wes anderson

wes anderson is the (co-)writer/director of:
'bottle rocket' (1994 short, 1996 feature)
'rushmore' (1998)
'the royal tenenbaums' (2001)
'the life aquatic with team zissou' (2004)
'the darjeeling limited' (parts i [hotel chevalier] and ii 2007)
'fantastic mr. fox' (2009)
'moonrise kingdom' (forthcoming, 2012)

rating: 'auteur'

near the end of high school you only apply to one university. you apply to study 'cinematic arts' at the university. you are accepted to the university but not the 'cinematic arts' program. you choose 'japanese' as your 'second choice' major, which does not require additional application

you meet your future college roommate and his mother in new york city with your family ~2 months prior to the beginning of your freshman year. his mother is a lawyer-turned-divorcée/teacher. she suggests you all go to an expensive downtown bar/grill to get acquainted. you discuss the possible outcomes of your and your new acquaintance's mutual decision to study 'filmmaking' ~3000 miles away, in los angeles, california, and your respective parents' experiences with 'impending separation anxiety anxiety'

after a few months of living together your roommate expresses extreme disbelief that as an 'aspiring filmmaker' you have 'never'—or 'almost never', with the exception of having seen the trailer for his most popular movie—which you only vaguely recall seeing—heard of 'wes anderson'



you subsequently purchase both movies available on itunes that were directed by wes anderson ('rushmore' and 'the royal tenenbaums') using your father's credit card account, and ask your floor-mate to borrow 'the life aquatic with steve zissou', to which he obliges

you soon discover torrent technology primarily out of an intense desire to view anderson's seminal movie, 'bottle rocket', which is obscure and has not yet acquired the 'superior' criterion collection status the other movies have

a year later, a video by anderson is available for free on itunes entitled 'hotel chevalier'. you read that it is 'part i' of anderson's new movie, 'the darjeeling limited', which will have a limited release at a nearby hollywood cineplex (accessible by train) within a few months

you see the movie with a friend you made videos with in high school. one week later, you see the movie again with your parents when they come to visit you. your mother grips your hand and openly cries during the movie

your parents correspond with you frequently asserting that they rented various wes anderson movies via netflix and have 'x' thoughts on characterization, 'y' thoughts on mise-en-scene, and 'z' thoughts on various aspects of the writing—always with polarized opinions

you attend a filmmaking course your sophomore year entitled 'originating ideas for film' in which the professor holds a preference for abstract, non-narrative videos. a mandatory 'exploration' of 'emotional expression' occurs

you simultaneously attend a filmmaking course in which you focus on utilizing digital media to express concrete narratives about 'conventional' subject matter. you write and shoot a short screenplay about a failing relationship as an assignment



you feel 'insanely' bored

you decide to write a feature-length screenplay

you stop attending classes

you complete the first draft of the aforementioned screenplay

your parents purchase a one-way plane ticket, beginning your indefinite return to their home, near washington, DC

you see a series of videos advertising cellular phone plans on television and immediately recognize them as directed by anderson

two years later you move in with a girl. you download anderson's new movie, 'fantastic mr. fox' via torrent. you watch it with her

a year and three months later you and the same girl vacation with a group of friends to a beach house on the eastern tip of long island. the house is one $200 round-trip ferry ride away from the on-location set of anderson's movie-in-production, 'moonrise kingdom'. you spend ~1 hour contemplating whether it is 'worth it' to spend $200 and 2 hours to (possibly) be in close proximity to anderson for less than an hour before having to catch the last ferry back to the beach house

you decide to read a first edition copy of bret easton ellis's 'less than zero' that you found in one of the bedrooms instead

later, you find the below video on the internet, after google searching 'wes anderson' and/or 'french new wave' for >1 hour: