Sunday, April 30, 2017

Wes Anderson: Visual Style and Authorship


As far as directors go, Wes Anderson has always been well known for his distinct film style. The first thing people are bound to notice when watching Wes Anderson’s films is the choice in color. Most of the scene’s in his films are notorious for having extremely saturated colors, making each still from the film stick out. It is also interesting to note the compositions of Wes Anderson’s shots. While it is generally known that The Grand Budapest Hotel was shot using almost entirely one point perspective, it is easy to see in other films that when given the chance, Wes Anderson does generally prefer to use this camera angle. While some might make the assumption that straightforward shots such as these would eventually become boring, Anderson makes a point to make his shots continuously interesting as he increases his body of work. One shot in particular that stuck out to me was from the film Life Aquatic, in which we see one character walking throughout the rooms and floors of the ship through a cross section. There is also a similar theme that persists in Wes Anderson films, focusing on strife between family members, very often between parental figures and children. This is showcased as the main plot to The Royal Tenenbaums, which focuses on the return of an estranged father to his family of genius children. What I feel is the most interesting thing about Wes Anderson’s style, however, is his genius at capturing certain feelings of nostalgia. Each of his movies possesses a great amount of atmosphere, specifically unique to the film yet still a larger part of the atmosphere of Wes Anderson. Each time I finish one of his films, I find myself feeling happy yet melancholic about being done with the movie. Maybe this is why Wes Anderson has recently been working his way into my heart as one of my favorite filmmakers, his movies consistently make me want to revisit the feelings he previously gave me.

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