Summary
Downstairs, Henckels, the inspector who let Gustave go on the train, is waiting to speak with them. Gustave and Zero walk over, but before they can make niceties, Henckels arrests Gustave for allegedly murdering the dowager countess. Gustave makes a run for it, pursued by Henckels and his men. Zero watches them go.
A title card reads: “Part 3: Check-Point 19, Criminal Internment Camp.” Zero knocks on a large door, before getting invited in by a guard. It is one week later, and Gustave is awaiting his trial. Gustave meets with Zero, both of his eyes blackened. He tells Zero that he has been getting in a lot of fights. Gustave asks Zero if he met with Kovacs and Zero says that he did, in secret.
We then see Kovacs outlining the charges against Gustave. Apparently, someone alleges to have seen Gustave sneak in the back stairs of the mansion and go to the countess’ chambers in the middle of the night. “The next morning, Madame D. was found dead by strychnine poisoning,” Kovacs says. All of Gustave’s accusers are members of the countess’ extended family. The key witness “appears to have fled the jurisdiction,” Kovacs says, before revealing that that witness is Monsieur Serge.
Gustave is shocked that Serge is the key witness, and suspects that he was put up to it by the countess’ family. When Zero asks if he has an alibi, Gustave replies, “Of course, but she’s married to the Duke of Westphalia. I can’t allow her name to get mixed up in all this monkey business.” Zero warns Gustave that his life is at stake, but Gustave says that the duchess, his alibi, is already out of the country.
We see a henchman and private investigator of Dmitri’s, J.G. Jopling, knocking on a door looking for Serge. Serge’s sister answers the door, and says she hasn’t seen Serge recently. Jopling tells the sister that if she sees Serge she should send him back home.
We see the hotel staff at the Grand Budapest eating a meal. Zero reads a letter from Gustave aloud, which tells the members of the hotel staff to keep the Grand Budapest “spotless and glorify it.” The letter ends with a poem.
The scene shifts to Jopling on the phone with Dmitri. They discuss Serge and his whereabouts. The scene shifts again to Gustave bringing meals around to the different cells in the jail. Back in his own cell, he and his cellmates split up a cupcake from the bakery, Mendl’s, which Zero brought to him. When Gustave tries to get up and get back to work, one of the cellmates stops him and a shirtless, tattooed inmate named Ludwig gives a breakdown of the prison floor plan, and takes out a map. The men plan a prison break. When it comes to finding an implement to dig with, Gustave eyes the box that the Mendl’s cupcake came in.
All of a sudden, the story of Gustave zooms out, and we are again at the dinner between Moustafa and the author. Moustafa stops telling the story for a moment, weeping, and admits that he was thinking of “Agatha” (the girl who worked at Mendl’s), a topic of conversation which always renders him unable to control his emotions. “You see she saved us.”
Back in the story, it is one month before Gustave’s arrest, and Zero proposes to Agatha at a movie theater. When she accepts, they begin kissing passionately, as the grown Moustafa narrates, “We were completely on our own in the world, and we were deeply in love.” We then see the couple on a carousel; Zero presents Agatha with the present of a book. We then see Gustave interviewing Agatha and deeming her a suitable companion for Zero. Zero and Agatha bake some tools into cookies and cakes to be snuck into the prison.
Mr. Kovacs is sitting at his desk, and announces to Dmitri and the other children of the countess that a crucial document is missing. He admittedly doesn’t know what it is, “but there are traces and shadows of it everywhere,” and he suggests that they bring it to the attention of the inspector given the mysterious circumstances of the countess’ death and the strange disappearance of Monsieur Serge. Dmitri does not agree that they ought to, and then asks Kovacs who he is working for. “In this particular situation, I represent the deceased,” Kovacs replies, but Dmitri encourages him to be cooperative. When Kovacs doesn’t agree, Dmitri storms out, followed by Jopling. We see Gustave, Ludwig, and the other prisoners digging a tunnel in the prison.
The scene shifts to Zero and Agatha together in bed. Zero stands and admits to Agatha that he and Gustave stole a painting, handing Agatha a code with clues about where to find the painting. As he gives her instructions, she tells him that she isn’t a middleman and she doesn’t want to help. They are interrupted by the footsteps of Agatha’s father, and Zero quickly hides. When Agatha’s father is gone, Zero leaves Agatha with the code and sneaks away into the night.
