Wes Andersons Signatures

Trivial Signatures
- Obsession with Haircuts (Max's dad being a barber and Dignan receiving a haircut) - Seahorses - Use of certain color patterns throughout his movies.


- Frequently uses a take/double take technique where he will show a character/action, quickly pan to another character/action, then pan back, usually with handheld camera.


- None of his movies have a real antagonist or villian.



- All of his movies contain a frantic scene towards the end


Meaningful Signatures


- The ending shot of all of his movies being in normal speed and gradually shift to slow motion.


- He commonly uses overhead camera angles to show tabletop visuals, such as books or documents, for added comedic payoff.



- Every movie contains an underwater shot with more people in the shot per movie.



- Futura Font used throughout all of his films



- All of his movies use the same drum solo atleast once



- There is always a single shot inwhich the entire cast is seen.

Character Types

- Commonly gets character names/bases characters off of people he knows in real life.

- Most of the main characters in the films often seem to be holding in some emotion that is let go in the end. Making the rather eccentric characters appear more relatable and human.

- Relating to the previous point. All of his main characters seem to have gone through a traumatic experience that happened before the movie takes place. (Anthony's breakdown in Bottle Rocket, Max's moms death/ The death of Edward Applebee in Rushmore, The rocky divorce/The death of Chaz's wife in The Royal Tenenbaums, and the death of Esteban du Plantier in The Life Aquatic)

Themes



- All of Wes Anderson's films have a central theme attached, Rushmore is presented like a play in parts, The Royal Tenenbaums presented like a book with chapters, and The Life Aquatic is presented in a documentary style. Bottle Rocket is probably the least attached to this theory but some could argue that Digan's 75 year plan is the theme the film works around.



- A common musical theme throughout his movies is 60s and 70s/ British Invasion music featured heavily throughout. Wes handpicks the music almost always before the movie is a shot and actually shoots the scene to accomadate to the music itself instead of the the other way around.


- An unusual/mispaired love story is a common plot in all of his films.



IMDb. 1990-2007. Internet Movie Database Inc. 22 Aug. 2007.

http://imdb.com/title/tt0362270/

http://imdb.com/name/nm0001025/

http://imdb.com/name/nm0027572/

Wes Anderson: Director

Wesley Wales Anderson(tee-hee) was born on May 1st 1969 in his hometown of Houston, Texas. His mother and father are Texas Ann Burroughs and Melver Leonard Anderson. His mother is notable for being the inspiration for the character Etheline Tenenbaum in The Royal Tenenbaums. He attended St. Johns High School which is where some shots of Rushmore were shot and some students at the school had large speaking roles. He even named a lot of the characters in the film after his classmates.

It was at the University of Texas while studying Philosophy that Wes met friend Owen Wilson. They made a short film version of Bottle Rocket that garnered attention from James L. Brooks. This connection got the short film into Sundance which in turn got them enough attention to make a feature length version of Bottle Rocket. Owen went on to become a famous filmstar all the while co-writing Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. Wilson also has a major role in all of Wes's films excluding Rushmore where he can be seen as the dead husband Edward Applebee.

Wes Anderson has gone on to become one of the most sought after directors of the 21st century and is extremely popular among the "hipster" crowd of youths. He has become close friends with filmmaker Noah Baumbach whom he co-wrote The Life Aquatic with. One of Wes Andersons most shining achievements was being nominated for an Oscar in 2001 for Best Original Screenplay (The Royal Tenenbaums). Considered a true auteur and visionary by directors such as Martin Scorcese. Wes Anderson is sure to be remembered as one of the great directors of our generation.

Filmography:
Bottle Rocket (short film) - 1994
Bottle Rocket - 1996
Rushmore - 1998
The Royal Tenenbaums - 2001
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - 2004
The Darjeeling Limited - 2007

Upcoming:
The Fantastic Mr. Fox (pre production) - 2009

IMDb. 1990-2007. Internet Movie Database Inc. 21 Aug. 2007. http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0027572/

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0128445/

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0005562/

Wikipedia. 2007. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. 21 Aug. 2007.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wes_Anderson#Filmography

MLA Citation for Foucault/ Important Quotes

Foucault, Michel "What is an Author?"The Author Function; translation Donald F. Bouchard and Sherry Simon, In Language, Counter-Memory, Practice. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1977. pp.124-127.

