Cultural/social: The film evokes the feeling of wealth and nobility. This is apparent in the luxurious state of the hotel in its prime, strict rules and standards for the staff, fashion, expensive architecture and good service provided to the customers. It is clear that the people staying there have lots of money, and their clothing even feels very similar to nobility fashion of the time period and region of Eastern Europe in the twentieth century.
Historical/political: The film is not actually based on a real book or event. None of the historical events are real either, though the fascist soldiers in the film, such as Edward Norton’s character, are definitely intended to represent a mixture of various dictatorships that arose in Eastern Europe in the twentieth century. the war that occurs later on in the film is also possibly in reference to events like the Yugoslavian dissolution, or other violent historical periods. That period in history is probably what inspired the filmmakers to create this specific environment and time period for the movie.
Institutional: The Grand Budapest Hotel obviously has many similarities to some of Wes Andersons other films, such as the Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009). This evident style of editing, pacing, and cinematography of his, involving Long and wide shots and periods of silence, probably influenced the location and set of the film, and even uniforms, and the actual architecture of the hotel, which was possibly made to help match the extreme wide-shots familiar to Andersons style.
Technical: Wes Anderson employs wide shots and crab shots regularly to stay focused on particular characters in frame. This is done to avoid cutting in the movie, so long-shots are common. Another interesting detail is how the actual hotel is not real, and the interior lobby was just set up inside a vacant department store in Germany.
Finley Cairns A-Level Film Studies Blog 