Wes Anderson

Started by Sleepless, March 19, 2012, 12:14:21 PM

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modage

That's not what I want. It would be nice to see Anderson branch out with his style or the types of stories he's willing to tell but if he's insistent on NEVER doing that unlike all of his peers/any filmmaker ever, then it'd be great if the movies were still great on occasion. The difference between Rushmore and Royal Tenenbaums and his recent films is staggering and I'm a little distrustful of anyone else who doesn't see that.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

RegularKarate

What is wrong with different?
There's a difference between "this guy only made two good things and everything else is shit" and "This guy consistently makes good movies and I'm just constantly mad he hasn't made a better movie than his best movie".

AntiDumbFrogQuestion

I just realized that the band Cake seems like a musical equivalent to Wes Anderson.

Their songs are unmistakably theirs and yet the put out album after album with similar artwork and variations on the same basic instrumentation. There is a vintage sound to the instruments yet enough production in the recordings to let us know the songs weren't recorded in the 60's in someone's basement.  The songs are hit or miss, some straight-up classics, but the band sticks to their stylistic guns whether or not they have a "hit single" in their hands.

So. Just a thought at 12:30 am-ish.

(Amish?)

pete

that would be true if Cake made a huge splash musically and caused a thousand bands to imitate it and rarely put out albums until everyone was sick of Cake for the other bands. I think he's the equivalent of Seinfeld the comedian - when you hear Seinfield, he's still great at what he does, though you think his style is tiresome because it ended up being more famous than him, and it's not relevant anymore. but he's still funny, just not Louis CK funny.

I'll try to hone in on what I observe of this backlash - not just from here but from a lot of the snootier critics as well - since no one really has challenged the facts of the observation. I hate the word but I'll say it - Wes Anderson's not hip the way some of the audience want him to be hip anymore. It's a huge blind spot particularly to you Mod just because you've already spoken so much about it and it's pretty obvious to me and maybe RegularKarate and the other dudes here. You're mad at him but it's never related to the story or the characters or anything really that substantial - you just like how movies look and feel and sound, and you keep attacking him for things that some folks don't give a shit about. When Wes Anderson came out he was hip, like PT was hip, and now PT has transcended certain artifices that were huge in the 90s, styles that turned filmmakers rock stars, while Wes Anderson remained perfectly happy using them. And in a way, he's closer to Woody Allen, where he challenges himself personally with themes he's personally interested in, but with more or less an established look, cadence, and sensibilities. It's a silly way of looking at originality, which seems to be defined by your boredom of something, while your boredom seems to be defined by how well someone re-interprets your favorite genres. You enjoy genres that look and don't feel like genres, and Wes Anderson, for you, is just too Wes Anderson.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

modage

Well, yes and no. Yes, because I feel his films are a study in diminishing returns, I feel like perhaps if he wasn't so damn stubborn he might have evolved and made some more interesting films. And no, because if his last few films were anywhere near as successful (artistically) as his first few, I wouldn't mind his repetitiveness.

I was thinking about the Woody Allen thing too except he's actually done a lot of different kinds of things, which so far Wes hasn't. Everything has been pitched right down the middle. "Annie Hall" is great but what if all his films were a variation on "Annie Hall" with the locations and actors swapped out for lesser results?
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

RegularKarate

Quote from: modage on July 11, 2012, 09:11:47 AM
"Annie Hall" is great but what if all his films were a variation on "Annie Hall" with the locations and actors swapped out for lesser results?

Oh, come on. How is Wes Anderson just swapping out actors and locations for lesser results? That's ridiculous.

Pete's been able to say how I feel about all this much better than I have.

modage

I thought we already agreed that all his films are basically the same. (Wasn't that why Pete was supposing people are hating on him because it's not "cool" anymore?)

