gustave H. into the pastries she makes. Gustave and the others chiselled their way out and then the stars flew apart. When Zero Moustafa and Monsieur Gustave H. were reunited, they began to assist the Society of the Crossed Keys, a group of concierges, to prove Monsieur Gustave H.’s innocence. They learned that Madame had a second will, which was only valid at the time of her murder, but had been lost.

Critical choice

Monsieur Gustave H., Zero Moustafa and Agatha return to the Grand Budapest Hotel, but find that it has long since been turned into a military headquarters. Agatha then quietly sneaks in to collect The Apple Boy. As she was about to leave, Dmitri happened to enter the hotel and found her with the painting.

Climax

Monsieur Gustave H. and Zero Moustafa rush to save Agatha from harm when she has escaped from Dmitri’s clutches. He opens fire on them and engages in a fierce (but confusing) gun battle with the Zube Roca forces. Agatha’s attempt to escape results in her and Zero Moustafa hanging from the terrace before falling safely onto a van full of pastries.

Reversal

Madame’s second copy of her will, which is affixed to the back of The Apple Juvenile, reads that Monsieur Gustave H. is to be made the beneficiary of the estate. He succeeded her as owner of the Grand Budapest Hotel and became one of the richest men in Zubroka.

Resolution

While returning by train, Monsieur Gustave H., Zero Moustafa and Agatha encounter a soldier and tear up Zero Moustafa’s refugee card. monsieur Gustave H. tries to dispatch the soldier and is shot dead by the soldier. Zero, as the only heir of Monsieur Gustave H.’s husband, thus inherits his estate. Agatha and their infant child died of disease and in Agatha’s memory he kept the Grand Budapest Hotel, now in a state of decay.

Topic: The development and role of VFX in film

As films have evolved and become more digital, the post-production part of the film has also improved over time. VFX seems to be gaining more and more importance in films. It can even be a publicity stunt for a film. So can vfx be a gimmick for a film? Should the focus of the film be on the story itself or on the technology of storytelling? Does too much post-production keep the audience from focusing more on the story of the film itself? Should the production team avoid too much use of vfx when they can pull off live action? In many of the documentaries that I have seen on film and television, I have seen production teams shoot most of the footage directly in green screen, leaving much of the footage that could have been shot in real time to the post-production team. How do you weigh up vfx and live action.

Keywords: Real / Filming / Digital / Virtual / Technology

Book：

THE VISUAL EFFECTS PRODUCER

The digitization of cinematic visual effects

The filmmaker’s guide to visual effects : the art and techniques of VFX for directors, producers, editors and cinematographers

Editing and special/visual effects