The Great Depression, caused by the crash of the stock market in October 29, 1929 provided a dramatic end to an era of unprecedented, and unprecedentedly lopsided, prosperity.
During the Depression many did not have much money to spend, but kept going to the movies because it offered audiences an escape from the grim realities of life in the 1930s. Escapism (the tendency to escape from daily reality or routine by indulging in daydreaming, fantasy, or entertainment) films became popular around this time since it would make Americans forget about their struggles even it was for a short time.The movie Grand Hotel (1932), an American drama film directed by Edmund Goulding, is one of the best examples of escapist entertainment that occurred during the decade of 1930. This film is about a luxurious Grand Hotel in Berlin, a place where nothing bad could ever happen. However, this proves to be wrong as each character faces different problems.
The story follows an intertwining cast of characters over the course of one tumultuous day.Grusinskaya, a ballerina whose in love with Baron von Geigern, a thief who desperately needs money to pay a debt and tries to steal from Preysing, businessman boss of Kringelein, a terminally ill bookkeeper who decided to enjoy the rest of his life together with Flaemmchen, a stenographer in look of a wealthy future. In this film, the ballerina, the ill bookkeeper, and the stenographer are the three main characters who portray a deep feeling of wanting to escape their real lives. Grusinskaya is a Russian ballerina whose career is on the wane.She is sad and at the verge of breakdown because she knows that her popularity is waning and complains that everything in her life has become threadbare. Initially, her present at the hotel is the subject of other people’s conversations, a fleeting presence in the hotel rather than an actual character who appears in the action of the film.
As an international star, Grusinskaya has traveled the world, stayed at the most luxurious hotels along her way, hotels that only served the purpose of providing a place where she could rest.Bettina Matthias in her book “The Hotel as Setting in Early Twentieth-Century German and Austrian Literature: Checking in to Tell a Story”, described the Russian ballerina as a character that because of her constant travels hasn’t have the time to connect with one place, and none of the people she has met are important to her on a personal level. However, the stay at Grand Hotel was different for Grusinskaya this time. She fell in love with Baron von Geigern thus making her a main character in the film and not just a fleeing presence.As Grusinskaya’s artistic success and her appeal as a woman fade combined with the lack of a real home that could support her loss of confidence, intensifies her feeling of loneliness which causes her to try and commit suicide.
While she tries to take away her life with an overdose of medication, she is stopped by Baron von Geigern, a jewel thief who entered Grusinskaya’s room to steel her pearl necklace. This is when both of them fell in love at first sight. The appearance of Baron in the life of the Russian ballerina gave her life a big turn.Now she was in love and started to feel that her youth and popularity are how they were once. However, even though she doesn’t end up with Baron, she leaves the hotel with a new way of looking at life and feeling she could keep living and dancing like she has always do because now she knows that love is the thing that she needed to fill the loneliness she felt.
Another character trying to escape his real life is Otto Kringelein. He is an old factory clerk who has become deadly ill and has decided to spend the rest of his days living the life in luxury and parties.Kringelein’s presence in the hotel is portrayed with a little of irony but disappears later on as he starts adapting to the life culture at the Grand Hotel. He decided to leave his old life of always working and saving his money to start leaving what he calls the “real life” even if it is for a short time.
However, as Matthias states in her book that “the bookkeeper cannot get past his numbers” and that “his approach to life and to himself is still informed by the sense of humility, servility, and obedience” is an example that even though he has decided to start living a good life, he still has problems letting go of his past self.During his stay at the hotel, he meets Baron von Geigern, who starts suggesting Kringelein on the things he should do, and tells him that he should change his looks. Wearing the right clothes allows him to become one of the sophisticated guests who stay at Grand Hotel, but he stills need the help of von Geigern to help him pursue a lifestyle of which he knows nothing. Kringelein’s new lifestyle has giving him the courage to confront Preysing, his old boss.
The confrontation occurred when the old factory clerk was dancing with Flaemmchen, a stenographer who was recently hired to work for Preysing.The successful business man felt attracted to Mrs. Flaemmchen, and felt disappointed when she refused to speak with him because she was dancing with Kringelein. Preysing, with his feeling of superiority, confronted the old clerk telling him that he shouldn’t be here if he was sick as he mentioned when he left his company, and that Grand Hotel was not a place for people like him.
However, to his surprise, Kringelein did not stay quiet this time. The old bookkeeper told his ex-boss that in the hotel they were both equal and that he wouldn’t allow him to treat him as he usually did when he was working for him.Later on, he asserts himself to be stronger because those whom he had considered superior before have been dismantled by exterior forces. His former employer, Preysing has become the murderer of Baron von Geigern. This event gave the chance to Kringelein of in one way or another taking revenge on his old boss for the way he treated him during all his working life. By the end of the film, he has gained enough skills and self-confidence to continue his quest for his wish of enjoying life a little longer, now in the company of the Flaemmchen, whom he had offer his help and his money.
The Great Depression caused struggles in the lives of people. The feeling of wanting to have money was stronger during this period. This caused that woman such as Flaemmchen would go to the extremes to be able to obtain the money they needed for their lives. The young stenographer, Flaemmchen, clutching her typewriter rushes from job to job to earn money for clothes and make-up to attract a man who might liberate her from her hard life.
Graham Bartram in his book “The Cambridge Companion to the Modern German Novel” describes the stenographer as a “cynical portrayal of – womanhood” because she had decided to go to England to work for Preysing and spend her nights in bed with him. Flaemmchen does not distinguish much between the men who seek her company since her only interest is the money they could offer her. However, Flaemmchen’s opportunity to change her life came crashing down when Preysing became a murderer. He killed the man she most felt attracted to.
After finding out about the crime, she runs to Kringelein’s room to seek comfort for what just have happened. Despite of losing a great opportunity Preysing offered, she was still lucky enough that the old dying factory clerk was kind enough to offer her his money but still at the exchange of her becoming his company. At the end of the film, she leaves with Kringelein in a train to Paris to help him enjoy the rest of his life the way he had always wanted. In conclusion, Gran Hotel is a perfect example of how people wanted to escape the real life they were experiencing during the Great Depression.Each story line of each character played different in this film but all of them portrayed the feeling of wanting to escape from their struggles.
Grusinskaya, the Russian ballerina, who was facing depression for the loss of her popularity wanted to escape by dying. However, she instead fell in love with the man that stopped her from committing suicide. Her character in the fill was round and dynamic because we knew who she was and what she wanted and because love made her change. At the end, she did not get to kill herself, as she wanted, but left the hotel with a new view of life.
On the other hand, Kringelein, the old factory clerk who was dying of an incurable illness, wanted to spend the rest of his days living the “real life”. He was a well-defined round character because his reasons for being at such expensive hotel were obvious since the very beginning of the film. Furthermore, he was dynamic because even though he got to the hotel wanting to live a good life, he still had the sense of humility, servility, and obedience, but it all changed when he started to gain new skills in socializing and more confidence in himself.At the end, he left Grand Hotel with a new companion to enjoy his new quest to enjoy life. In addition, Flaemmchen, the stenographer, who wanted to find a man who could save her from his working life, was a flat character because we only knew that she will go from a job to another clutching her typewriter.
At the end, she was static since even though she got what she wanted, she did not change her way of thinking. To finish off, escapism played a big part on this film because each character wanted to escape real life and at the end each one got the opportunity to change their lives for the ones they wanted.