Not only do his films all look the same and use the same visual/audio/editing tricks, they're all the same tone. Melancholy comedy. Since maybe the gunfight in 'Life Aquatic,' have you ever really been surprised by anything in one of his films? To me, it seems like intentionally or not, he's defined his own boundaries and seems to be mistaking setting his films in different places (Italy, India, Rhode Island, animation) as doing something different.
Christopher Nolan's directive was clear to everyone in the cast and crew: Use CGI only as a last resort.

©brad

I feel there are two different issues here; his aesthetic, and his story choices. Mod are you wanting him to evolve stylistically, or do you want a Wed Anderson thriller, or both? 

RegularKarate

I think it's clear that Mod continues to talk about style. We aren't going to get around that it seems.
Outside of his stylistic choices, how is Moonrise Kingdom the same movie as The Royal Tenenbaums?

As far as "surprise" goes, what do you mean? One moment in Moonrise immediately comes to mind when I think of surprise. Also, if you're laughing, you're probably being surprised in those moments (and I'd argue that most people who aren't laughing decided they didn't want to like the movie beforehand).

children with angels

Quote from: modage on July 11, 2012, 11:04:01 AM
Since maybe the gunfight in 'Life Aquatic,' have you ever really been surprised by anything in one of his films?

I've been surprised by:

- His decision and ability to supplement and interestingly interweave a feature with a short film in Hotel Chevalier/Darjeeling.

- The way that his stop-motion movie managed to incorporate an improvisational sensibility in its dialogue and performances, making it feel paradoxically perhaps his loosest since Bottle Rocket. (Also the surprisingly affecting rat death scene.)

- The gradual escalation of Moonrise Kingdom into the realm of all-out myth/fantasy with the flood and the lightning set-pieces. (Incidentally, realising the impossibility of these things taking place in the worlds of Royal Tenenbaums or Darjeeling lets you recognise that these movies *are* different, have different parameters, operate according to different rules: the varying status and seriousness of death, for example.)

We can all agree that thematically, tonally and aesthetically he has kept ploughing similar furrows. And if originality in these kinds of things is an overriding criterion in the way you evaluate films, you're certainly bound to be disappointed. But me, I also highly value the totally valid artistic practice of variations on a theme, different uses of the same conventions, the tension between repetition and innovation, etc. Somewhat strangely, I feel Anderson has actually become surprisingly classical Hollywood in this way - like a Hitchcock or an Ophuls, using similar styles, themes and tones for a range of subject matter.
"Should I bring my own chains?"
"We always do..."

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pete

Two more analogies to throw your way:
Wes Anderson's going after a feeling, the same way that M. Ward's been making his albums - they're both going for this feeling of timelessness, and each film/ album, though they vary greatly in subject matter, they're honing in to articulate these very particular feelings that's elusive and hard to capture, and actually using a wide variety of tricks (I mean the films you liked of Wes greatly used ramp slo-mo and recorded soundtrack vs. this latest film where neither is very present) to hone that feel. But still we're just talking about the look and feel of something and not stories or characters. I think Life Aquatic made people mad because that was when Wes Anderson made it clear that he didn't wanna be PT Anderson. Your proclivity to "genre movies with a twist" is so out of the orbit of so many filmmakers and you've been frustrated by a great deal of them the same way. What helps your cause is so many so-called cinephiles like the movies of Wes Anderson or Tree of Life for the very superficial reasons so you've been pretty comfortable in your position thus far. But I don't know, I don't understand how your Life Aquatic anger hasn't died with America's Bush anger.

Second analogy is a food one. I don't know if I'm saying these things to make you understand something or make the other guys, but either way the thoughts are going on the internet and they'll be there until the fucking servers all crash. Here it goes: Wes Anderson is a sushi chef, and you want him to make fried chicken with a sushi twist.




Quote from: modage on July 11, 2012, 11:04:01 AM
I thought we already agreed that all his films are basically the same. (Wasn't that why Pete was supposing people are hating on him because it's not "cool" anymore?)

