Movies

VOTD: '[the Films Of] Wes Anderson'

By Angie Han

We've reached the end of one month and the start of another, which can only mean... well, actually, it means many things, but one of the things it means is that it's time for another "[the films of]" video by Kees van Dijkhuizen, whom we've featured here multiple times in the past. "[the films of]" series is a yearlong, 12-part project by van Dijkhuizen in which he showcases a different director's style each month by creating a montage of that director's work. The latest installment is a love letter to the very distinctive Wes Anderson. Watch it after the jump.

Films featured:

  • Bottle Rocket
  • Rushmore
  • The Royal Tenenbaums
  • The Life Aquatic
  • The Darjeeling Limited
  • Fantastic Mr. Fox

    • Songs used:

  • Alexandre Desplat - "Kristofferson's Theme" (from Fantastic Mr. Fox)
  • The Kinks - "Strangers"
  • The Beatles - "Hey Jude"

    • As always, head over to van Dijkhuizen's Tumblr post about the video to get a behind-the-scenes glimpse at the thought process that went into putting this montage together. One observation in particular stood out to me:

    What's funny is that Fincher and Anderson are alike in one key way of making film, which is that they both try to distance the viewer from the characters. Fincher does this to allow the viewer to form an opinion of his own, Anderson uses this to show the viewer everyday situations in a different light. Ultimately Anderson 'reconnects' us with his characters almost, because it's impossible not to love them and so in the end you will feel that connection with the characters that you might not have had in the beginning.

    It's that kind of insight that makes van Dijkhuizen's videos so wonderfully capable of capturing each director's style.

    Completists will also want to check out the Vimeo version of "[the films of] Wes Anderson," which features the a longer clip of the suicide scene from The Royal Tenenbaums at 00:42, instead of cutting to the Life Aquatic sequence seen in the YouTube version. Van Dijkhuisen refers to the YouTube version as the "censored" version, and explains that while he liked his original placement of the Royal Tenenbaums scene at that point in the video, he eventually replaced the scene so as to not "intentionally shock you with graphic images of suicide attempts." See the Vimeo version below:

    Discuss: Van Dijkhuisen's hint for next month's featured director is just one word: "theatrical." What do you suppose that means?

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