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Grand Hotel

ons' films look more or less alike, the sets in Grand Hotel are functional and suggestive and, aside from the emphasis on the powerful central pull of the lobby, they support the story rather than overwhelming it by calling attention to themselves (Barsacq 58). Who, for example, would be able to look at the actors who had to stand in front of the baroque Deco fireplace in the set for Born to Dance that is illustrated by Barsacq (59).

In Grand Hotel the first three sets and the camera movements in which they are revealed emphasize this circling motion. The opening shot reveals the banks of switchboards with the anonymous backs a number of operators. As the camera moves around the arc of these switchboards, bits of the operators' speech begins to set up the storylines and establishes the idea of the hotel as the center of things. The next shots reverse the arc as the camera moves around a series of open phone stalls in which various characters talk to the outside world, continuing the exposition. In the background are shots of the continuous Art Deco line of the reception desk--fragmented but always there. The next shot is an overhead process shot that looks directly down, from many stories high, at the circle of the lobby with the enormous round desk at its center.

This is followed quickly by a circling movement of the camera from inside the reception desk. At this point the characters on the phones, and others, are now approaching the desk--being pulled in toward it. Lewis Stone's doctor character moves, counter to the direction of the camera, as he goes from one post to another asking the clerks if he has any messages. Then, having been processed at the hub, the characters are sent up to the circular floors above. A shot shows the frosted glass elevator leaving the lobby. A brief interior shot of the elevator follows and then the characters emerge onto the fifth floor (or sixth in the American method of counting floo...

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Grand Hotel. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 02:39, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1708126.html