Group 4 - Mise-en-scene

Hello all, group #4 will be doing our best to answer the question, how does the form in the Royal Tenenbaums influence its narrative.  To do this, each member of our group is tackling one aspect of form and analyzing its impact on the film's content.  Once we've looked separately at aspects of form our group will discuss what our perceptions mean as a whole, and what total effect the form gives.

The aspect of form I am studying is mise-en-scene (decor, props, costume, acting, lighting).  To develop my own thesis I began looking at criticism that discussed the factor of mise-en-scene. Here are some notable critical reviews that I found.

In the antic, melancholy comedy The Royal Tenenbaums, the singular Wes Anderson (“Rushmore”) abandons his native Texas for a storybook vision of New York.
Newsweek (David Ansen)

 Underachieves in its own way by trapping an expansive, probing story in a brittle, highly artificial style that constricts character and emotional development. 

Variety (Todd McCarthy)


Potentially interesting character that end up so flat they feel as if they'd been cut out of paper, a plot that's all setup and no story.

Salon.com (Stephanie Zacharek)

I also found it useful to hear from the auteur of the film, Wes Anderson.

“I tried to be kind of relentless about getting all the details exactly as we planned them.” --Wes Anderson

“What it adds it up to be, is sort of always a surprise. Even if you’ve planned everything, it’s never exactly what you’d expect because you could never fully picture it.”

 -Wes Anderson

“I did want to have a storybook feeling, but I have always wanted to work in the theater, but I’d never done it since the fifth grade, but maybe theater is a part of my movie work.”

-Wes Anderson

After research, I understood the film as a cross between film, chapter book, and possibly some theater.  By pointing out elements of mise-en-scene like neat symmetry of costume, saturated colors, and fine detail of props, I will explain how the film uses mise-en-scene to achieve a precious estrangement that functions to remind the audience they're watching fiction and to contrast the seemingly bland, but painfully ralatable characters.