Wes Anderson Influences

Moonrise Kingdom was being shot while Grand Budapest Hotel was being written and one can see the resemblances. Wes Anderson has a very particular way of shooting his films, often using one point perspective. The scenes appear to be moving pictures since the scenes are shot so flat. Balance is key when he shoots his shots. Characters are never overlapping to the point where you cannot see more of him. He is not trying to simulate or recreate reality; he is making a movie, a theatrical work. Everything in the film is a set, is a stage the characters are acting on and the camera moves horizontally or vertically. The overall film is very theatrical; there is an Opera being preformed within the film and is used to draw a parallel between the film and the play. There was a little bit of stop motion, like with the arrow, and the film before this was Fantastic Mr. Fox. He is huge in storyboarding too since he has started making movies. Whenever characters are having a conversation and are cutting between them there reactions are always flat/rational/calm and if there is a burst of emotion Anderson will cut wide and show how the scene plays out. There is also a parallel between the kids who ran away and their parents. The parents continue to say that the kids are messed up, crazy, have too many problems; yet it’s the adults who are fighting, having affairs, and arguing. Anderson also tends to focus on fugitive movies; all three that have been mentioned are a group of fugitives running from the “law”.

Landscape is strongly influences in both Moonrise Kingdom and Grand Budapest Hotel. Maps play a major part too, one can feel where the borders lay in the films. Anderson tends to use overall color schemes in his films too. Grand Budapest Hotel is greatly influenced by Stefan Zweig. He also uses a specific composer, Benjamin Britain, which also brings a parallel to his movies. The kids are dancing to the Yé yé girls, who are the girl singers in France who sang a lot of love songs, and they were famous at the time of the film. The short story, “Twenty-four hours in the Life of a Woman” and Wes Anderson films had a very similar framework. He clearly chose to use this choice, and the effect of this choice shows these multiple sets and because he has these flat frameworks, he compensates with depth. In the first half of the 20^th century, this style was very popular among authors for is gave the illusion of infinite planes to the landscape. One can see the connections with Zweig and Anderson. The scene with the two kids seeing each other in the field, then cutting to the one-year later, may have been influenced from one of Zweig’s stories. Influences on Grand Budapest Hotel, the theme of nostalgia is strong.

Embodied in Anderson’s work is a nostalgia than one will feel whether you lived during that time or not; there is a grandness or a moment that has passed and no longer lives in the world he has created which leaves the audience with a sense of reminiscence. The nostalgia part is not just reminiscence, but a longing for that time to return. In Moonrise Kingdom, the nostalgia was for the 1960’s, for Grand Budapest Hotel it’s when the hotel was popular, and Fantastic Mr. Fox it was for his younger days. The mixture of a storybook and real life and the uncanny valley of these two sides of his films make them so appealing. For example, with Fantastic Mr. Fox, it is very storybook like with the animals living like humans, but having real world problems, like bullying, being rich then poor, having to deal with your mistakes and more. When reading “Twenty-four hours in the Life of a Woman”, part of the enjoyment of this was comparing it to the Grand Budapest Hotel and seeing the parallels. I think that is I had read this story not having seen any Wes Anderson films; I would not have enjoyed it as much. One can almost picture how Anderson would have filmed this short story.

Culture Short Stories

Looking at the movie in a cultural sense, it is hard to separate my beliefs from what is culturally normal for family in the movie. I found it hard to watch at some parts for I do not believe parents should be that harsh and treat their children differently due to their age. Tita seemed to almost be a slave to her mother, not being aloud to cry or marry where as her eldest daughter was treated as if she were the most amazing daughter on the planet. I understand the cultural perspective, but that does not mean that her mother had to be so mean and I am glad that Tita fought for herself. Both are obviously in pain over the arrangements, the mother seems to hate her and her daughter hates how her mother treats her. Even at the point where the mother dies and we find out that she also had a love she could not be with, I felt no sympathy for her. I appreciated the Nana who died after the wedding; she was kind and seemed to be more of a mother to Tita than her actual mother. Nana was not even related, she was a maid, the main cook of the family and had magic to her and made the kitchen a safe haven. Her mother never cooked and her sister cannot cook, which I think shows who learns what trades depending on when they are born. The men in the movie are undeveloped, often like the women are portrayed in movies today, as side characters. 

The primary location of this movie takes place is at the Ranch. The bathroom takes a major role, one of the daughters awaken in a bathroom causing it to catch a flame. There was a blur between what was exaggerated and what was realistic like the tradition of the family.  Yet in the world of the movie, everything is the same, all is ‘real’ to the story and it is up to the viewer to decide what is real and what is fanciful. The characters would often switch between Spanish and English, showing that they are located near the border of Mexico. The middle daughter, Trudis, was an affair baby and decides to leave and live with the revolutionaries and to fulfill her desires. The fantastic landscape was shown when she was leaving the ranch to go to the doctor’s home by showing her extremely long quilt that she had knitted. The symbolism of the blanket shows her frustrations with her life and all the night she could not sleep.

The world’s ethos has a set of beliefs that are being challenged, like the battle between Tita and her mother over her life and happiness. Pedro’s idea to marry the sister of his love was not the best idea and it shows in the events of the story, never being able to be with the one he truly loved and ended up losing her. Another instance is when the mother makes her daughter and Pedro leave to San Antonio due to her need to interfere, but once they left the child died due to leaving Tita. The characters are a part of the world, living on the ranch and go through the crap their mother sets upon them, the characters are completely immersed in the world. Often one finds a character that is in and out of the world, but in this story they are fully in this world. Depending on the culture you were raised in can effect how a viewer identifies or is they can identify with a character in the story. One must try to enjoy the story as its own story and not try to make it your own. One does not have to relate, one does not have to be apart of the culture; one just needs to get over them selves, listen, and take in the story for what it is.

