Wes Anderson and his work:

For this assignment I saw the following movies directed and written by Wes Anderson: Rushmore (1998), The Darjeeling Limited (2007), The Life Aquatic of Steve Zissou (2004) and Moonrise Kingdom (2012). It’s pretty clear: these are Wes Anderson movies. There are especially three important similarities between them – family- and love-relationships, complicated (main) characters and stylization. I will spend most of this blog post reflecting over some these themes.

Families and relationships. If anything, this is what keeps most of Anderson’s movies moving forward. In lack of an obvious plot, there are always the dysfunctional (but still relatable) relationships that engage the viewers and challenge our point of view. In Rushmore there is the infatuation that Max Fishcer holds for his teacher Rosemary Cross – in The Life Aquatic of Steve Zissou, father tries to get to know his supposed son after decades of separation – and Sam and Suzy runs away together after feeling isolated from everyone else than eachother, in Moonrise Kingdom. The Darjeeling Limited is a little less forward – and some may even say more boring than the abovementioned ones – three brothers set out on a spiritual journey through India and tries to figure out why their mom never attended their fathers funeral. Though the situations that Anderson creates for his characters are a little exaggerated I think we can all somehow relate to the conundrums they go through – either we despise them for the decisions they make or we feel with them. Interesting anyway, and a nice gesture from Anderson; letting us kids with dysfunctional families and failing relationships know that it could be worse. That at least we are not alone in our struggles.

Wes Anderson’s characters are like onions to me – layers of layers with personality that slowly sheds as the movie progresses. Also they can make you cry. There is a strong sense of self-belief and serious in the self in the leading characters, while they most of the time remain emotionless to anything happening around them- resulting in a humorous combination. Especially talented in this is iconic actor Bill Murray, which keeps returning for every movie made by Wes Anderson – even in The Darjeeling Limited we get a glimpse of him, running after the train. In Rushmore he has the role as Max Fischer’s older but good friend, which eventually falls for the same teacher and gets put in a small dilemma. Again, as Steve Zissou, he falls in love with the pregnant Cate Blanchett whom has feelings for his son – again putting him in a little of a dilemma. The son, played by Owen Wilson, is also a character that displays extraordinary little emotion – which makes the whole thing seem kind of surreal. Still, this does not imply that the characters are flat or empty – on the contrary they are not – they are extremely true to themselves, and their state of emotionlessness forces us to look at their actions and decisions rather than their reactions. This again forces us to look at ourselves, because we are the ones having the reactions to the characters actions – maybe we are judgmental and disgusted or maybe we are joyous and intrigued. Aswell; the characters, just like us, are obviously suppressing their emotional turmoil.

Maybe, the most obvious similarity between all of Anderson’s movies (to everyone in the audience) is the aesthetic style and mellow soundtrack. And as a photographer I find this very appealing – however, as a human, I find the message and journey throughout all of WA’s movies more intriguing.