Wes Anderson

[dekadetia]

Some real correlation = causation fans here...

It's true, Anderson may be a lesser screenwriter now all by himself! Admittedly, I don't know what Wilson's specific contributions are (and I'd have known little about, say, Baumbach's writing abilities based on Aquatic and Fox alone), but it would be interesting to see Anderson and Wilson team up again for what effect it might have.

[yoloswegmaster]

Wes Anderson on his next film:

”My next feature film will be linear, with Benicio Del Toro in every shot. I can’t tell you much more than that except that it will be about espionage, a father-daughter relationship, and, let’s say, with a rather dark tone.”

[flyonthewall2983]

Ooh

[therewillbeblus]

Interesting, if Benicio is in every shot maybe this will be more micro like his earlier work. Not sure if he’s been able to stay fixed on his actors in a level, intimate way in the last decade+

[knives]

GBH and it’s centralized Fiennes performance was in the last decade.

[therewillbeblus]

Well every one of his movies involves engagement with leads, but I’m thinking about the kind of intimate staging of Darjeeling. In GBH there was still the Russian-doll storytelling and plenty of interrupting detours. The camera always being on Benicio in every shot reminds me of Darjeeling where at least one or two of the three brothers were in most shots, often intimately close. In GBH a lot of it is in wider shots incorporating many players and action and other interests. Maybe this will be like that too, but my comment was hypothesizing a return to… less bombast?

[pianocrash]

Wes Anderson on his next film:

”My next feature film will be linear, with Benicio Del Toro in every shot. I can’t tell you much more than that except that it will be about espionage, a father-daughter relationship, and, let’s say, with a rather dark tone.”

Sicaro 3: El año de la Simetría (aka Josh Brolin In Sandals Y3)

Some real correlation = causation fans here...

It's true, Anderson may be a lesser screenwriter now all by himself! Admittedly, I don't know what Wilson's specific contributions are (and I'd have known little about, say, Baumbach's writing abilities based on Aquatic and Fox alone), but it would be interesting to see Anderson and Wilson team up again for what effect it might have.

In the past, all aforementioned parties have stated that Wes' second attributed writer is often the person who oversees the scriptwriting process as an ideas bouncer/checks & balances role, rather than a high-chunk percentage contributor. I don't think the WGA leans into that situation too hard, either, but if you see a big difference in quality vs. sole authorship, your eyes are bigger than mine. I'd like to think that second person probably opens the Window Of Humanity around his eyeline from time to time (releases the smoke, too), but YMMV.

[Lemmy Caution]

Interesting how the lists vary so much, with people responding strongly to different elements of WA's films.

Dekadetias list is surprisingly similar to mine.
I'd have the same Top 5, with Tenenbaum definitely on top. But would swap Fox and Rushmore.

1. The Royal Tenenbaums
2. Bottle Rocket
3. Rushmore
4. Moonrise Kingdom
5. The Fantastic Mr. Fox
6. The French Dispatch
7. The Grand Budapest Hotel
8. The Life Aquatic
9. The Darjeeling Limited
10. Isle of Dogs

Haven't seen Isle of Dogs or French Dispatch, which I have to admit to knowing nothing about.

The 3 Andersons which I didn't like, I'd have in that very same order.
Grand Budapest looked nice but didn't interest me much. I was completely disengaged from Life Aquatic on both viewings. Just didn't work for me. Though did enjoy the Portuguese renditions of Bowie. Darjeeling actively annoyed me and felt like a total miss, in the Why was this made? vein.

Since my WA taste is so in line with dekadetia's, I'll try to check out French Dispatch before Dogs.

[Peacock]

I still have many Anderson’s to see…


1. The Life Aquatic
2. Rushmore
3. Bottle Rocket
4. Royal Tenebaums
5. Darjeeling Limited
6. Hotel Chevalier
7. Isle of Dogs
8. Moonrise Kingdom

[hearthesilence]

I loved Bottle Rocket, Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums - I have a soft spot for The Royal Tenenbaums because it was the first time I saw any of his movies and I didn't know anything about Anderson. I forgot whose idea it was to see it, but regardless, I think it was the first time I stepped into a movie theater after 9/11 even though a few months had passed by that point. Given the New York City setting (as intended an imaginary NYC, but clearly shot way, way uptown where tourists rarely venture) I strongly associate it with that time. These remain the most exciting of his films as everything seems fresh and new as he was staking out what he wanted to say and where he wanted to go, both in his filmmaking and how he was reacting to the world. It's also the only place where his characters collide with the real world (and not a reconstruction or a complete reimagining of it) in physical terms - the ending of Bottle Rocket, Max's new surroundings halfway into Rushmore...it's kind of a jolt to see this.

