EXT. CEMETERY. DAY
The present. A graveyard in the city center of a great Eastern European capital. Frost covers the ground among the stones and between rows of leafless trees. A teenage girl in a beret and trench-coat with a well-read, dog-eared novel called The Grand Budapest Hotel tucked under her arm stands facing a tarnished bust of a slender, balding, spectacled old man. A bronze plaque below reads, in large letters:
AUTHOR
Insert:
The plaque. There is a block of smaller text at the bottom which states simply:
IN MEMORY OF OUR NATIONAL TREASURE
All around the base of the statue there are little metal hooks, from which hang hundreds of hotel-room keys of every age and variety from all over the world. The girl adds a new set to the tribute.
INT. STUDY. DAY
Twenty years ago. A cluttered office with French windows and ornate mouldings. There are books in shelves and stacks, first editions, dictionaries, dime-store paper backs, translations in numerous languages. There is a typewriter on the desk and an extensive collection of literary prizes on a bureau.
The author, seventy-five and identical to his sculpted image, sits with his hands clasped and addresses the camera.
AUTHOR
It is an extremely common mistake: people think the writer's imagination is always at work, that he is constantly inventing an endless supply of incidents and episodes, that he simply dreams up his stories out of thin air. In point of fact, the opposite is true. Once the public knows you are a writer, they bring the characters and events to you - and as long as you maintain your ability to look and carefully listen, these stories will continue to seek you out -
A six-year-old boy dressed in a grey military uniform with short trousers appears next to the desk and points a miniature Luger pistol at the author. The author warns him, icy:
AUTHOR
Don't do it. Don't!
The boy hesitates, then fires. A yellow, plastic pellet ricochets off the author's chest and rings against a whiskey glass as the author makes a violent lunge for the boy - who evades him and dashes off. The author looks at a note card and rambles a bit, searching for his place.
AUTHOR
Over your lifetime. I can't tell you how many times. Somebody comes up to me. (Back on track.) To him who has often told the tales of others, many tales will be told.
The boy returns, the gun now tucked under his belt, and sits, immediately comfortable, on the author's lap with the old man's arms wrapped around his shoulders. The conflict seems never to have existed. They both look into the camera as the author concludes:
AUTHOR
The incidents that follow were described to me exactly as I present them here, and in a wholly unexpected way.
EXT. MOUNTAIN RANGE. DAY
The late sixties. A stunning view from a rusty, iron-lattice terrace suspended over a deep crevasse, green and lush, alongside a high cascade. The author continues in voice-over as the camera glides along a cracked path through a plot of untamed edelweiss and buttercups.
AUTHOR
(voice-over)
A number of years ago, while suffering from a mild case of 'Scribe's Fever' (a form of neurasthenia common among the intelligentsia of that time), I had decided to spend the month of August in the spa town of Nebelsbad below the Alpine Sudetenwaltz - and had taken up rooms in the Grand Budapest -
The camera comes to a stop as it reveals a sprawling nineteenth-century hotel and baths situated on a wide plateau. There is a deep, formidable staircase up to a regal entrance. There is a promenade above and a glass-panelled conservatory below. A rickety funicular groans as it slowly climbs its hillside tracks. The grass needs cutting, the roof needs patching, and more or less every surface of the building needs a coat of paint.
- a picturesque, elaborate, and once widely celebrated establishment. I expect some of you will know it. It was off-season and, by that time, decidedly out-of-fashion; and it had already begun its descent into shabbiness and eventual demolition.
Montage:
The nine other guests of the hotel each observed from a respectful distance: a frail student; a fat businessman; a burly hiker with a St. Bernard; a schoolteacher with her hair in a bun; a doctor; a lawyer; an actor; and so on.
AUTHOR
(voice-over)
What few guests we were had quickly come to recognize one another by sight as the only living souls residing in the vast establishment - although I do not believe any acquaintance among our number had proceeded beyond the polite nods we exchanged as we passed in the Palm Court and the Arabian Baths and on board the Colonnade Funicular. We were a very reserved group, it seemed - and, without exception, solitary.
Cut to:
An enormous, half-abandoned dining room. There are two hundred tables and fifty chandeliers. The ten guests sit, each on his or her own, at their separate tables, widely spaced across the giant restaurant.
A waiter carries a tray a great distance to the schoolteacher and serves her a plate of peas.
INT. LOBBY. EVENING
There are faded couches, fraying armchairs, and coffee tables with new, plastic tops. The carpets are threadbare, and the lighting in each area is either too dim or too bright. A concierge with a crooked nose smokes a cigarette as he lingers behind his desk. He is M. Jean.
(Note: the staff of the hotel in both the relevant time periods wear similar versions of the same purple uniform - while the public spaces reflect a cycle of 'regime changes'.)
On the wall behind M. Jean, there is a beautiful Flemish painting of a pale, young boy holding a piece of golden fruit. This is 'Boy with Apple'. A patch of water damage above seeps dangerously close to the picture-frame.
The author (a fictionalized version of himself) wanders into the room with his hands in his pockets. He has dark circles under his eyes.
AUTHOR
(voice-over)
Perhaps as a result of this general silence, I had established a casual and bantering familiarity with the hotel's concierge, a west-continental known only as M. Jean, who struck one as being, at once, both lazy and, really, quite accommodating.
M. Jean quickly stubs out his cigarette as the author approaches - and tucks the butt into his coat pocket.
AUTHOR
(voice-over)
I expect he was not well-paid.
The author and M. Jean chat amicably as they study a pamphlet of Alpine tourist sites.
In any case, one evening, as I stood conferring elbow-to-elbow with M. Jean, as had become my habit, I noticed a new presence in our company.
At the far end of the lobby, beyond Reception, a dark-skinned, white-haired seventy-year-old man in a three-piece-suit sits alone smoking a pipe. He is Mr. Moustafa.
AUTHOR
(voice-over)
A small, elderly man, smartly dressed, with an exceptionally lively, intelligent face - and an immediately perceptible air of sadness. He was, like the rest of us, alone - but also, I must say, he was the first that struck one as being, deeply and truly, lonely (a symptom of my own medical condition, as well).
Mr. Moustafa takes a sip of sherry. The author lowers his voice and asks discreetly:
AUTHOR
(voice-over)
'Who's this interesting, old fellow?' I inquired of M. Jean. To my surprise, he was distinctly taken aback. 'Don't you know?' he asked. 'Don't you recognize him?' He did look familiar. 'That's Mr. Moustafa himself! He arrived early this morning.'
The author looks to Mr. Moustafa again. Mr. Moustafa is now staring directly back at the author. The author quickly looks away and examines a detail in the woodwork on the ceiling.
This name will, no doubt, be familiar to the more seasoned persons among you. Mr. Zero Moustafa was, at one time, the richest man in Zubrowka; and was still, indeed, the owner of the Grand Budapest. 'He often comes and stays a week or more, three times a year, at least - but never in the season.' M. Jean signaled to me, and I leaned closer. 'I'll tell you a secret. He takes only a single-bed sleeping-room without a bath in the rear corner of the top floor - and it's smaller than the service elevator!'
The author seems genuinely intrigued by this information. He nods thoughtfully.
It was well-known: Moustafa had purchased and famously inhabited some of the most lavish castles and palazzos on the continent - yet, here, in his own, nearly empty hotel, he occupied a servant's quarters?
M. Jean frowns....
