Wes Anderson

For the jazz saxophonist, see Wessell Anderson.

Wes Anderson
Anderson in Berlin, 2005
Born	Wesley Mortimer Wales Anderson
Other names	Marcelo Carrillo
Occupation(s)	Actor, Director, Screenwriter, Producer
Years active	1994–present

Wesley Mortimer Wales "Wes" Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American film director, screenwriter, actor, and producer of features, short films and commercials. He was nominated for a 2001 Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums. Anderson has been called an auteur, as he is involved in every aspect of his films' production. His films employ a similar aesthetic, employing a deliberate, methodical cinematography, with mostly primary colors. His soundtracks feature early folk and rock music. Anderson's films combine dry humor with poignant portrayals of flawed characters – often a mix of the wealthy and the working class. He is also known for working with many of the same actors and crew on varying projects.

Personal life

The second of three brothers, Anderson was born in Houston, Texas. His father, Melver Leonard Anderson, worked in advertising and currently owns a public relations firm in Houston; his mother, Texas Ann (née Burroughs), a former archaeologist, is now a real estate agent and was the inspiration for Etheline Tenenbaum in The Royal Tenenbaums.

Anderson attended both Westchester High School and St. John's School, a private school in Houston, which he later featured as a location for his second film, Rushmore. Like Rushmore's protagonist, Max Fischer, he wrote and directed plays on the stage of St. John's now-demolished Hoodwink Theatre.

Anderson studied philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin, where he met Owen Wilson. After producing a short version of Bottle Rocket, Anderson and Wilson attracted the notice of producer James L. Brooks. With Brooks's help, the two were able to enter the short at Sundance and secure funding for a feature-length Bottle Rocket.

Anderson divides his time between New York City and Paris, France. His friends include a diverse set of fellow filmmakers, including the screenwriter-director Noah Baumbach, the actor-screenwriter Owen Wilson, and director-actress Sofia Coppola. His brother, Eric, designs both the sets and styles for his films. His older brother, Mel, is a doctor.

Film work

Wes Anderson has frequently been referenced as a cinematic auteur, as he is involved in every aspect of his films' production: writing, cinematography, production design, and music selection.

Influences

Anderson has recently acknowledged that he went to India to film his 2007 film, The Darjeeling Limited partly as a tribute to the legendary Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, whose "films have also inspired all my other movies in different ways." He dedicated the movie to Ray's memory.

Collaborators

Anderson's films feature many of the same actors, crew members, and other collaborators. For example, the Wilson brothers (Owen, Luke, and Andrew), Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Seymour Cassel, Anjelica Huston, Jason Schwartzman, Kumar Pallana and son Dipak Pallana, Stephen Dignan and Brian Tenenbaum (Anderson's close friends), and Eric Chase Anderson (Anderson's brother).

Other frequent collaborators are: writer Noah Baumbach, who co-wrote The Life Aquatic and The Fantastic Mr. Fox, whose film, The Squid and the Whale, Anderson co-produced; Owen Wilson, who co-wrote three of Anderson's feature films; cinematographer Robert Yeoman (A.S.C.); music supervisor Randall Poster and composer Mark Mothersbaugh.

Recent work

In 2005, Anderson produced The Squid and the Whale, written and directed by Life Aquatic co-writer Noah Baumbach. The Squid and the Whale won two awards at the Sundance Film Festival; one for its direction and one for its writing. In 2006, he directed and starred in a "My Life, My Card" American Express commercial.

Jason Schwartzman reunited with Anderson on the 2007 film, The Darjeeling Limited. The script is written by Anderson, Roman Coppola and Schwartzman. Anderson's stop-motion animation adaptation of the Roald Dahl book, Fantastic Mr Fox was released in 2009.

Acclaim

Filmmaker Martin Scorsese is a big fan of Anderson's, praising Bottle Rocket and Rushmore in an Esquire magazine article.

In September 2006, following the disappointing commercial and critical reception of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen released a tongue-in-cheek "letter of intervention" of Anderson's artistic "malaise." Proclaiming themselves to be fans of "World Cinema" and Anderson in particular, they offered Anderson their soundtrack services for his The Darjeeling Limited, including lyrics for a title track.

Advertising

In September 2007, Wes Anderson oversaw a series of six commercials for AT&T: “College Kid,” “Reporter,” “Mom,” “Architect,” “Actor” and “Businessman.” The campaign also includes online, print and outdoor advertising. These TV spots are part of AT&T's "Your Seamless World" national campaign from BBDO/New York. Each ad embodies Anderson's distinct style by focusing on a subject and having the environment around them change. Each of the six AT&T commercials introduces us to a different AT&T customer. As each of these people comes before the camera and talks about the different, far-reaching locales where he or she needs cell-phone service, the visuals behind the customer change dramatically to reflect the different destinations.

The "Reporter" piece was subject to controversy when several Lebanese-American groups protested its airing as ignorant given the complex and sensitive nature of the Lebanese political situation. The ad portrayed photojournalists dodging bullets on a Beirut rooftop while the city was being bombed. It was subsequently pulled from rotation after the assassination of Antoine Ghanem on September 19, 2007 with AT&T and BBDO issuing public apologies.

Anderson starred in and directed an American Express "My Life, My Card" commercial, which chronicled the "filming" of an action movie starring Jason Schwartzman. Anderson acts as if he is being interviewed by someone from American Express for the ad, while walking around completing tasks on set, a scene paying homage to the movie Day for Night by Francois Truffaut. It was aired on television and in movie theaters in both a short and extended version, during and shortly after the theatrical release of The Life Aquatic.

In 2008, Wes Anderson teamed up with Brad Pitt for a commercial for Japanese cell phones. The commercial takes inspiration from Jacques Tatis' Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot. Anderson filmed Pitt in one continuous shot at a French seaside town.

Filmography

Feature films

• Bottle Rocket (1996)
• Rushmore (1998)
• The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)
• The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)
• The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
• Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
• The Rosenthaler Suite (2011)

Short films

• Bottle Rocket (1994)
• Hotel Chevalier (2007)

Recurring collaborators

Actor	Bottle Rocket (1996)	Rushmore (1998)	The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)	The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)	The Darjeeling Limited (2007)	Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)
Seymour Cassel		N	N	N
Willem Dafoe				N		N
Michael Gambon				N		N
Anjelica Huston			N	N	N
Bill Murray		N	N	N	N	N
Dipak Pallana	N	N	N
Kumar Pallana	N	N	N		N
Jason Schwartzman		N			N	N
Brian Tenenbaum	N	N	N
Andrew Wilson	N	N	N
Luke Wilson	N	N	N
Owen Wilson	N	N	N	N	N	N
Wallace Wolodarsky		N			N	N

External links

• Wes Anderson at IMDb
• Wes Anderson at AllMovie
• Tête-à-Tête with Nic Harcourt at Los Angeles Times Magazine
• Into The Deep, in-depth Anderson profile at The Guardian
• "Wes Anderson", brief profile by Martin Scorsese
• Wes Anderson interviews Bill Murray at Interview
• Announcement of Wes Anderson's new film The Darjeeling Limited
• Interview with Wes Anderson for The Darjeeling Limited at Ioncinema.com
• The Rushmore Academy - The Films of Wes Anderson (fan site)
• Wes Anderson Interview on The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos
• 5 Signs You're Watching a Wes Anderson Movie
• 16 Films Without Which Wes Anderson Couldn't Have Happened
• The Substance of Style, a five-part series of video essays analyzing the key influences on Wes Anderson’s style on Moving Image Source