Wes Anderson's Film:
- Rushmore (1998)
- The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
- Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Picked The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou because it was his lowest rated film and an artist is only as good as their weakest piece.
Picked Fantastic Mr. Fox because it was his highest rated film.
Anderson tends to center his films around highly ambitious characters. In these three films, this character lives in an orderly society but they find themselves in a situation where they want more out of life or they believe that they're are destined for greater things. This leads them to do outrageous things to prove themselves worthy. However, their end goal is something entirely different that neither the character nor audience could have predicted.
Setting wise, Anderson does not like the fourth wall in sets and often time film his movies without them. In each of the three movies, there is at least one scene where the set looks like someone sliced it with a giant knife leaving the room dividers open for filming. This technique shows the grand scale and openness that Anderson often conveys in his movies.
Speaking of openness, there is a lot of atmosphere building in his films. This is very effective because the slow pacing and quietness gets you invested in the story and its characters. Anderson knows how to use imagery to tell a bigger story and the proof of that comes from the fact that these movies caught my attention from beginning to end.
