Francois Truffaut and Wes Anderson

I've slowly been working my way down a list of films that I should see by influential directors through the century. The first director I wanted to take a look at, for no real particular reason was Francois Truffaut. I had seen the film he's arguably best known for, the French New-Wave masterpiece, "The  400 Blows" before. I had liked that, and I figured I would check out the other four films in the Antoine Doinel series, including "Antoine and Colette" "Stolen Kisses" "Bed and Board" and "Love on the Run".

 Out of those films, I really appreciated the third, "Stolen Kisses". I really couldn't place my finger on it, but there was something about that film that struck a chord with me. It was fun and lighthearted, all underscored by this lovable quirkiness. I believe at one point I said aloud to myself, "I really like this film". And it wasn't until I saw one shot, which was perfectly framed, dead on in the center of the screen, that I realized what felt so right to me. It reminded me a lot of Wes Anderson.

 Anderson is one of my favorite film directors. His movies are always quirky and charming, and I find the style of photography pretty endearing. Moonrise Kingdom and The Fantastic Mr. Fox are two of my favorite films.

I figured that this couldn't be coincidental, so I powered up the old google machine, and type in a fine-tuned, well-worded search of "Wes Anderson Francois Truffaut". Surprisingly, there were a lot of hits that came up. These are two articles that appeared, one from 2012 (Just before Moonrise Kingdom) and one from 2002.

http://film-dot-com.tumblr.com/post/20856422516/francois-truffaut-inspired-wes-andersons-moonrise

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/01/11/movies/watching-movies-with-wes-anderson-from-centimes-a-wealth-of-ideas.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

I guess I shouldn't really be surprised at this point by the fact that great filmmakers have been inspired by other great filmmakers. I suppose this one just struck home the most for me, given the circumstances. If anything it serves as a reminder that inspiration does not come out of a vacuum and in order to get better at making films, you need to see what other people have done right first.

Wes Anderson

A couple weeks ago over thanksgiving break, I forced my Dad to sit and watch one of “my” movies. This basically means a quirky independent movie he’s never heard of before, or a movie without explosions and gruesome death scenes. Although he fell asleep halfway through, we watched The Royal Tenenbaums. I haven’t seen this movie in a couple years so I was excited to watch it again. This time, (since I’ve taken some classes about filmmaking) I noticed a lot of great things.

As usual, Wes Anderson uses a strong color scheme. In Moonrise Kingdom for example there were a lot of green and yellow. In the Life Aquatic there are strong blues and red. In this particular film, there was a strong use of reds. This varies between each scene of course, for example when Luke Wilson’s character tries to commit suicide the tone of the room is blue, which sets the somber mood of the scene and anticipates something bad is going to happen.

Also, there always seems to be a narrator in his films. Whether they are physically in the movie or just their voice is heard, the movies are always being told by someone outside of the plot that the characters don’t know exist. Although it can be annoying at times, it is also a comic relief and is used to pay attention to detail of the characters. This is shown clearly in The Royal Tenenbaums, where the narrator (Alec Baldwin) spends most of the beginning of the film solely describing he characters. I find this a good way to get the audience connected with the characters and understand their background better, even if this put my Dad to sleep. 

I thoroughly enjoy his films although they are a little off beat and usually end up with a two people running away. 

Ed Norton

    Recently, I rented 25th Hour starring Edward Norton on Itunes. I saw parts of the movie in the past and my friend recommended it on Thursday. The movie follows a drug dealer, Montgomery Brogan (Edward Norton), that is caught by the DEA and the 24 hours before his seven year jail sentence are highlighted. The movie is directed by Spike Lee and the lighting and cuts are unlike many movies. The large streets shots in NYC are very dark and Lee plays with shadows by lighting entire streets and having wide shots. Also, there are many scenes where one action is followed by the same action but from a different angle. For example, in the beginning of the movie when Montgomery Brogan slams his trunk closed, the shot is from behind him and the trunk closes and then the next cut is to a side shot and the trunk is closed again. This style is disorienting to the audience and it made me realize that I was watching a movie instead of seducing me through the story.

