Wes Anderson

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Wes Anderson

Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American writer, producer, and director of films and commercials. He was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay.

1 Biography
- 1.1 Early life
- 1.2 Personal life
2 Film Work
3 Filmography
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Anderson was born in Houston, Texas to Melver Leonard Anderson and Texas Ann Burroughs, the middle child of three brothers. His father was in advertising, and his mother was an archaeologist. He attended St. John's School, a private school in Houston, later used as a filming location for his second film, Rushmore. Anderson then studied philosophy at the University of Texas, where he met future collaborator Owen Wilson.

After making a short, 10-minute version of Bottle Rocket, Anderson and Wilson attracted the notice of producer James L. Brooks who encouraged the duo. With his help they were able to get their short film into Sundance and secured funding for the feature-length version of Bottle Rocket.

[edit] Personal life

Anderson resides mainly in New York City, but also keeps a home in Los Angeles. He is close friends with filmmaker Noah Baumbach, actor/screenwriter Owen Wilson, and Sofia Coppola. His brother, Eric, is a set designer on his films.

[edit] Film Work

Wes Anderson has been hailed as a true auteur, heavily involved in every aspect of his films' production: writing, cinematography, production design, music selection, etc.

[edit] Trademarks

Anderson's stylistic trademarks, consistent throughout his films and commercials, include:

Characters who achieve prominence early in life, then fade into mediocrity (Sic Transit Gloria).
Musicial montages
Precise widescreen framings using wide angle lenses.
Soundtracks featuring British Invasion artists and other 1960s/1970s bands, and original music by Mark Mothersbaugh
Closing shots that start at regular speed then transition to slow motion.
Moving shots utilizing a track and a camera dolly (as opposed to steadicam).
Deeply flawed (yet likeable and accomplished) protagonists.
Idiosyncratic costuming (i.e. characters wear the same thing every day).
Bird's eye view and underwater camera shots
Use of a framing device (Rushmore: presented like stage play; The Royal Tenenbaums like a novel; The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou like a documentary).
Close, deep focus shots of characters holding an item (Bottle Rocket: small locket picture of Inez's sister;Rushmore: Swiss army knife from Max's friend Dirk;The Royal Tenenbaums:green tic-tac held by Mr. Sherman; The Life Aquatic: sand dollar given by Ned to Jane Winslet-Richardson).
Persistent searches for intimacy and personal connection by intellectuals that fail due to deep character flaws
Notes and letters being read in first person
Characters being punched in the nose (Max in Rushmore while criticizing an actor in his own play , Anthony in Bottle Rocket after Dignan finds out he gave a $500 tip to Inez, Ned in The Life Aquatic after telling Steve "I'm going to fight you")
Use of the Futura typeface in the credits
Child characters who show vast maturity compared to their grown-up counterparts
The same drum solo in the book store robbery in Bottle Rocket, the first (interrupted) groundbreaking ceremony in Rushmore, the car crash scene in The Royal Tenenbaums and in The Life Aquatic when Zissou and crew break into Hennessey's research complex.

[edit] Influences

Anderson has acknowledged that French New Wave directors François Truffaut and Louis Malle influenced his penchant for sympathetic tragicomedy, unconventional mis-en-scene, and personal approach to filmmaking. He often cites Mike Nichols' The Graduate as a recurring inspiration. Anderson is also noted for drawing on famous works of American literature, particularly F. Scott Fitzgerald and J.D. Salinger. Fitzgerald's famous quote, "There are no second acts in American lives," applies to many of Anderson's characters, who tend to fall quickly from their initial success and renown (although many of them make limited comebacks). Salinger influences are seen in Bottle Rocket (Anthony and his sister's relationship parallels Phoebe and Holden Caulfield The Catcher in the Rye) and Rushmore (Max gets kicked out of his prestigious school as does Caulfield). The Royal Tenenbaums is also allegedly based on J.D. Salinger's Glass family.^{[citation needed]}

Anderson's stylized films also borrow youthful aesthetic qualities from comics such as Charles Schulz's Peanuts (The Royal Tenenbaums/Rushmore) and Hergé's The Adventures of Tintin graphic novels (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou). A less known aesthetic influence is the French photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue: the name Zissou derives from Lartigue brother's name, and his old photos reveal similarities with Anderson's visuals.

