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/