Art Nouveau and the movie »Grand Budapest Hotel«

Text: ELISABETH STURSBERG

THE DREAMY LANDSCAPE APPEARS LIKE A COTTON CANDY MOUNTAIN: MAJESTIC PALACES APPEAR IN FLAWLESS SYMMETRY; CAREFULLY ARRANGED SETS ARE COATED IN A FILTER-LIKE APPEARANCE THAT DISSOLVES ANY IMPERFECTIONS.

TO WATCH WES ANDERSONS GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL IS TO DIVE HEAD FIRST INTO A PASTEL- COLOURED DREAM. IT IS CLEAR TO SEE THAT THE DIRECTOR WAS INSPIRED BY THE ART NOUVEAU PERIOD.

ART NOUVEAU is an essential visual feature of the 2014 movie GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL.

The fictitious plot might not be set around the turn of the century – as the parallels drawn to the period of National Socialism are too eminent – but the interiors celebrate ART NOUVEAU. Sloping, fluent lines, floral elements, ornaments, symmetry: NATURE is present in all its shapes but always delicately formed by and inferior to the artist’s vision.

and read throughout Germany and several other countries. In France and many other countries, »ART NOUVEAU« is the name for

JUGENDSTIL

ART NOUVEAU

MODERN STYLE

ˆ ALFONS MUCHA

The term JUGENDSTIL (Art Nouveau in German) was inspired by a magazine called JUGEND (Youth), published in Munich around the turn of the century Historism. The difference between ART NOUVEAU and Historism is simple: While the former is deeply rooted in the now, the latter celebrates and glamourises the past. Elements like animals are used as symbols instead of their historic meaning.Like previous periods, the same movement, including the English »MODERN STYLE«. Their purpose was the same: to renew, like any modern style, the arts and the previously reigning JUGENDSTIL and ART NOUVEAU were heavily dependent on local meetings of several artists. While the »WIENER SECESSION« (based in Vienna) around GUSTAV KLIMT was the most famous gathering, smaller circles formed in BERLIN and MUNICH fought for their independence from the establishment. The »MÜNCHNER SECESSION« was so successful that it paved the way for today’s art city Munich. Several ART NOUVEAU artists were rooted in Impressionism, which explains the shared fascination for the present. MAX LIEBERMANN embodies the development of both schools of thinking and their regional differences like almost no one else. Even as the long-time president of the BERLIN SECESSION, his work is still largely classified as Impressionist. Unlike Impressionism, ART NOUVEAU manifested itself in architecture and literature next to the plastic arts and especially painting. With the rise of the industrialisation and a surge in the popularity of down-to-earth crafts, the English ART NOUVEAU was rooted in the ARTS-AND-CRAFTS movement of the late 19TH CENTURY. This also explains that today, we know ART NOUVEAU mainly as a style of decorative craftwork. While there is a definitive longing for nature in ART NOUVEAU and JUGENDSTIL, nothing natural is left to chance – another parallel to WES ANDERSON and his GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL.

ˆ ALFONS MUCHA

ˆ GUSTAV KLIMT

ˆ ARNOLD LYONGRÜN

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ART NOUVEAU AND HISTORISM IS SIMPLE: WHILE THE FORMER IS DEEPLY ROOTED IN THE NOW,THE LATTER CELEBRATES ANDGLAMOURISES THE PAST.

ˆGUSTAV KLIMT

THOMAS LEDL - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 at, https://bit.ly/2OHhGi3