I read Hitting Budapest by NoViolet Bulawayo and when asked if I identify with any of the female characters from the story I would have to say no. I grew up in a very different environment compared to those children. Though I did not relate to any of them, this fact did not make the story any less interesting.

Short Stories:

          The way people view the media scape, meaning what media people choose to watch or read. If one does not own cable, a TV or find television mundane will not know that culture. This is the same for many mediums, such as comics, books, movies, and more. Freud worked to try to figure out the minds of humans. He has dissected the mind separating it into parts, like the ID, which is the animal instincts, the super ego, the social conscience, and the ego, the balance of the two (rationality). Jung believed that there was a collective unconscious, which is a collective biological thought that all humans possess. All of these form the psychoanalytic tower. Then there’s the feminist critique, which is taking apart a work and seeing how much is given to female characters. Is the work about a woman or a man, who has the most lines, who is the story really about?

          In the film, Marie Antoinette, her sole job is to get pregnant and have a child. It is really the guy’s fault, but due to social behavior she is blamed. She is just a teen and he is such a cold fish that it is extremely awkward, and the court is wearing her out. The movie is mainly about her as a contemporary figure, finding liberation is such a structured society. She is basically a prisoner of France, she is unable to obtain psychological freedom, and at this time the idea of freedom is becoming a thing for people for the French Revolution happens a few years later. Marie is an interesting figure, for she has been criticized throughout history for causing the French Revolution, and Sofia wanted to show what her life was like. Her class blinded her from the problems the people of France were facing and she was an easy one to blame for the revolution, where in reality she was a very small part of the problem. Her only job, the only reason she was in France was to bare an heir.

          Overall the themes of the short stories had to do with women and how there life is affected due to their surrounding.  Story of an hour is about a woman who is happy he dead because her husband but dies in the end anyway and Even the Queen no longer control her is about menstruation. Women wrote all the works, and many of the works could not and would not have been written by men. Girl gives a different sense of values and double standards that are imposed upon a woman. The author adapted her mothers voice into the narrator of the story, it is not the authors voice and can be seen as her rebelling against what her mother and many others believe how women should act. The most interesting story to me was Where are you Going; Where have you Been. I feel that this story is about an innocent girl becoming an adult through traumatic and victimizing means. She became so messed up by the end of the story that she could not recognize her home and ended up giving herself up to Arnold Friend and basically being forced into adulthood.

Wonder Woman:

          I learned a lot about Wonder Woman and about the comic industry through this book. I learned that Wonder Woman was created right after superman, almost being called “Super-ma”, and was written by a guy. Yet over time, she has gained more momentum. I am concerned about the upcoming movie about Wonder Woman, especially since it is DC, the creators of Batman vs. Superman, which was horrific. I am worried that they will objectify her, make her seem less of a person because she is a woman, especially since men who seem to be incapable of understanding that women are people are writing the movie. Marston has an interesting ideal of women, writing Wonder Woman using women from his life as inspiration. There is no perfect way to represent women, which can be said about men also. Men tend to be raised on being emotionally constipated, being seen as less of a man if not the breadwinner or is they cry or show too much emotion. Yet, women are being shown more and more as objects who are meant to stand there and be pretty. Wonder Woman became a symbol for feminism, really in the third wave of feminist movements. The first wave is the fight to not be a man’s property, to be able to own a home and inherit property. The second wave is suffrage, and third is for equal rights, which started during World War II. Women were empowered to work in the factories and do things men were typically the ones occupying. Yet, when the troops returned they were expected to step down and go back to being happy housewives. This did not go down well, and I would totally agree.

          If I were to design a superhero, I would make her strong, independent and of a realistic body type. One superhero I truly love and hope to make a character like her someday is Elastic Girl, or Mrs. Incredible from the animated film The Incredibles. This movie I feel is important for the representation of men and women for each of the family members’ powers are based on their age and what they are meant to be in society. Mr. Incredible is super strong because the man of the house, the father, is meant to be strong, stoic and support the family. Mrs. Incredible is super flexible because mothers are meant to be able to do so many jobs at once such as take care of the children and home. Violet, the eldest daughter, has the power of invisibility because so many women her are just want to disappear. This one really hit me when I learn about why these characters have the powers they do; so many young women feel objectified and scared to be them selves that they just want to hide, to disappear. If I were to create a female superhero I would for sure give her an outfit that makes sense, that has a purpose instead of just being nice to look at. Compare Batman’s outfit vs. Cat Woman’s outfit, half the time Cat Woman’s outfit is ripped to pieces, its skintight and offers no protection where as batman’s completely covers his body, he has his gadgets to fight with and I am sure it is armored in some way. I would make the outfit functional and serve a purpose and give her confidence in who she is and what she fights for instead of how hot she is.

          Going back to the Incredibles, I appreciated how they designed both Mrs. Incredible and Violet. Violet looks like an insecure teenage girl who hides behind her hair, had bags under her eyes, hunches over and hugs herself when uncomfortable, she embodies a girl I could have seen at my high school. Mrs. Incredible is a mother who loves her husband and children, but is still a strong, independent woman who is able to find her captured husband and get him out of the mess he buried himself in. She has hips! She looks like she could be a mom of one of my friends, she acts like a woman who is not undermined by men and she speaks her mind. On another note, Edna Mode is the best role model in the film. She built a fashion empire from the ground up, owns a company and does not take any bull from anyone. I love her character because she is portrayed completely differently than any women I had seen in an animated film and I find that important for young girls to see. I remember seeing this film in theatres back in 2004 when I was 6 years old and I still love this movie.