Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson
Wes Anderson in Berlin, 2005.
Born	Wesley Wales Anderson May 1, 1969 (1969-05-01) (age 39) Houston, Texas, U.S.
Occupation	film director, screenwriter, producer and actor
Awards won Academy Awards Nominated: Best Original Screenplay 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums

Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American director, writer, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials. He was nominated for a 2001 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums.

Biography

The second of three brothers, Anderson was born in Houston, Texas. His father, Melver Leonard Anderson, worked in advertising and currently owns a public relations firm in Houston; his mother, Texas Ann Burroughs, a former archaeologist, is now a real estate agent.

Anderson attended both Westchester High School and St. John's School, a private school in Houston, which he later featured as a location for his second film, Rushmore. Like Rushmore's protagonist, Max Fischer, Anderson wrote and directed plays on the stage of St. John's now-demolished Hoodwink Theatre.

Anderson studied philosophy at the University of Texas, where he met Owen Wilson. After producing a short version of Bottle Rocket, Anderson and Wilson attracted the notice of producer James L. Brooks. With Brooks' help, the two were able to enter the short at Sundance and secure funding for a feature-length Bottle Rocket.

Anderson divides his time between New York City and Paris, France. His friends include a diverse set of fellow filmmakers, including the screenwriter-director Noah Baumbach, the actor-screenwriter Owen Wilson, and director-actress Sofia Coppola. His brother, Eric, designs both sets and styles on his films. His older brother, Mel, is a doctor.

Film work

Wes Anderson has been called an auteur^[1], as he is involved in every aspect of his films' production: writing, cinematography, production design, music selection.

Influences

Anderson has recently acknowledged that he went to India to film his 2007 film, The Darjeeling Limited partly as a tribute to the legendary Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, whose "films have also inspired all my other movies in different ways." He dedicated the movie to Ray's memory.^[2]

Trademarks

Wes Anderson is known for making independent-type stylistic films which mix poignancy and dry humor. Examples of his humor includes malapropism and understatement. In his American Express commercial, Anderson states his films, "point out the beauty in flaws and vice versa." Anderson’s films, visually, often make use of close-ups, quick pans, and slow motion shots. He often uses folk and early rock as the background-music in scenes. His often damaged characters are viewed in a compassionate light. The depiction of escapism and companionship through chemicals seems to be one of his trademarks also. In each of his films, one or more of the main characters smokes cigarettes or marijuana, excessively drinks, takes pills, etc. To accompany the cigarettes in his films he also features zippo lighters prominently; from Dignan lighting firecrackers to Bill Murray in Rushmore. Additionally, his films often feature a heavy-smoking female character. A recurring character in Anderson's films is a respected middle aged male who is essentially a fraud. All of Anderson's films, with the exception of The Darjeeling Limited, end with slow motion sequences - although The Darjeeling Limited's third to last shot is in slow motion. Also, with the exception of the independently financed Bottle Rocket, his films employ a similar visual style, primarily through the use of vivid primary colors. He is known for deliberate, methodical cinematography, using 90 degree camera angles, parallel and perpendicular arrangement of forms, and frequent use of symmetry. All of Anderson's films utilize the font Futura Bold in either the opening credits, title sequences or closing credits and is also displayed in other printed materials used throughout his films. Each film also uses Futura Bold to display the main closing credits in a particular format where the first name is displayed in a title case and the last name is displayed in all caps (except The Darjeeling Limited which uses capitals for full names). Furthermore, almost every Wes Anderson movie contains a shot of one or more characters under water.

Collaborators

Anderson's films feature many of the same actors, crew members, and other collaborators. For example, the Wilson brothers (Owen, Luke, and Andrew), Bill Murray, Seymour Cassel, Anjelica Huston, Jason Schwartzman, Kumar Pallana and son Dipak Pallana, Stephen Dignan and Brian Tenenbaum (Anderson's close friends), and Eric Chase Anderson (Anderson's brother).

Other frequent collaborators are writer Noah Baumbach, who co-wrote The Life Aquatic, and wrote/directed his own film, The Squid and the Whale, with Anderson as producer. Also cinematographer Robert Yeoman (A.S.C.), and composer Mark Mothersbaugh.

Recent work

In 2005, Anderson produced The Squid and the Whale, written and directed by Life Aquatic co-writer Noah Baumbach. It won two awards at the Sundance Film Festival.^{[citation needed]} In 2006, he directed and starred in a "My Life, My Card" American Express commercial.

