The Whimsical Adventures of being Quirky

The Whimsical Storybook life of Wes Anderson.

For this week’s assignment we were to watch 3 movies from a selected director, and review themes that seemed to run through all of their works. And since I had just recently seen the very charming Moonrise Kingdom and had fallen in love with it. I have always heard that Wes Anderson was obsessed with showing and integrating a storybook look into his movies as well as having a cast of very quirky enjoyable characters. Everything seems to move at a slower pace. There is a sense of relaxed intensity, for lack of a better term. The films move at their own pace, with a somewhat poetic verbal style. His style of storytelling has a romantic charm to it that often nets him praise from fans and critics alike.

One of the main themes I have noticed in the movies of his that I have seen is a strong influence and visual style of a children’s storybook. Wes Anderson uses a lot of flat staging with interesting compositions. He often seems to shoot scenes with the focal length of the camera set very high. This gives a very flat appearance to the image, a flatness that allows him to manipulate the composition and overall give that somewhat graphical appeal of a children’s book. He also often uses onscreen motion graphics to either tell the passage of time or reveal other story elements. These graphics hover onscreen as though they would appear in a book.

Wes also has a very particular set of preferences, from the types of stories he tells, to the characters and actors he likes to use and portray. Anderson's films feature many of the same actors, crew members, and other collaborators. Bill Murray has been in every Wes Anderson movie I have seen, and  Noah Baumbach worked with Anderson on  The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr. Fox, with Anderson co-producing his film The Squid and the Whale. He has characters he likes and people he likes to portray them. Characters often have very strong motivations whether the motivations are dramatic or quirky the viewer always knows exactly what they want and are excited to see how they will go about getting it.

 In Rushmore for example, the main character wants nothing more then the simply go to Rushmore (his school) forever, as well as he has fallen in love with one of his teachers. These are very clear goals and watching them go about getting to their objective is clear, quirky, and enjoyable. Similarly, in Moonrise Kingdom, Sam Shakusky a 12 year old orphan has fallen in love with Bill Murray’s (Walt Bishop) characters Daughter, and the two attempt to run away together. Sam’s goal is to be with Suzy at all costs and they run away into the forest together. His motivation and actions all line up with his characters desires.

Fantastic Mr. Fox is the most like a storybook since it is told in the form of a stop motion animated feature.  Another theme is We Anderson movies seems to be the idea of broken love. In both Moonrise Kingdom, and Rushmore Bill Murray plays a man whose marriage is falling apart, and both movie include characters that have a love interest that they cannot be with. Sam (in Moonrise Kingdom) wants to be with Suzy but Suzy’s parents will not allow them to be together. On a similar thread, Max Fischer is in love with his school teacher but the world seems to be against them being together.

Wes Anderson is a very particular director, and his movies all exude his unique sense of cinematography and style.