Wes Anderson & His Influences

Great five part article about Wes Anderson's work and the diverse set of artists who have informed and inspired his own creations. Check it out below.

The Substance of Style-Wes Anderson: "Detractors say Anderson’s dense production design (courtesy of regular collaborator David Wasco) overwhelms his stories and characters. This complaint presumes that in real life our grooming and style choices aren’t a kind of uniform—visual shorthand for who we are or who we want others to think we are. This is a key strength of both Anderson and Salinger’s work. Both artists have a knack for what might be called “material synecdoche”—showcasing objects, locations, or articles of clothing that define whole personalities, relationships, or conflicts."

A Simple Game

A game has been making its round around the Internet recently to the delight of film geeks everywhere. It's rather simple--list your favorite films, one (and only one) for each letter of the alphabet. If you need to twist the rules a bit (e.g. going back and forth between English and original language titles, do what you need to do).

Taking a mental break from a complex few days, here goes with my list... there are a few letters (B, C, etc) for which I really struggled and had to call out the titles that just barely missed out..

Annie Hall (Allen, 1977)
Before Sunrise/Before Sunset (Linklater, 1995 & 2004)
honorary mention: Being There (Ashby, 1979), Brazil (Gilliam, 1985)
Casablanca (Curtiz, 1942)
honorary mentions: Cidade de Deus ("City of God", Meirrelles 03), Chinatown (Polanski 1974)
Doctor Zhivago (David Lean, 1965)
Easy Rider (Hopper, 1969)
Fa Yeung Nin Wa ("In the Mood for Love", Wong Kar Wai, 2001)
The Great Escape (Sturges, 1963)
High Fidelity (Frears 2000)
Igby Goes Down (Steers, 2002)
Jules et Jim ("Jules and Jim", Truffaut, 1961)
Kill Bill (Tarantino, 2004)
Lawrence of Arabia (Lean, 1962)
honorary mention: El Laberinto Del Fauno ("Pan's Labyrinth", del Toro, 2006)
Manhattan (Allen, 1979)
Nuovo Cinema Paradiso ("Cinema Paradiso", Tornatore, 1988)
Ostre sledované vlaky ("Closely Watched Trains", Menzel, 1966)
Pulp Fiction (Tarantino, 1994)
Quentin Tarantino presents Chungking Express (Wong Kar Wai, 1994) [I know, it's a stretch...]
Rushmore (anderson, 1998)
Spanish Apartment (L'Auberge Espagnole)
honorary mention: A Shot in the Dark (Edwards, 1964)
Trainspotting (Boyle, 1996)
Un Chien Andalao ("An Andalusian Dog", Buñuel/Dali, 1929)
The Vertical Ray of the Sun (Tran Anh Hung, 2005)
Waking Life (Linklater, 2001)
Xiao cheng zhi chun ("Spring in a Small Town", Fei, 1948) [my one cheat: I haven't seen it yet…but I couldn't bring myself to write X-Men or XXX]
Young Frankenstein (Brooks, 1974)
Zelig (Allen, 1983)

What do you think? Throw your lists in the comments!

The Mixing Bowl

I think I may have discovered the most spectacular corner of the blogging/user-generated content world today when I stumbled upon the blog "The Playlist." Rodrigo Perez fills a gaping void in my web wanderings by plugging directly in to the ever-fruitful content area that is indie-auteur film soundtracks. For example, in line with the current Wes hype:

:: The Playlist ::: "The press loves Anderson even as much as they might not love 'Darjeeling,' (reviews are starting to tip into the favorable scale, but they're generally tentatively positive), so there's literally dozens and dozens of pieces out there on Wes and the film and it's hard to keep track of all of them, but here's what we've collated so far and deemed noteworthy.Wes' next film - his stop-motion animated take on Roald Dahl's 'The Fantastic Mr. Fox' - will feature the confirmed voices of Bill Murray, George Clooney and Jason Schwartzman (Cate Blanchett and Angelica Houston are still rumors at this point]. [MTV Movies Blog]While talking to Wes, the MTV Movies blog also confirmed what Luke Wilson had recently said - 'Bottle Rocket' will finally get the long-awaited Criterion treatment. We've just begun work with the Criterion Collection to do 'Bottle Rocket' on a new DVD that's going to have all kinds of stuff,' Anderson said. 'There's a lot of 'Bottle Rocket' that was on the cutting room floor, so we have a lot to work with on that one.[MTV Movies Blog]"

Normally I would cringe at a new Roald Dahl film, since the author's marvelous, magical, gristly banter is so difficult to lift off the printed page and capture the same sense of wonder and disgust on screen. But Anderson is one of two or three directors (the other's being Linklater and Del Toro) who I think can get this right. And a Criterion Bottle Rocket! Excellent!