Edward Norton has always been one of my favorite actors. Movies such as American History X, Fight Club, and Moonrise Kingdom could easily be in my top ten favorite movies list. I find it very strange that many people say that I look like certain celebrities. Over the years I've gotten Asher Roth, Ryan Gosling, Benjamin McKenzie, Kevin Cusack, and recently, Edward Norton. Some of my friends at school now call me Ed. I know this seems strange because 1.) I don't think I look much like Edward Norton, 2.) I've received so many comments on actors I look like but I often disagree and 3.) a "you look like John Cusack" comment insults me. My roommate Conor said, "You don't look exactly like Edward Norton but you look like him more so than others." This is a strange comment but I've recently begun to understand that I do look more like Edward Norton than others. I recommend that people begin to watch multiple Edward Norton films if they haven't seen them yet. The post below me is about Fight Club and Edward Norton is gaining more and more attention.

Moonrise Kingdom

In my small suburban town in New Jersey, there is a theatre that plays only low budget films; the movies that wouldn’t exactly be a blockbuster hit. This past summer I saw a lot of great independent films there: To Rome with Love, Friends with Kids, etc. But one movie I saw I am still thinking about today. And that movie is Moonrise Kingdom. I did go into this movie a little biased since I love Wes Anderson and the cast also drew me in; Bill Murray, Ed Norton, Bruce Willis, Frances McDormand. The movie blew me away, it exceeded my expectations. It takes place in 1965 and stayed authentic to it’s time throughout the whole movie. The costuming was detailed, and the soundtrack was flawless. The island that the characters lived on was beautifully designed and it didn’t confuse me at all, and made sense location wise. 

Moonrise Kingdom is about two preteens who fall in love with each other via snail mail and attempt to runaway together. Their romance is only one aspect of this plot, with the chaos of the dysfunctional adults handling the situation making up much of the story. (Bill Murray of course played his usual depressing, alcoholic character who is the father of Suzy.)  Sam, the male protagonist is an orphaned boy scout living on an island with his troop for the summer. Although his romance with Suzy was adorable, I wasn’t too fond of Sam. It’s usually very hard for me to enjoy a movie when I can’t sympathize or relate to the main character however, the other characters made up for his lack of connection. 

Basically, I highly recommend this movie to anyone who hasn’t seen it. It’s not only aesthetically pleasing but the hilarious quirky characters make this movie very enjoyable. 

Watching More Movies

         I spent my entire summer working as a camp counselor and had no time to watch television or movies. When I had free time at camp, I would often sit with my friends and talk about movies. I soon found it hard to engage in conversation because I realized I hadn't seen many movies. For example, a thirty minute conversation about No Country For Old Men came about and I just sat there awkwardly because I was the only one that hadn't seen the movie. I compiled a list of movies I wanted to see which includes No Country for Old Men, but I never took the time to watch the movies. Some other movies on the list include True Grit, There Will Be Blood, Tree of Life, The Birds, Deer Hunter, Children of Men, Silence of the Lambs, and many others. Recently I watched The Big Lebowski for the first time and thought that everything about the movie was excellent. I'm a big fan of the Coen brothers and the cinematography and writing was excellent. The all star cast made the movie amazing and the absurd characters give you a view into the strange world of bowling. I also saw Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom last week in an indie movie theater near my house. The film was truly amazing in all aspects. Wes Anderson's unique cinematography was unlike any movie I've ever seen and it made me want to go out and film something in a way that has never been done before. Edward Norton, Bruce Willis, and Bill Murray put on a great performance as well. Like The Big Lebowski, the characters in Moonrise Kingdom were absurd and nontraditional by any means. The child actors in the film were amazing and when I searched for some of them on IMDB, I learned that many of the actors hadn't had much past acting experience in movies. Two more movies are off the list and I plan to watch a movie every day after I finish my school work. Over the years, I re-watch movies that I own on DVD but I need to expand my interests and make an effort to watch the classics and learn more about movies. I plan to create a never ending list of movies gradually watch as many movies as possible. In my film analysis class, we watch movies that break the norm and classic movies that every film student should watch. I'm exciting to see those movies and expand my knowledge in the world of cinema. I'm open to any suggestions as well.

-Matthew Clifford Hadley