[edit] Themes

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Flawed Protagonists: Protagonists are well-heeled, well-educated and/or privileged, but are misfits with their greatest accomplishments behind them. These characters are likable but exhibit narcissistic behavior.
Downfall and Redemption: Protagonists are often the cause of their own downfalls, stemming from their own hubris or narcissism. They generally overcome this downfall by the end of the film.
Parental Figures often portrayed as absent or ineffectual. Fathers are neglectful or unresponsive to the needs of their children. Caring mothers have often died before the actions of the film, with cancer a usual cause of death.
Love/Sex: Sex takes place off screen, although frank but general sexual talk is common. Love interests (always a man chasing a woman) are unattainable or problematic (i.e. foreign cleaning lady, teacher, adopted sister, pregnant reporter). Intimacy is often awkward and misdirected (i.e. the stiff embraces of The Royal Tenenbaums, Max and Mr.Blume's attempts to woo Mrs. Cross in Rushmore).
Benevolent villains: They are non-confrontational and only somewhat hinder the protagonist. Buchan in Rushmore is a bully but eventually becomes an actor in Max's play. Henessey in The Life Aquatic is Zissou's nemesis, but does not seek to destroy Zissou.

[edit] Critical interpretations

Some have argued that the themes of Anderson's films have a significant relationship to 19th Century Romanticism. Anderson's tendency to idealize states of childhood, his emphasis on imaginative individualism, his focus on characters who fall from an initial state of grace, his portrayal of melancholy as a redemptive state, and his interest in the power of nature as a site for self-discovery (particularly in The Life Aquatic) are all signs of a Romantic artistic temperament.^{[citation needed]} Jacques-Yves Cousteau's idealism is also a constant inspiration for Anderson.

Many critics understand Anderson as a postmodernist filmmaker in the vein of Jacques Rivette. These critics emphasize Anderson's tendency to use extensive intertextual quotations, his often blatant parody of genre conventions, and the reflexive gestures he uses within each of his films.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Personnel

Anderson's films have featured many of the same actors, crew members, and other collaborators.

Owen Wilson, also a frequent co-writer, and brother Luke Wilson have starred in several films
Bill Murray, Seymour Cassel, and Anjelica Huston have starred in two or more of his films.
Friends Stephen Dignan and Brian Tenenbaum (character name inspirations), Andrew Wilson (brother of Luke and Owen), Eric Chase Anderson (Wes' brother and set designer), Kumar Pallana and son Dipak, as well as Kevin Clevette frequently appear in his flims
Noah Baumbach co-wrote two films, and directed Anderson's production of The Squid and the Whale
Robert Yeoman, A.S.C., cinematographer for all films and several commercials
Mark Mothersbaugh, of Devo fame, composer of original music on all films
David Wasco, production designer on three films.

[edit] Other work

Anderson's interest in stop-motion animation (used in The Life Aquatic) led him to his next full-length project, a stop-motion animation adaptation of the Roald Dahl book, Fantastic Mr Fox.

In 2005, Anderson produced The Squid and the Whale, written and directed by Life Aquatic co-writer Noah Baumbach. It garnered two awards at the Sundance Film Festival.

In 2006, he directed and starred in a "My Life, My Card" American Express commercial. [1]

Owen Wilson will reunite with Wes Anderson on the upcoming film, The Darjeeling Limited. The script is written by Anderson, Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman. The plot features Wilson, Schwartzman and Adrien Brody as brothers who journey through India.^[1]

[edit] Acclaim and criticism

Critical reviews of Anderson's early work were initially somewhat positive and hopeful, with some very loud exceptions. His work has been seen by some as pretentious and too quirky. His second film Rushmore was a critical darling, and many argued that Anderson would soon become a major artistic voice in American cinema. Many critics noted a strong sense of sympathetic but intelligent humanism in Anderson's films that linked them to the work of Jean Renoir and François Truffaut. Filmmaker Martin Scorsese is a fan of Anderson's, praising Bottle Rocket and Rushmore and calling Anderson "the next Scorsese" in an Esquire magazine article. The Royal Tenenbaums was also a critical favorite and garnered Anderson an Academy Award nomination. The film was his first high-profile commercial success, featuring several notable A-list stars. In September '06, a bizarre "letter of intervention" appeared on the website of the musical group Steely Dan, claiming that the authors - musicians and "Fans of World Cinema" Walter Becker and Donald Fagen - had a cure for Anderson's artistic "malaise".