Jason Schwartzman reunited with Anderson on the 2007 film, The Darjeeling Limited. The script is written by Anderson, Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman.^[3] Anderson's stop-motion animation adaptation of the Roald Dahl book, Fantastic Mr Fox is slated for 2009 release.

Acclaim and criticism

Critical reviews of Anderson's early work were positive, with some exceptions. His second film Rushmore was a critical darling, and many argued that Anderson would soon become a major artistic voice in American cinema.^{[citation needed]} Many critics noted a strong sense of sympathetic but intelligent humanism in Anderson's films that linked them to the work of Jean Renoir and François Truffaut.^{[citation needed]} Filmmaker Martin Scorsese is a fan of Anderson's, praising Bottle Rocket and Rushmore in an Esquire magazine article.^{[citation needed]} The Royal Tenenbaums was also a critical favorite and garnered Anderson an Academy Award nomination. The film was his first high-profile commercial success, featuring several established movie stars.^{[citation needed]}

In September 2006, following the disappointing commercial and critical reception of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen released a tongue-in-cheek "letter of intervention" of Anderson's artistic "malaise". Proclaiming themselves to be fans of "World Cinema" and Anderson in particular, they offered Anderson their soundtrack services for his The Darjeeling Limited, including lyrics for a title track.^[4]

Anderson has also been criticized by journalist Jonah Weiner for his allegedly shallow portrayals of non-white characters^[5]. Reihan Salam of The Atlantic offered a rebuttal to this line of criticism^[6].

Advertising

In September 2007, Wes Anderson oversaw a series of six commercials for AT&T: “College Kid,” “Reporter,” “Mom,” “Architect,” “Actor” and “Businessman.” The campaign also includes online, print and outdoor advertising. These TV spots are part of AT&T's "Your Seamless World" national campaign from BBDO/New York. Each ad embodies Anderson's distinct style by focusing on a subject and having the environment around them change. Each of the six AT&T commercials introduces us to a different AT&T customer. As each of these people comes before the camera and talks about the different, far-reaching locales where he or she needs cell-phone service, the visuals behind the customer change dramatically to reflect the different destinations.

The "Reporter" piece was subject to controversy when several Lebanese-American groups protested its airing as ignorant given the complex and sensitive nature of the Lebanese political situation. The ad portrayed photojournalists dodging bullets on a Beirut rooftop while the city was being bombed. It was subsequently pulled from rotation after the assassination of Antoine Ghanem on September 19, 2007 with AT&T and BBDO issuing public apologies.[1]

Anderson also starred in and directed an American Express "My Life, My Card" commercial, which chronicled the "filming" of an action movie starring Jason Schwartzman. Anderson acts as if he is being interviewed by someone from American Express for the ad, while walking around completing tasks on set. It was aired on television and in movie theaters in both a short and extended version, during and shortly after the theatrical release of The Life Aquatic.

Filmography

Feature films

• Bottle Rocket (1996)
• Rushmore (1998)
• The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
• The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

Short films

• Bottle Rocket (1994)
• Hotel Chevalier (2007)

References

External links

• Into The Deep, in-depth Anderson profile at The Guardian
• "Wes Anderson", brief profile by Martin Scorsese
• Wes Anderson interviews Bill Murray at Interview
• Announcement of Wes Anderson's new film The Darjeeling Limited
• Wes Anderson at the Internet Movie Database
• Wes Anderson at Allmovie
• IONCINEMA.com interview with Wes Anderson for The Darjeeling Limited
• The Rushmore Academy - The Films of Wes Anderson (fan site)
• Wes Anderson Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos
• 5 Signs You're Watching a Wes Anderson Movie
• 16 Films Without Which Wes Anderson Couldn't Have Happened

Actor	Bottle Rocket (1996)	Rushmore (1998)	The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)	The Life Aquatic (2004)	The Darjeeling Limited (2007)	Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Waris Ahluwalia				N	N
Owen Wilson	N	(Co-Writer)	N	N	N
Luke Wilson	N	N	N
Andrew Wilson	N	N	N
Bill Murray		N	N	N	N	N
Anjelica Huston			N	N	N	N
Jason Schwartzman		N			N	N
Kumar Pallana	N	N	N		N
Cate Blanchett				N		N
Seymour Cassel		N	N	N
Films directed by Wes Anderson Feature films Bottle Rocket (1996) · Rushmore (1998) · The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) · The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) · The Darjeeling Limited (2007) · Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Short films Bottle Rocket (1994) · Hotel Chevalier (2007)