The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

[cowboykurtis]

It looked fine to me, too. Do you know for certain that he did a DI? I wouldn't have guessed, just from the look of the film.

Myself, I love the look of DI films, and definitely plan to utilize it on all my own celluloid-originated projects. Lord Of The Rings, O Brother, and from what I can tell from the trailers, The Aviator all look amazing, among  many others.

yea, wes did DI over at EFILM. i think the look of DI is great on digital formats -- i think much of the information is lost on the film out -- i've yet to see a film that looks good, or as good as it should, on print that orignated from DI. the blacks are muddied and the color saturation is sub - par -- im curious to know if very long engagement was DI -- thats one film of recent memory that looked absolutely goreous on print.

i dont think one can argue that Di films look superior in theaters than they do on dvd -- i think this is a shame -- since when did home exhibition take the priority to the theatrical image quality -- nowadays theatrical release is just a big advertising scheme for the dvd release so i think much of the care for prints is neglected -- you dont have films running for as long as they used to in theaters. dvd is definatley where the revenue is, and the quality and process of the post production directly reflects where the movie will breath its longest life.

im still not sold on DI. as long as the exhibtiors are outfitted with films projectors theres will be a missing peice in the puzzle.

[modage]

mine looked fine too.

does Wes have his little note in the liners like usual?
i don't know how full the cd is, as far as time, but i think the Sigur Ros song is 9 minutes. if the cd is already full, then that would mean cutting several other songs. maybe that's it. i'm not sure what song is used in TLA, but the Vanilla Sky soundtrack did have at least one Sigur Ros song on the actual cd soundtrack (3 in the film).

wes has linear notes.  the cd is only 60 minutes so it wasnt a matter of length, it was probably a rights thing like the stones from previous sntks.

[mutinyco]

Yeah...gotta go with Ghosty on this. I think DI looks amazing on screen. O Brother looked like it was 3-D...

[Ultrahip]

What is the Sigur Ros song that's not on the soundtrack?

[Sleuth]

VANILLA SKY ALL OVER AGAIN

[Ultrahip]

You mean Untitled 4 off ( ) ?

[Pedro]

silly fuck

[Gamblour.]

What is the Sigur Ros song that's not on the soundtrack?

Staralfur, I believe. It's off Agaetis Byrjun

[Ultrahip]

Thank you sir.

[Pozer]

You mean Untitled 4 off ( ) ?

Real quick, which part of the movie was this song in?

[russiasusha]

It's a spoiler

[Ultrahip]

Was it actually that song? I thought it was Staralfur, like that guy said...but I don't know I haven't seen this yet.

[Ghostboy]

I thought it was Staralfur

It is.

[modage]

Rewind: Director Wes Anderson Gets Deep Again With 'Aquatic'
'Rushmore' creator one of Hollywood's few true visionaries.
Source: MTV News

Hollywood loves to use hyperbole. "Brilliant," "greatest" and "of all time" are bandied about as often as Keanu says, "Dude."

It's all part of the mass-marketing mentality that dominates the industry. When the Walt Disney company calls a brand new film a "classic," you have to wonder if their copywriters own a dictionary. And it seems as if every director who does something slightly outside of the mainstream (while still working in the studio system) is instantly dubbed a "visionary," regardless of how derivative their style is or how wanting their abilities are.

Copping your look from Edward Gorey, the Cure and the circus doesn't make you a visionary, Tim Burton. And even the most visually exciting film falls flat if all the other storytelling elements don't, oh, shall we say, reload the Matrix.

So when a filmmaker comes along who does seem to be able to blend all the collaborative aspects of the medium of film into a mosaic that is not only distinctive, but rewarding, it's a cause for celebration. So let's all jump for joy at the release of "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou," the fourth film from contemporary visionary Wes Anderson.

Anderson's first feature, 1996's "Bottle Rocket," is his most straightforward film. This tale of a trio of inept would-be criminals has little of the visual idiosyncrasies that would mark Anderson's later movies, but the theme of misfits following their hearts (regardless of the odds) is very much in place. Still, unlike his trademark later pictures, "Bottle Rocket" takes place in the real world, where bullies reign and the dreamers struggle, often in vain. "Bottle Rocket" was the teaser for the slightly skewed worlds that Anderson would next create.

