Wes Anderson Commentary
For this assignment, I was able to watch three films directed by Wes Anderson, and analyze his author's voice as it appears in his films. After watching Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, and Fantastic Mr. Fox, I found that there is definitely a strong author's voice in his work. This voice that forms his stories visually is, in my opinion, formed in his production design, camera angles, and character development as some main ways.
The PD was the first thing that stuck out to me in all three films because this is what my eye always goes to first, but also because of its consistency and use of color. Anderson always uses symmetrical balance in his sets and places his characters in them accordingly so much so that it sticks out to the audience. For me this is unusual because I usually have to focus a bit away from the story to see the production design, and that to me means it's done well. However, in Anderson's films he purposely uses the set design to enhance his story in a brilliant way. The perfectionist style lets the characters develop themselves as there is nothing ever missing from the set and it seems the character is always perfectly fit in them. Additionally, the pastel and faded colors he uses also enhance his author's voice. They sometimes make it feel childish or fake and I think this is done on purpose. By having the set feel fake to the audience, they are able to enjoy the film as a film; as a story, not as something that they are trying to relate to. They know it's a movie, and they can just sit back and watch it, or at least this is how I felt while watching his films. For example, in Grand Budapest Hotel, each room has a somewhat different color scheme, but they are all coherent with one another. This allows him to connect each space with the other and show the character's personalities through the spaces. In one scene, we are in Gustave's bedroom and he has a row of alcohol set up on his desk. They are all the same brand and shape, and are all perfectly aligned like everything else in the film. Gustave's character is not perfect or necessarily a perfectionist as we usually know them, but this is where Anderson's voice comes in and shows us what can be called his style to put his "lopsided" characters into a perfect environment and somehow make it work. This is consistent in all three films that I viewed.
The camera angles that are used in his films are also important in his development of author's voice. They are once again all perfectly aligned and they are often wide angles that show the entire environment. When all the characters are involved, it stays a wide angle. When one of them begins to talk, he zooms in but still keeps some of the space in frame. I think this is important because it shows that he wants the space to also have an impact on the audience, and for the characters to somehow blend into it. The quality and the perfection in the angles once again establish his voice as an author. As an example, in one scene in Moonrise Kingdom, Suzy and Sam meet in a wheat field but are still standing far apart from each other when they meet. At that point, when they are looking at each other, the camera is kept at a wide angle. When Suzy begins to talk, it focuses on her character, but not only on her face; we still see her whole figure, and then goes back to a wide angle. Most films today zoom in for a close up on the character's face when they are talking, but Anderson develops his storytelling through his characters, by showing their whole figure and keeping all their movements and action in frame which I think makes the film more interesting to watch. This again creates a fakeness to the film, but I think this can be appreciated as something that was fabricated and not something based on true events or that could be true. It's simply made to be watched and enjoyed.
One other element that Anderson uses in his films is his character development. Each character has a story and he fits in little actions and elements that they do to develop their story. This can be seen in Fantastic Mr. Fox as an example, in that each character he uses is clearly developed in the story. Even so, to me it was done in a different way than how characters are normally developed. The main character in this film is developed in his humor, the decisions he makes, and generally in the way he behaves. We don't go into depth into his character and why he is the way he is or why he makes the decisions he does, we just know that he is a type of perfectionist, husband, father, and provider with sarcastic humor. And for Wes Anderson, this is all that the viewer needs to know for the film but it ends up being just enough character development.
Overall, I think Wes Anderson does have a strong author's voice even as a film director, and this is clearly seen in all of the films he has directed.
The PD was the first thing that stuck out to me in all three films because this is what my eye always goes to first, but also because of its consistency and use of color. Anderson always uses symmetrical balance in his sets and places his characters in them accordingly so much so that it sticks out to the audience. For me this is unusual because I usually have to focus a bit away from the story to see the production design, and that to me means it's done well. However, in Anderson's films he purposely uses the set design to enhance his story in a brilliant way. The perfectionist style lets the characters develop themselves as there is nothing ever missing from the set and it seems the character is always perfectly fit in them. Additionally, the pastel and faded colors he uses also enhance his author's voice. They sometimes make it feel childish or fake and I think this is done on purpose. By having the set feel fake to the audience, they are able to enjoy the film as a film; as a story, not as something that they are trying to relate to. They know it's a movie, and they can just sit back and watch it, or at least this is how I felt while watching his films. For example, in Grand Budapest Hotel, each room has a somewhat different color scheme, but they are all coherent with one another. This allows him to connect each space with the other and show the character's personalities through the spaces. In one scene, we are in Gustave's bedroom and he has a row of alcohol set up on his desk. They are all the same brand and shape, and are all perfectly aligned like everything else in the film. Gustave's character is not perfect or necessarily a perfectionist as we usually know them, but this is where Anderson's voice comes in and shows us what can be called his style to put his "lopsided" characters into a perfect environment and somehow make it work. This is consistent in all three films that I viewed.
The camera angles that are used in his films are also important in his development of author's voice. They are once again all perfectly aligned and they are often wide angles that show the entire environment. When all the characters are involved, it stays a wide angle. When one of them begins to talk, he zooms in but still keeps some of the space in frame. I think this is important because it shows that he wants the space to also have an impact on the audience, and for the characters to somehow blend into it. The quality and the perfection in the angles once again establish his voice as an author. As an example, in one scene in Moonrise Kingdom, Suzy and Sam meet in a wheat field but are still standing far apart from each other when they meet. At that point, when they are looking at each other, the camera is kept at a wide angle. When Suzy begins to talk, it focuses on her character, but not only on her face; we still see her whole figure, and then goes back to a wide angle. Most films today zoom in for a close up on the character's face when they are talking, but Anderson develops his storytelling through his characters, by showing their whole figure and keeping all their movements and action in frame which I think makes the film more interesting to watch. This again creates a fakeness to the film, but I think this can be appreciated as something that was fabricated and not something based on true events or that could be true. It's simply made to be watched and enjoyed.
One other element that Anderson uses in his films is his character development. Each character has a story and he fits in little actions and elements that they do to develop their story. This can be seen in Fantastic Mr. Fox as an example, in that each character he uses is clearly developed in the story. Even so, to me it was done in a different way than how characters are normally developed. The main character in this film is developed in his humor, the decisions he makes, and generally in the way he behaves. We don't go into depth into his character and why he is the way he is or why he makes the decisions he does, we just know that he is a type of perfectionist, husband, father, and provider with sarcastic humor. And for Wes Anderson, this is all that the viewer needs to know for the film but it ends up being just enough character development.
Overall, I think Wes Anderson does have a strong author's voice even as a film director, and this is clearly seen in all of the films he has directed.
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