(by Madison)

Experience

Definitely one of the best experiences so far. On vacation in the Outer Banks this summer with my family, everyone had a night to cook dinner and choose the after dinner activity. After our delicious dinner, Raymond and I chose watching our next Best Picture winner for our activity. To make it extra special, we set up our projector and huge screen outside by the pool. We all sat around on lounge chairs, in the hot tub, and in the pool watching Grand Hotel.  I did not fall asleep, but my parents did.

The Movie

This was the first movie we watched with actors I recognized: Greta Garbo, Joan Crawford, John Barrymore and brother Lionel. It is set in a “grand” hotel in Berlin and it begins and ends with this quote by one of the guests at the hotel: “Grand Hotel. People come and go. Nothing ever happens.” The statement, however, is ironic because everything is happening at the hotel. The purpose of the movie was for the hotel guests to all have different stories that somehow end up converging with each other throughout the movie. The web of stories include romance of course, theft, and death among a dramatic dancer (Garbo), a Baron (J. Barrymore), a doctor, a dying man, (L. Barrymore), and others.

One problem I had with the movie is that I got confused with who was who, but that was probably just my fault for not paying close attention to names. Some of the men looked similar and the women looked very similar. There are interesting twists throughout while still giving way to the classic protagonist/antagonist struggle.

The movie appropriately ends with the opening quote by the drunk doctor who notices none of these hotel shenanigans.