"Rushmore" (1998) tells the tale of overreaching underachiever Max Fischer (Jason Schwartzman). Max is the worst student at Rushmore Academy, partly because all of his time is taken with every conceivable extracurricular activity: French Club, Stamp & Coin Club, debate team, Calligraphy Club, choir, Bombardment Society, the Rushmore Beekeepers and more. But Max's true loves are the Max Fischer Players — a theatrical troupe that puts on elaborate stage versions of things like the '70s cop film "Serpico" — and Miss Cross (Olivia Williams), the beautiful but lonely first-grade teacher. Max befriends a wealthy steel magnate (Bill Murray in the role that rejuvenated his career), who likewise develops feelings for Miss Cross and a bizarre quasi-romantic triangle builds.

The New England setting and tone of "Rushmore" make the film feel like it's not quite in the real world anymore, but rather a world slightly skewed toward Max's perspective. It's a world where a school allows Max to present "Heaven and Hell," a Vietnamese War play with tons of gunfire and real explosions. Adults bend to the whims of children for no apparent reason other than the force of their convictions. The oddballs have a slightly easier time of it. It feels much like the surreal suburbia of "The Adventures of Pete and Pete" or Stars Hollow in "Gilmore Girls." (Trivia note: Alexis Bledel of that show is an extra in "Rushmore." She sits next to Max at Grover Cleveland High). It's probably no coincidence that Anderson used Vince Guaraldi's "Peanuts" music in two of his movies. Max Fischer could be Charlie Brown as a teenager.

Anderson's third film, 2001's "The Royal Tenenbaums," deals with family dysfunction and unrealized promise. The estranged patriarch of a family of former child geniuses, Royal Tenenbaum (Gene Hackman) makes a last ditch effort to reconnect with his family, all of whom are going through a personal malaise. It's Anderson's saddest film, a tragicomedy about squandered potential, misplaced nostalgia and staggering loneliness. But "Tenenbaums" is not a cautionary piece; no lessons are taught. Anderson is startlingly unsentimental. That's not to say cynicism runs rampant — quite the contrary. There's an emotional honesty and a refreshing lack of hipness and pretension that makes you care about people who are not at all cuddly.

"Tenenbaums" is so meticulously art directed that some viewers felt overwhelmed to the point of distraction (even aside from the scene in the jammed games closet, where that was the intent). But the recurring motifs (such as the use of the same simple Helvetica font for everything from signage to book covers and the symmetrical placement of household items) give the film a unique formality that takes it into that slight surreality that serves the characters so well. None of the details are affectations for their own sake. Unlike the monkey barrels of disparate flourishes that rarely coalesce in the films of, say, Joel Schumacher, everything works in sync in Anderson's world.

Adding to the emotional depth is Anderson's smart use of music in his films. In addition to scores by Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh, the movies utilize songs that complete the scenes and the characters. The Faces' "Ooh La La" with its "I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger" chorus succinctly summarizes as the characters dance at the end of "Rushmore." The late Elliott Smith's "Needle in the Hay" rings with an even sadder irony now during a suicide attempt in "The Royal Tenenbaums," and the slow-motion shot of Gwyneth Paltrow walking from the bus to Luke Wilson as Nico's "These Days" plays is an utterly perfect cinematic moment.

Another trait Anderson's movies share is the lack of a happy ending in favor of a bittersweet one. The characters have changed, they're almost all in a different place than when we first meet them, but, like the end of "The Graduate," their fates are still uncertain. We hope they'll be happy, we hope Max will go on to greatness, we hope Chas Tenenbaum will be able to move on from grieving for his dead wife. But we're not sure.

That's one of the main things that make these movies resonate so powerfully. Wes Anderson (and his co-writer, Owen Wilson) makes those rare movies that take us someplace that's not real, but to which we can relate, sometimes too much. Many of us wish we could be something more than what we are, and none of us knows our future. But that's life's rich pageant, with its struggles, pain and uncertainty — if we accept its absurdities and follow our hearts, it can be a rewarding piece of art

David Bowie Gets A Bossa Nova Makeover In Wes Anderson's 'Life Aquatic'
Source: MTV News 12.16.2004

Wes Anderson is to movie scores what Quentin Tarantino is to film casting: He revives old relics and dusts them off for a new generation.

Of course in Anderson's case, the music he uses is by no means forgotten; rather, he takes underground
 
'60s and '70s classics and recontextualizes them for his well-defined film world.

Fans wait with bated breath to see what songs he's going to use next. "[I listen to] the Rolling Stones one week and then Radiohead the next," Anderson said nonchalantly. "But it kind of goes in cycles. It's always changing."

