I Love You, But You Don't Know What You're Talking About

If I asked you who your favorite musician was, what would your answer be?  Would you pick a solo artist, or a band? Which genre would you pool from?  Are you picking your go-to answer or flavor of the week?  Can you have more than one?  Doesn't favorite by definition mean its a personal best amongst a crowd of others?  So then by that logic the phrase "one of my favorites" can only really exist in a sea of different categories, and yet we have so many favorites don't we?

I think it's because we as humans don't want to alienate the things that affect us on a personal level.  Why have a favorite band, when you can say they are one of your favorite bands.  Who do we offend when we say we like one artist over the other?  The artist?  Doubtful.  I think intrinsically we don't want to say one of our favorites is better than any other than our favorites.  They all made the list, that should be special enough right?  With that in mind, I present to you one of my favorite directors of all time.

Have you ever heard the first 2-3 seconds of a song and instantly recognize it, title, artist, album and all?  Then what?  You make a quick judgement if you want to hear the rest, or skip to the next song.  There is something so unique about each artist that makes them instantly identifiable.  Film is a little more difficult in that regard.  Only a small handful of directors have achieved a style so unique that they are instantly identifiable within a few moments of screen time, and Director Wes Anderson is on the top of that list.  What he does with framing is in my eyes so simple and masterful at the same time, but more on that later.  First, the selection.

Moonrise Kingdom
Director: Wes Anderson
Written by: Wes Anderson and Roman  Coppola 
Staring: Jared Gilman, Kara Hayward Bruce Willis, Billy Murray, Francis McDormand, Edward Norton, Tilda Swinton, 
Released: June 29th 2012
Rated: PG-13

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Moonrise Kingdom takes place in the fictional New England island New Panzance.  A rustic yet scenic take on an isolated 1960's lifestyle.  The main character Sam, meets a girl, writes to her and they make plans to run away together.  In a nut shell, it's a boy meets girl love story, but as with many of Wes Anderson's work, there is so much more going on.  Sam is a recluse, and the girl of his affection, Suzy, has anger issues.  Together they are in complete harmony.  Suzy's parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand) have issues.  A lone police officer (Bruce Willis) is not only looking for the missing children, but also personal voids in his life.  The former Scout Master of Sam, Ward (Edward Norton) is also using the hunt for the lovebirds as a way to prove to himself he is a capable scout master.  All the while, young love prevails.

"I know it's bad.  I think I just take them to have a secret to keep"
                                       -Suzy

Anderson's style and storytelling is evident from the first shot on.  He opens with a long dolly that moves through Suzy's house establishing the setting, timeframe and some of the characters.  The camera dollies left to right, holds on a subject, dollies further right to hold on another subject.  Then pans quickly 90 degrees to the right to introduce another character.  Then another quick 90 degrees to the right again to show another character.  We move through the house so methodically seeing glimpses of characters we are going to meet.  He plays with space in an interesting way so much so that there are times when we move through the house there isn't necessarily anything significant going on.  He is so deliberate with his framing and camera movement, it's almost too perfect. In a spellbinding sort of way.

For me, that opening shot resembles that of a story book.  And for each dolly movement, and pan, its like you are turning the page of a story.  And for the first two minutes of a film, you want people to turn the pages.  Anderson does it with such visual styling it's almost difficult to not become intrigued.  

He also uses two techniques that I teach against in-class.  Not that they are wrong, but as I always say, "you must learn the rules before you can break them."

For starters, he frequently uses what is referred to as One-Point Perspective.  One-point perspective is a way of looking at the image where it creates only one vanishing point on the horizon line.  In other words, he shoots his subjects head on.  They, or it, almost always face the camera.  Case in point: 

See my point.  

The second thing you will realize, is how symmetrical these images are framed.  It's not that Anderson is against the rule of thirds.  Far from it.  In fact thats what makes these images so appealing.  They almost always follow them.  He just puts the subjects front and center.  Back to that opening scene acting much like a story book, the front and center framing of the subject creates frames within the frames.  The pages of the book if you will.  The visual representation of the corners of the page.  

Wes Anderson, in my eyes has not made a bad film.  They are unique, stylistic, and have fantastic characters.  There hasn't been one Anderson film where it didn't feel at some point that I was watching magic unfold in front of me.  That is a compliment to his work and It couldn't be more deserving.  He is an artist through and through.  

However, that isn't to say he is polarizing.  A lot of people have a "love him or hate him" relationship with his work.  I hope you fall on the love side.  The reason why I chose this film (his 7th of his 8 feature films) is that I felt it was the most accessible.  Not in that it would be easy to obtain, but from a story standpoint. Who can argue love, even when it's between two young children?

I encourage you all to check out this film.  The work of a true master of his craft.  If you enjoy it, let me know, and I'll point you in the direction of another amazing work from Director Wes Anderson

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"We're in love.  We just want to be together.  What's wrong with that?"
                                           -Suzy

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Director Wes Anderson with first time actors Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward.

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"Does it concern you that your daughter's just run away from home?"


"That's a loaded question."
                                  -Laura and Walt