Wes Anderson
-
“The Hard Way Every Single Time”: Production Designer Adam Stockhausen on Asteroid City
Though Wes Anderson’s films can be seen as the product of the director’s sharp imagination, the finished work is nothing without those who turn his thoughts into spreadsheet-enabled reality. Most of the physical things on screen—the punctilious graphic design on signs and cards, the actual locations, the trimmed sets and the giant buildings in the distance that exist just to fill up white space—exist thanks to production designer Adam Stockhausen, who has been Anderson’s go-to since 2012’s Moonrise Kingdom. Stockhausen has noted his fondness for planning productions in an old-fashioned, tactile way which likely appeals not only to the very […]
by Zach Lewis on Jun 21, 2023 -
Trailer Watch: Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City
Two years after The French Dispatch finally landed in theaters after an extended COVID delay, the trailer has arrived for the first of two Wes Anderson films releasing this year, the star-studded Asteroid City. Boasting an extensive ensemble cast, the film stars Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks, Jeffrey Wright, Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Ed Norton, Adrien Brody, Liev Schreiber, Hope Davis, Stephen Park, Rupert Friend, Maya Hawke, Steve Carell, Matt Dillon, Hong Chau, Willem Dafoe, Margot Robbie, Tony Revolori, Jake Ryan, Grace Edwards, Aristou Meehan, Sophia Lillis, Ethan Lee, Jeff Goldblum and Rita Wilson. Written and directed by Anderson […]
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 29, 2023 -
Trailer Watch: Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch
The meticulous palette, the bursts of Academy ratio, the faux literary origins, the use of the word “divers” — Wes Anderson’s The French Dispatch looks, from this first trailer, to be the most, well, Wes Anderson movie yet. As it’s described by its distributor, Fox Searchlight, “The French Dispatch brings to life a collection of stories from the final issue of an American magazine published in a fictional 20th-century French city. It stars Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton, Léa Seydoux, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet, Lyna Khoudri, Jeffrey Wright, Mathieu Amalric, Stephen Park, Bill Murray and Owen Wilson.” The […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 12, 2020 -
Cotton Balls, Cling Film and Unashamed Composites: DP Tristan Oliver on Isle of Dogs
In Isle of Dogs, Wes Anderson’s Japan-set return to the world of stop motion animation, there is a character with a face full of freckles. This seemingly incidental attribute required the film’s lead puppet painter Angela Kiely to place 297 freckles on each of the puppet’s many interchangeable faces. All told, she painted over 22,000 freckles for the film. That is the painstaking diligence required for the art of stop motion animation, a form demanding an obsessive attention to minutia perfectly suited to Anderson’s fastidiousness. In a Wes Anderson film, no detail – not even a single freckle – is […]
by Matt Mulcahey on Apr 11, 2018 -
Watch: Isle of Dogs Cast Interviewed as Stop-Motion Dogs
This is clearly promotional material, but it’s good: the cast of Isle of Dogs doing their regular EPK interview duties, but animated as stop-motion dogs. See Jeff Goldblum sing Duke Ellington as Duke the dog! See Bill Murray talk about the sacredness of dogs in a weirdly Manakamana-esque setup on a cable car! The press release notes this took three months to shoot, and it shows.
by Filmmaker Staff on Mar 15, 2018 -
Watch: Wes Anderson’s New Branded Content Short Film
No stranger to branded content, Wes Anderson’s latest effort in this area is a four-minute short for H&M, whose logo bookends the film. It’s appropriately seasonally themed and features some very cool lighting effects.
by Filmmaker Staff on Nov 28, 2016 -
Watch: Wes Anderson’s Windows
Clara Podlesnigg gathers the many uses of windows in Wes Anderson’s films in this supercut.
by Filmmaker Staff on Nov 17, 2016 -
Ten Lessons on Filmmaking From Wes Anderson
The Rome Film Festival had a striking fresh look this year under the direction of its new artistic director Antonio Monda. The redesigned fest had a slew of hot films and top-tier tributes. But at the core of the new “festa,” or celebration of cinema, was a series of high-profile conversations with leaders in the arts. One of the main highlights of the fest was a conversation with Wes Anderson and novelist Donna Tartt in which they discussed their love of Italian films. While Tartt went in depth on her love of Pier Paolo Pasolini’s Medea, Max Ophuls’ Everybody’s Woman, and Paolo Sorrentino’s […]
by Ariston Anderson on Oct 26, 2015 -
Watch: Parallels in the Work of Yasujiro Ozu and Wes Anderson
At first blush, the filmmakers Yasujiro Ozu and Wes Anderson would appear to have little in common, but this video essay from Anna Catley attempts to look past the more superficial aspects of their respective oeuvres to find striking and surprising similarities. From symmetrical frames to a faithful allegiance to familial strife and more in between, the filmic parallels are far more numerous than you may expect.
by Sarah Salovaara on Jul 14, 2015 -
Watch: Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach Fundraise for Orson Welles’ Final Film
You’ve probably heard about the latest push to finally produce a finished, edited version of Orson Welles’ uncompleted final film, The Other Side of the Wind. In support of an Indiegogo campaign to raise funds, Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach have taped a video message urging you to just contribute already. Unusually for the famously controlling Anderson, he appears to have shot the video handheld selfie style.
by Filmmaker Staff on May 20, 2015
