I am very impressed with
the details being put in The Royal Tenenbaums which really caught my
eyes. I never put much attention on the mise-en-scène while watching
movies before this, but I am glad this class actually kind of forced me to see
the details of the movie in many ways.
https://youtu.be/aPO12GYknq4?t=48s
Overall, I like the way
Wes Anderson uses the color throughout the movie. It is very consistent
and very hard for viewers to miss. Most of the scenes, the color is warm and
yellowish. It is not just the surroundings and the background; even the color
of the attires follows this color theme. Few obvious examples are, Richie with
the brown suits and also Chas and his sons with the red tracksuits.
Another amazing part is
the symmetrical of objects in the movie. One of the example can be seen is from
the scene where Royal smoking cigarettes with his three children sitting in
front of him. Wes Anderson placed the
character on the middle with two almost identical sides on the left and right.
We can see there are exactly two chairs with same arrangement, a wall candle on
each side of Royal. Up above him, there is a chandelier that is at the middle,
same with his orientation.
Same goes to the children
scene. Chas sat on the middle with exactly another person on both of his sides.
The number of window panel is also exactly the same on each side. In between them, there are two candle holder
which are also symmetrical and same amount of candle with the number of
characters in the scene.
I think you bring up a great part of Wes Anderson's style with regard to the symmetry. I can specifically think of one scene in "The Grand Budapest Hotel" where the main character is meeting someone midway across a gondola and there is a background of massive mountains yet, these two gondolas stop perfectly in the middle of the tracks, hanging above a thousand foot drop, so they can pass a message from one to the other. I tried to find the scene on youtube, but I couldn't. I think its a great movie and another film of Anderson's with extreme attention to detail despite most shots not being more than a couple of seconds.
ReplyDeleteAnderson is definitely known for his symmetrical shots and pleasing aesthetics. I wonder if this has a deeper meaning or if it's just his own personal flair: how is the form related to this content? If I were to analyze this for The Royal Tenenbaums, I would say that the symmetry and aesthetic add quirk while simultaneously commenting on depression. The Tenenbaum children are all obviously depressed as adults, and yet their physical world does not reflect this. If anything it would convey the opposite. Here I see Anderson exploring the complex DNA that is depression.
ReplyDeleteAlex, I was suggesting this movie to my friends and we just realized the aesthetic details was also very obvious in The Budapest Hotel. After looking up on the internet, I just realized it was also directed by Wes Anderson. I will definitely watch other movies directed by him after this!
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