Other works - movies, books, art - from the kind of world shown in "The Grand Budapest Hotel"

Cafe Society
1

I saw The Grand Budapest Hotelthis weekend. If you haven’t seen it, it’s set in a fictional central European country sometime in the early 20th century right on the brink of a great war. Though it’s all fictionalized (the war is not even clearly identified as WWII; there are no Nazis or communists to be seen) it’s clearly modeled on an early 20th century vision of old Austro-Hungarian Empire cities like Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

I had some problems with the film itself, but I loved the world it described, down to and including the grim, totalitarian post-war decades.

What other things capture that same kind of world? Novels, memoirs, histories, films, paintings - any of the above might apply. The movie itself cites Stefan Zweig’s writings as a source; Ernst Lubitsch films and Otto Dix’s paintings also seem to me to fit. What else would you recommend?

2

First thing that springs to mind is Alan Moore and Melinda Gebbie’s pornographic graphic novel, Lost Girls, set in a continental hotel just before WWI.

3

The civil service of the Austro-Hungarian Empire pretty much set the archetype for pig-headed stupidity and pointless bureaucratic procedure. It was where Kafka work in its industrial insurance section, and drew much of his inspiration there. Hitler’s dad worked in it’s customs department: who knows what influence that had?

One movie that disappointed on the topic was Colonel Redl. It was written by John Osborne, who had such a giant ax to grind with the English class system that this side trip into Mitteleuropa missed its mark.

4

How about the original Grand Hotel?

5

Thanks for the suggestions so far! Any more?

Good movie, and yes, it does fit with this kind of world.