We see Kovacs picking up the body of his dead cat (Jopling threw it out a window in a rage) at a coat check. Nearby, Jopling watches from his motorcycle as Kovacs gets on a trolley. Kovacs notices him as the trolley embarks and then watches as Jopling follows the trolley down the street. Kovacs goes to the Kunstmuseum, still followed by Jopling, and tries to elude the thug by going through a hidden door. Jopling follows him, however, and just before Kovacs can escape, Jopling slams his hand in a sliding door, slicing off four of his fingers. Then, Jopling collects the fingers and leaves.
Analysis
Gustave is now in jail, and the film finds yet more occasions for his effeminacy and aesthetic sensibilities to come into comic contrast with the world around him. When Zero goes to visit him, he is noticeably roughed up, with two black eyes and some more cuts and bruises on his face. He explains that he has had to prove his virility to the other men in jail, and suggests that he didn’t want to be perceived as a “candy ass.” This is comical not only because it alludes to the roughness and vernacular of prison in what is otherwise a film about the quirky fantastical misadventures of a dandy, but also because the viewer cannot imagine Gustave would ever be perceived as anything other than a “candy ass.” The comical fiction that Wes Anderson has spun is one in which even the most effete fine hoteliers can fit in with the rough culture of a prison.
For the first time since Moustafa’s story began, the film once again zooms out into the author’s dinner with him. With a jolt, we are taken out of the central narrative of the film and reminded of the frame story: the now-older Zero Moustafa is telling the author all about how he came into possession of the hotel. The story is interrupted by Moustafa’s emotions at having to recall his youthful affair with the girl who worked at Mendl’s, Agatha. Gracefully, Moustafa suggests that he cannot speak of her without losing control of his emotions, and indeed, it is the first time that we see anyone succumb to anything close to emotionality. Nearly always, characters eschew emotionality in The Grand Budapest Hotel in favor of style, flair, or deadpan confusion. The emotionality doesn’t last long, and soon enough, Moustafa is wiping his tears and continuing his story.
Behind Moustafa’s tears is a romantic storyline, which emerges rather unceremoniously. Without much build-up, the viewer sees Zero and Agatha at a sparsely attended movie, at which Zero proposes to Agatha and she heartily accepts. Their love is a montage of sorts, as we see them kissing with adolescent abandon at the movie theater, then exchanging gifts on a carousel, then getting Gustave’s approval at the hotel. The origins and parameters of their love are portrayed less than are the rituals and acts of love. In true Wes Anderson style, the film maintains its brisk forward momentum, and the film does not linger on their budding romance for long. Rather, it is woven into the adventure of the plot itself, as Agatha quickly becomes an accomplice.
Just as the film reveals its chief love plot in this section, it also introduces us to its primary villain, the scowling and thuggish Jopling. Jopling is an investigator, but he is more accurately Dmitri’s evil bodyguard, a violent and seemingly remorseless villain who does Dmitri’s dirty work. He wears a long coat, has a permanent frown, and rides a motorcycle. While we do not know that much about him or how he came to work for Dmitri, we get more than enough clues about his violent capacities, as when he throws Kovacs’ cat out the window and slices Kovacs’ fingers in a sliding door at the museum.
In spite of the suspenseful twists, violent imagery, and descent into darkness, the film is essentially playful and keeps a whimsical tone, even when the stakes are life or death. The suspense is always balanced out by a wry and comic mood, as when Gustave shares an ornate cupcake with a group of prison inmates, or when the museum clerk changes the “15 minutes to closing” sign to “14 minutes to closing” just as the vengeful Jopling enters the lobby. Even the violence is comic. After Jopling throws Kovacs’ cat out the window, we see its body from above smashed on the sidewalk, but it is so unrealistic that it barely disturbs. Later Kovacs picks up a bloody bag containing the cat’s body from a coat check, an undoubtedly comic juxtaposition. Finally, when Jopling slams Kovacs' hand in the sliding door, we do not see the graphic detachment of the fingers from the door, but we see the disembodied fingers afterwards, fake looking digits in ketchup blood, sitting on the sidewalk, so cartoonish that it hardly strikes one as grisly.
