Film director Wes Anderson’s familiar arsenal of A-list actors reunite in his latest movie, The Grand Budapest Hotel.
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, and Owen Wilson, the film depicts the adventures of Monsieur Gustave H, the titular hotel's quirky concierge (played by Fiennes), his friendship with the young lobby boy Zero (played by Tony Revolori), a battle over a family fortune, the recovery of a priceless painting, and more—all of which take place against highly detailed backdrops that make up the fictional European republic of Zubrowka.
The task of bringing these elaborate locations to life fell to production designer Adam Stockhausen, who also collaborated with Anderson on The Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom. The film shifts between the hotel’s heyday as a celebrated spa resort during the glamorous 1930s to its postwar decline in the ’60s.
1. The Hotel
Görlitz, Germany’s cavernous former Görlitzer Warenhaus department store building served as the location for the primary sets and production offices of film director Wes Anderson’s latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel.
The incredible stairways, elevators, and atrium of the 1913 Jugendstil building caught the eye of production designer Adam Stockhausen (who was nominated for an Academy Award for 12 Years a Slave) and his crew, who transformed the space into the interiors of the titular hotel. For the exterior, however, the team created a miniature model at Studio Babelsberg, near Berlin.
2. Concierge Desk
Inspiration for the hotel/spa resort came from a variety of sources. “We looked through loads of books—anything we could find on hotel history or luxury travel,” Stockhausen explains. The designers also checked out real spots, among them existing spas and hotels in Germany and the Czech Republic—including the the Hotel Adlon in Berlin and the Grandhotel Pupp in Karlovy Vary—as well as London's Savoy Hotel, for ideas.
3. Deputy Kovacs' Room
Deputy Kovacs (played by Jeff Goldblum) stands behind an unusual antler desk discovered in a German shop. “We looked at trophy rooms in centuries-old royal hunting villas across Germany and the Czech Republic. They are astonishing,” says Stockhausen. Set decorator Anna Pinnock (Life of Pi) found the desk at Alte Dekorationen, outside of Munich. “[The owner] has a lot of crazy trophies and very unusual and unique antler and horn furniture. We used a lot of his items in the Trophy Room,” she says.
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