I'm still not a fan of The Life Aquatic and I have mixed feelings about The Darjeeling Limited - I think the most I got out of either was the soundtrack choices, but at least with The Darjeeling Limited the relationship between the brothers had some real substance to it, at least for me. Also love the opening where you feel like a certain actor was supposed to be the lead character, but he literally misses out on his own movie so we end up following someone else (who was also new to Anderson's world). Otherwise, Brody was an interesting choice at the time, and Owen Wilson's suicide attempt colored the impression of his physical appearance as well - granted that happened after the film was done shooting, but it felt like looking at a reflection of his state of mind at the time. Regardless, with these two films, it felt like the possibilities had kind of dried up and the limits of Anderson's films were becoming much more tangible, which made them feel all the more disappointing.

The Fantastic Mr. Fox seemed to right the ship for me. At the time I thought he found a way around his limitations by finding the right setting for them, an animated film that could turn those drawbacks into an advantage. Moonrise Kingdom built on that and in some ways remains the quintessential Anderson film for me, maybe even the apotheosis for some - it's probably the one to see if you only wanted to see one in the hopes of getting the best impression of his entire body of work. I actually like The Grand Budapest Hotel, which seems like a further advance, or at least finding more ways to work around the boundaries he set for himself. This time he's confronting history, and while the film is still a completely fabricated construct, it's interesting to see him ingest Stefan Zweig and grapple with European fascism, letting those things enter his own world. Ralph Fiennes is also wonderful in a performance that could have come out of a great Lubitsch film, and Anderson deserves a lot of credit for it - Fiennes himself said he placed his entire trust in Anderson as he wasn't a comedian.

Then came Isle of Dogs which feels more underwhelming the more I think about it. The French Dispatch didn't add up to a great film but it had very enjoyable set pieces, the kind no one else is really doing at the moment. Maybe a hollow achievement, but far more genuine fun for me than anything the major studios are currently churning out.

I hated the trailer for the new one, and the negative reviews here aren't encouraging either, but Richard Brody and Glenn Kenny's passionate defenses make me optimistic that there's something to enjoy, so will eventually see this. Not sure when - I didn't even bother to see The French Dispatch until months later when it was screened at MoMI as part of a year-in-review program.

[barbarella satyricon]

Asteroid City opens today in my neck of the woods, so while I'm ten for ten on the other features, a list-making exercise I can't resist:

1. Rushmore
2. Fantastic Mr. Fox
3. Moonrise Kingdom
4. The Darjeeling Limited
5. The Royal Tenenbaums
6. The Life Aquatic
7. Isle of Dogs
8. Bottle Rocket
9. The Grand Budapest Hotel
10. The French Dispatch

Rushmore's at top spot because, at this point, it's like an old beat-up first-edition paperback, one that anchors a bookshelf setup, a Catcher in the Rye kinda thing. That said, I was as green as a young Max Fischer when I first saw it, and a lot of it felt to me, to borrow from Black Hat's post about Asteroid City, "morally off." I also once hooted at a certain A. White's one-word/one-title response ("Rushmore") to some follower's tweet-length polemic on Millennial disaffection and its representative texts. Okay, count me among that number then.

I really could switch its spot with Mr. Fox, though, because that's the one, along with Moonrise, that I had the strongest positive reaction to on first viewing. Catching up with it on dvd a few years after its initial release, during a time of slowgoing academic and professional transition, the excellence of the production gave me such a shot of joy that I can recall to this day. Its charms haven't worn off for me with the years.

Moonrise, for what it's worth, was the first Wes Anderson that I saw in a theater, during its first run. I remember stepping out into the sunny afternoon after that matinee screening, blinking at the utter beauty and wonder of the world all around. Revisiting it (for only a second viewing) on blu recently, I think it's the final act and ending that bowled me over the first time. I'd likely switch it now with Darjeeling, which conversely has a weak ending, but in which I find more to enjoy and reconsider every time.

I found I couldn't sit still through a recently attempted reevaluation of Isle of Dogs. Bottle Rocket could be bumped up. And I suspect I'll like Aquatic a lot more when I get to it again, format upgraded, some ten years on.

List-posting plus oversharing – thanks for reading/tolerating.

[hearthesilence]

Really strange to see this pop up, but apparently Borders shot this cheap-looking promo of Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman in 2008 at their flagship store in Ann Arbor, MI. (Borders closed ages ago but apparently Barnes & Noble acquired their social media accounts which is why this is still up.)

[Never Cursed]

Not sure if anyone's posted about the film at all here, but apparently Anderson's next (currently filming in London) is being shot by Bruno Delbonnel rather than Robert Yeoman. I thought that might be the first time Anderson hasn't worked with Yeoman on a live-action feature/major production, but apparently Roman Coppola shot The Swan in the Henry Sugar anthology