In Anderson's debut, "Bottle Rocket," the musical focus was '60s psychedelia (obscure cuts by Love and the Rolling Stones); in "Rushmore," the British Invasion seasoned the seriocomic tone (the Kinks, Donovan, the Who, Creation and the Stones); and in "The Royal Tenenbaums," the musical themes were tethered by melancholy folk and classic rock (the Velvet Underground, Nico, Elliott Smith, Nick Drake and again, his beloved Keef and Mick). All of Anderson's films have been scored by the idiosyncratic Mark Mothersbaugh, the driving force behind late-'70s pop deconstructionists Devo.

With his latest, "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou," the director again taps vintage rock classics (Zombies, Scott Walker, Stooges), but this time, with a twist.

The tastemaking filmmaker decided he wanted to take the songs of David Bowie and give them a worldly feel appropriate for the movie's international cast and at-sea setting.

Enter Brazilian samba star Seu Jorge, who was asked to take lesser-known Bowie classics ("Queen Bitch," "Rock N' Roll Suicide" and "Five Years") and give them a bossa nova spin. In total, Jorge remade 11 Bowie songs, all of which were used in the film.

"Seu Jorge is a great musician, and I think he made these really beautiful pieces," Anderson said. "Because the songs were woven throughout the whole movie, it's something that ties it together. For me, he's an important character in the film, even though his only line is, 'I didn't see it, boss.' He's a real presence in the movie."

In the film, Jorge's character, Pelé dos Santos (an obvious homage to '70s Brazilian soccer superstar Pelé), serenades the crew upon the Belafonte (an obvious homage to Jacques Cousteau's Calypso), the vessel owned by oceanographer Steve Zissou (Bill Murray).

But Jorge (who also played Knockout Ned in the acclaimed Brazilian film "City of God") was initially worried that 11 songs might be overkill. "I thought it might be like drowning your food in ketchup, with me being the ketchup — too much," he said. But once he saw the film and the way the songs carried the emotional arc in brief snippets, the musician/actor thought the balance and tone were "perfect."

"I think [Anderson] is inventing a new form of language in comedy," said Jorge in his heavily accented English. "He's so soft, but so particular; he likes the details. I liked the movie very much."

Why Bowie? The answer is simple. Anderson's been dying to use his songs since "Rushmore."

"I'm a big Bowie fan, and I've never used one of his songs in my movies," Anderson said. "There's one that I'd been thinking of, 'When I Live My Dream,' which is an early Bowie song that I tried in 'Rushmore.' This was a chance to use a bunch of them. Halfway through the writing, we made the character Brazilian, [so] the songs needed to be in Portuguese."

During the film, Anderson was never quite sure if Jorge's bossa-styled Bowie translations were "faithful renditions," and as it turns out, they weren't.

"I look to the [characters] in the film and to my life, and I create the songs," Jorge said of the way he tweaked the lyrics. He cites his version of "Changes" as a song he found inspiration for in his own life, having gone from being a homeless addict to a national pop star in the span of a decade. More recently, Jorge, like the rest of the cast, had to uproot his life to Italy for the film's arduous six-month shoot.

Another interesting surprise: Jorge didn't know any of the Bowie songs that Anderson asked him to cover. "It's a different culture in Brazil," he said. "We only know 'Let's Dance.' " But he quickly took to the task, stripping the songs of all their embellishments until they were just vocals and acoustic guitar.

The rest of "Aquatic" is marked musically by the cheesy, Casio-electronic and characteristically regal orchestration of Mark Mothersbaugh and Sven Libaek's score to the 1974 television show "Inner Space."

Acquiring the rights to classic David Bowie songs is no easy feat, even for Anderson. (So far the only person Anderson's been turned down by was Yoko Ono, who wouldn't allow him to use the Beatles' "Hey Jude" and "I'm Looking Through You" in "The Royal Tenenbaums.")

So what does David Bowie think of all these changes to his songs?

"Well, we had to license [the songs] from him. David's heard them and supposedly he's really liked them," Anderson said. "He was on the radio a few months ago, and he was very positive about [Jorge's versions], but I [haven't] spoken to him about it yet."

[russiasusha]

(So far the only person Anderson's been turned down by was Yoko Ono, who wouldn't allow him to use the Beatles' "Hey Jude" and "I'm Looking Through You" in "The Royal Tenenbaums.")

Sorry to get off topic, but I always wondered why he was denied to license Beatles' songs, but he was able to license John Lennon Songs in Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums.