In reviewing the excellent scene-by-scene breakdown put together by Rob, I was struck by several things: * The story within a story within a story within a story: Of course, I had noticed it when watching the movie, however reading it, it comes across as rather kooky, doesn't it? (1) A Girl reading a book called "The Grand Budapest Hotel" in the present day. (2) 20 years ago meeting the author of the book (3) The 1960s in which the author meets Moustafa. (4) Moustafa's recollection of events from the early 30s. Literally 4 setups to establish the story detailing the exploits of M. Gustave. Which leads to this question: Why? One of the main advantages of a narrator type recalling a story is the ability to manage time jumps. That makes sense for a story like The Shawshank Redemption which covered 20 years. But M. Gustave's antics relative to the painting, imprisonment and the rest is pretty much all within several months. It would be entirely possible to set up and tell the story in the 1930s without all the rest. Apart from creating a mood about Gustave that borders on mythic, I can't see any symbolic or narrative rationale for the 4-story setup. Maybe others can. I'll just chalk it up to Wes Anderson being Wes Anderson. * So many secondary characters which translates into so many subplots, each with their beginning-middle-end. In aggregate, they add to the hectic pace of the story. * The story's chapters suggests at least some of the overarching sequences, something to consider in Day 3 of our posts this week. * This may be the fastest paced Wes Anderson movie I can recall. I'd be interested to go through the script and track the average length of each scene. My guess is 1 to 1 1/2 pages. The story just trundles along in rapid abandon. * Finally remember how Marion Crane gets whacked in Psycho by about minute 35, yet remains central to the plot throughout the rest of the movie? I thought that was a pretty interesting narrative choice. However TGBH tops Hitchcock in this regard as Madame D appears only for a few scenes at the very beginning of the movie, dies off-screen, and then a funeral. That's it. Yet it is her choice to bequeath the painting to Gustave that sets everything else in the plot into motion, even dead she is at the center of the narrative. Those are a few observations about TGBH. How about you? What are your thoughts, in particular about the scene-by-scene breakdown?