Wes Anderson

Wes Anderson
Anderson in Berlin, 2005
Born	Wesley Mortimer Wales Anderson May 1, 1969 (1969-05-01) (age 41) Houston, Texas, U.S.
Other names	Marcelo Carrillo
Occupation	Actor, Director, Screenwriter, Producer
Years active	1994–present

Wesley Mortimer Wales "Wes" Anderson^[1] (born May 1, 1969) is an American film director, screenwriter, 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. Anderson has been called an auteur, as he is involved in every aspect of his films' production. His films employ a similar aesthetic, employing a deliberate, methodical cinematography, with mostly primary colors. His soundtracks feature early folk and rock music, in particular classic British rock. Anderson's films combine dry humor with poignant portrayals of flawed characters – often a mix of the wealthy and the working class. He is also known for working with many of the same actors and crew on varying projects. He also works with Indian Paintbrush, Steven M. Rales's production company.

Contents 1 Film work 1.1 Influences 1.2 Collaborators 1.3 Recent work 1.4 Acclaim 1.5 Advertising 2 Filmography 2.1 Feature films 2.2 Short films 3 Recurring collaborators 4 References 5 External links

Film work

Wes Anderson has frequently been referenced as a cinematic auteur,^[2] as he is involved in every aspect of his films' production: writing, cinematography, production design, and 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.^[3]

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,^[4] Willem Dafoe, 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 with Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr. Fox, whose film, The Squid and the Whale, Anderson co-produced; Owen Wilson, who co-wrote three of Anderson's feature films; cinematographer Robert Yeoman (A.S.C.); music supervisor Randall Poster and composer Mark Mothersbaugh.

Recent work

Jason Schwartzman reunited with Anderson on the 2007 film, The Darjeeling Limited. The script is written by Anderson, Roman Coppola and Schwartzman.^[5] Anderson's stop-motion animation adaptation of the Roald Dahl book, Fantastic Mr Fox was released in 2009. In 2008 Wes Anderson was hired to write the screenplay of the American adaptation of My Best Friend, a French film, for producer Brian Grazer, Anderson's first draft was titled "The Rosenthaler Suite".

Acclaim

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese is a big fan of Anderson's, praising Bottle Rocket and Rushmore in an Esquire magazine article.^[6]

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.^[7]

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.

Anderson 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, a scene paying homage to the movie Day for Night by Francois Truffaut. 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.

In 2008, Wes Anderson teamed up with Brad Pitt for a commercial for Japanese cell phones. The commercial takes inspiration from Jacques Tatis' Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot. Anderson filmed Pitt in one continuous shot at a French seaside town.

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)
• The Rosenthaler Suite (2011)^[8]

Short films

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

Recurring collaborators

References

External links

• Wes Anderson at the Internet Movie Database
• Wes Anderson at Allmovie
• Tête-à-Tête with Nic Harcourt at Los Angeles Times Magazine
• 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
• Interview with Wes Anderson for The Darjeeling Limited at Ioncinema.com
• 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
• The Substance of Style, a five-part series of video essays analyzing the key influences on Wes Anderson’s style on Moving Image Source
• Wes Andersonize Your Life

Films directed by Wes Anderson 1990s Bottle Rocket (1996) · Rushmore (1998) 2000s The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) · The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004) · The Darjeeling Limited (2007) · Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009) Short films Hotel Chevalier (2007)