Not only do his films all look the same and use the same visual/audio/editing tricks, they're all the same tone. Melancholy comedy. Since maybe the gunfight in 'Life Aquatic,' have you ever really been surprised by anything in one of his films? To me, it seems like intentionally or not, he's defined his own boundaries and seems to be mistaking setting his films in different places (Italy, India, Rhode Island, animation) as doing something different.
"Tragedy is a close-up; comedy, a long shot."
- Buster Keaton

MacGuffin

Johnny Depp to Star in Wes Anderson's Next Film
The project comes from Indian Paintbrush, which will produce and finance.
Source: THR

Johnny Depp will team with the iconic Wes Anderson for his next project.

The Hollywood Reporter confirms that the Lone Ranger actor will star in Anderson's next film, which he wrote and will direct, and is being produced and financed by Indian Paintbrush. No details regarding the film's plot or Depp's character have been revealed yet, but the project is said to be titled The Grand Budapest Hotel and will mark the filmmaker's first time shooting in Europe.  

Fans at Comic-Con were wowed last weekend during the Disney Panel, where footage of Depp in The Lone Ranger was screened for a packed Hall H. As for Anderson, his Moonrise Kingdom premiered to rave reviews at Cannes earlier this year. With a wide release on June 29, Moonrise Kingdom has thus far grossed an impressive $44.7 million at the worldwide box office.

While Depp is the first to sign on for Budapest, Anderson is said to be courting Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Edward Norton, Jude Law, Jeff Goldblum, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe and Angela Lansbury for the film, as well.
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

AntiDumbFrogQuestion

Quote from: MacGuffin on July 17, 2012, 01:51:02 AM
will mark the filmmaker's first time shooting in Europe. 

From IMDB.com
Filming Locations for The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0362270/locations

Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy
(studio)

Florence, Tuscany, Italy

Italy

Marineland, Antibes, Alpes-Maritimes, France

Naples, Campania, Italy

Ponza Island, Ponziane Islands, Latina, Lazio, Italy

Rome, Lazio, Italy

:bravo:

MacGuffin

Jude Law 'Pestered' Wes Anderson To Join New Film
'I'm very excited to be a part of that Wes Anderson family,' actor tells MTV News about joining the cast of 'The Grand Budapest Hotel.'
Source: MTV

Right now is a good time to be friends with Wes Anderson. The writer/director, known for his unique visual style and idiosyncratic characters, regularly pulls from a pool of frequent collaborators, and he just scored the second biggest hit of his career with "Moonrise Kingdom."

For his next film, which is reportedly titled "The Grand Budapest Hotel," Anderson is calling on a mix of familiar actors and some talent he has never worked with before, including Johnny Depp.

One of the newest additions to the "Wes Anderson family," Jude Law, spoke with MTV News' Josh Horowitz during the Toronto International Film Festival for his new film "Anna Karenina" and shared his excitement to finally work with the director.

Law told MTV News that his role in "The Grand Budapest Hotel" is something that's been a long time coming. "I've been a huge fan of Wes," he said. "I pestered him with emails for years, saying 'I want to live in one of your films and I'd like to be in one of your films.' "

News of Anderson's wish list appeared in July, but we haven't heard much in the way of production details since then. Law, however, confirmed that Anderson should be shooting shortly. "[Anderson] sent me this wonderful script," he said. "I think we start work on that in January."

While Law hesitated to talk about the project at length, he did confirm Depp's involvement and the size of his own role. "It will be the usual team [of actors]. I have heard Johnny Depp is indeed playing a key role in it," he said. "I think my role is fleeting, but I'm very excited to be a part of that Wes Anderson family."
"Don't think about making art, just get it done. Let everyone else decide if it's good or bad, whether they love it or hate it. While they are deciding, make even more art." - Andy Warhol


Skeleton FilmWorks

Sleepless

I'm not a fan of Jude Law, but I do think he could fit well into a Wes Anderson movie. It's Depp I'm concerned about.
He held on. The dolphin and all the rest of its pod turned and swam out to sea, and still he held on. This is it, he thought. Then he remembered that they were air-breathers too. It was going to be all right.