Wes Anderson
Director and Screenwriter: Darjeeling Limited
Since his directorial debut in the 90's with the film Bottle Rocket, Wes Anderson has created a unique cinematic style over his career in the last two decades. In class we talked about Ridley Scott and his versatility in directing many different films with different styles, well Wes Anderson is the opposite; he's made a very comfortable niche for himself in the world of film making by creating movies that are visual trademarks for him. After watching a couple of them, it is easy to distinguish a Wes Anderson film from others. His pacing, the production design, the writing, and the visual aesthetic all work together to create an image that is simultaneously beautiful, simple, and stimulating.
Pictured above is a Wes Anderson color palette showing the names of movies and the primary colors used for all of the artistic designs. As we saw in the clip, color does so much to bring the location to life and even helps the location become a character in itself. This is particularly effective in a location like India, where the film takes place. Having common colors and displaying them in a particular setting or in a particular way lends credence to the idea of key tokens.
Key Tokens-- We can see in these pictures a directors trademark of Wes Anderson, which is something I've noticed from simply being a fan of his movies; the yellow bathrobe is a token of Jason Schwartzman's character, and it appears throughout the film, but always in a way that connects to him.
In fact, this idea of tokens is so strong in this film that when it was marketed, none of the actual actors were shown in the artwork, only their important effects; Jason Schwartzman's mustache and hair, Adrien Brody's sunglasses, Owen Wilson's facial bandage. these things are all defining parts of these characters, and serve as tokens for them.
Anderson also has well composed frames in his films: we saw in the earlier scene his use of the rule of thirds when it comes to lining up horizons, using diagonal lines to move the eye through the frame, and offsetting the subject of the shot. These rules help to create a very engaging visual experience, and Anderson uses them all of the time.