"The author's name is a proper name and therefore it raises the problems common to all proper names. Obviously, one cannot turn a proper name into a pure and simple reference. It has other than indicative functions: more than an indication, a gesture, a finger pointed at someone, it is the equivalant of a descriptions. When one says 'Aristotle' one employs a word that is the equivalent of one, or a series, of definite descriptions" (p.105)

"...we could say that in a civilization like our own there are a certain number of discourses that are endowed with the 'author function', while others are deprived of it. A private lettermay well have a signer-it does not have an author; a contract may well have a guarantor-it does not have an author. An anonymous text posted on a wall probably has a writer-but not an author. The author function is therefore characterristic of the mode of existence, circulation, and functioning of certain discourses within a society." (p. 108)

Bottle Rocket + Auteur Theory

Bottle Rocket is a 1996 film by the now prolific director Wes Anderson. It was written by Anderson himself along with friend Owen Wilson who also stars as the character Dignan in the film. The plot is as follows: Anthony Adams(Luke Wilson) gets released from a voluntary entry mental hospital after what we assume was a breakdown. Immediately upon release he joins longtime friend Dignan and a man named Bob Mapplethorpe(Robert Musgrave) on what appears to be Dignan's master life plan..of crime. Things start off fine enough until Dignan and Anthony end up stranded in a hotel in the middle of nowhere after Bob decides to go back home. Subsequently Anthony falls in love with a houskeeper named Inez(Lumi Cavazos) basically ruining Dignan's plans at a life of crime. Everything culminates into a dream heist at the end of the movie where seemingly everything goes wrong leading to entertaining results.

The main reason this film is interesting when you apply auteur theory to it is that you get to see how some of Wes Anderson's signatures come to life in their earliest form. I noticed the following use of "signatures" in Bottle Rocket that Wes Anderson would go on to use in all of his films:

- Use of Futura Font. In every one of Wes Anderson's films (most notably Royal Tenenbaums) there has been abundant use of this paticular font. While in Bottle Rocket it is used for the titles and closing credits only, it is still an early sign.

- (I can't credit this one to myself but my friend pointed it out to me and it was too good to not mention.) In everyone of Wes Anderson's film there has been a shot of someone underwater. The number of people in the shot increase with every subsequent film.

- There is always a frentic scene towards the end of his films inwhich someone is running or involved in some crazy action. In this movie it would be the heist, in Tenenbaums it would be the wedding chase scene, and in Life Aquatic it would be the Pirate(retaliation/rescue) scene.

- (another one I cannot credit to myself) Wes also uses the same drum solo for a lot of the faster scenes in his movies.

- So far all of Anderson's films have had a rather unconvential love story or atleast someone attracted to someone you wouldn't imagine them with by conventional standards. Be it the language barrier in Bottle Rocket or the age difference in Life Aquatic and of course the "I love my adopted sister" problem in The Royal Tenenbaums.

- The most notable similarity in all of Wes's films is the ending shot always starts in normal speed and gradually shifts into slow motion before the final credits role.

The film itself was very entertaining and had likeable characters (I found Kumar to be especially funny). I heard that Bottle Rocket was different from Wes's other films but in my opinion his style is still noticeably present even in its earliest stages. Maybe its the fact that the box doesn't say "criterion collection" (rumored for a 2008 realease) at the top or the fact that the movie just doesn't seem to get the attention it deserves. But its all very good filmmaking and a worthy edition to this directors catalouge.

Auteur Theory and its roots

Post #1
Who coined the term auteur?

Francois Truffaut

In what essay was the term coined?

Une Certaine Tendance du Cinema Francais (A Certain Tendeny in French Cinema)
also possibly titled
La Politique Des Auteurs (The Policy of the Auteurs)

(I have seen both titles used for what I assume is the same article/essay)














Francois Truffaut was a french filmmaker that many consider the creator of a movement of film called "French New Wave" . Before he was a filmmaker he was in the French army but fled for two years until he got a job as a film critic for a budding film magazine Cahiers du cinema. He was known for his brutal reviews, so much so that in 1958 he was banned from the Cannes film festival. He would go on to direct several films (25 in total) including a film adaptation of Fahrenheit 451. His goal was to make 30 films and retire exclusively to write books. His goal was cut short by 5 films in 1984 when he died from complications of a brain tumor.


It was in 1954 when he worked for Cahiers du cinema when he wrote Une Certaine Tendance du Cinema Francais/La Politique Des Auteurs it was in this essay where he created the Auteur theory. The theory states that a film reflects a certain directors personal vision is displayed on the screen. It is in this way a film can be seen with a directors certain characteristics and quirks displayed labeling his as the creative "Auteur" (or author) of the film.