Top 10 Wes Anderson Influences
As if you needed a reminder, the latest film from the always-stylized, super-quirky-in-a-good-way Wes Anderson is out this weekend, and in honor of MOONRISE KINGDOM’s release we’re hitting the books to bring you some of the outlandish, esoteric and intellectual films that are most definitely in Anderson’s canon of influences. Even Wes Anderson detractors would have to recognize that this auteur is desperately in love with his wood-paneled and wallpapered, vinyl record playing, ornate but slightly decrepit universe, and it shows. It’s a testament to Anderson’s considerable talent that although his style is supremely nostalgic, it is by no means derivative (it’s impossible to say he is the new “____”), and his influences therefore only represent slight nuances. So now to begin (cue the Futura title card, bearing the words “Chapter 1:”)
As if you needed a reminder, the latest film from the always-stylized, super-quirky-in-a-good-way Wes Anderson is out this weekend, and in honor of MOONRISE KINGDOM’s release we’re hitting the books to bring you some of the outlandish, esoteric and intellectual films that are most definitely in Anderson’s canon of influences. Even Wes Anderson detractors would have to recognize that this auteur is desperately in love with his wood-paneled and wallpapered, vinyl record playing, ornate but slightly decrepit universe, and it shows. It’s a testament to Anderson’s considerable talent that although his style is supremely nostalgic, it is by no means derivative (it’s impossible to say he is the new “____”), and his influences therefore only represent slight nuances. So now to begin (cue the Futura title card, bearing the words “Chapter 1:”)
10. A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS
The fun of Anderson’s films is that they are somewhat hard to place, in that they borrow a little bit from everywhere and every time, but most would agree he dabbles in decades from the 60s to the (early) 80s. And with his brilliant saturations and bright monochromes, no wonder this 1965 animated TV classic is found here: the wistful and melancholy youths of Charles Schulz’s world could be not-so-distant cartoon relatives of those in Anderson’s. And doesn’t Linus Van Pelt sound like it should be the name of an Owen Wilson character?
Author: Dan Heching9. SUBMARINE
It would be remiss not to also recognize just how influential Wes Anderson has become after his 6 previous films, as is evidenced by this sometimes-shameless British knockoff from last year. Oliver, the lovelorn and resourceful protagonist, does feel like a blander version of any Anderson-conceived Jason Schwartzman character, and the best part of this film, Yasmin Paige, channels Margot Tennenbaum (Gwyneth Paltrow) as she would have been in high school. Basically, if you’re going to make a film about disillusioned euro ingenues in love, you’re breaking into Anderson territory.
Author: Dan Heching8. PIERROT LE FOU
Another gem from the 60s, and an international one at that; it’s obvious that a number of French films would appear on this list, if for nothing else than Anderson’s propensity to slip in bombastic old school French tunes in his work (and then of course there’s the much-debated but still skillfully done HOTEL CHEVALIER short film/prologue to DARJEELING LIMITED, which has the French New Wave written all over it). As mentioned in The Wrap’s review of MOONRISE KINGDOM, this Godard classic shares several similar plot points with Anderson’s new film, both dealing with young lovers on the lam. Of course, the influences and parallels between the Nouvelle Vague and Wes Anderson run much, much deeper, but this is a good jumping-off point.
Author: Dan Heching7. THE MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS
It also makes perfect sense to include Orson Welles in this list: try watching this 1940s classic followed by THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS, and try not to notice how both lovingly tragic portraits of once-illustrious and many-tiered American families use similar storytelling techniques, like a novelistic narration by a rich baritone (yes, Alec Baldwin is the closest we get to a modern-day Welles).
Author: Dan Heching6. HOLY MOUNTAIN
Alejandro Jodorowsky's seriously wacky 1970s religious tale of an interstellar cult in the wilderness shares some pretty strong visual similarities with Wes Anderson, both in the diorama-like construction of shots (symmetrical, self-contained environments spanning the dimensions of one cross-section camera angle) and their popping, high-contrast color. Scenes like the introduction of the different planets’ representatives in MOUNTAIN are pretty evident as hallmarks for Anderson’s rhythm, with their economic presentation of everything from nifty knick-knacks like ‘psychedelic shotguns’ to exceedingly ornate and lavish interiors. Campy as it all is, everything seems worn-down but still somehow very impressive and relevant. This frank presentation style with voice over is something Anderson also uses frequently. HOLY MOUNTAIN’s nautical scene also all but directly inspires much of Anderson’s aesthetic in LIFE AQUATIC —think the red Zissou caps.
Author: Dan Heching5. THE GRADUATE
On a surface level, RUSHMORE can almost be considered a deadpan riff on the central plot point of Mike Nichols’ pivotal (and again, 1960s) classic, namely a May-September relationship slated for failure from the very start, mixed in with The Catcher in the Rye. Additionally, THE GRADUATE’s remarkably subtle but nonetheless grand tonal shifts between searing drama (Elaine learning of Benjamin’s secret) and madcap comedy (their climactic wedding escape) seem like a trail map for Anderson, who expertly mixes these polar feelings to make his buoyantly bittersweet films. Additionally, the extremely commanding presence of Simon & Garfunkel’s music here is a definite Anderson pre-cursor—and trailblazer—giving Wes the confidence to be similarly bold in his trademark use of soundtrack.
Author: Dan Heching4. HAROLD AND MAUDE
If disillusioned and precocious youth is Wes Anderson’s territory, then Hal Ashby’s 1971 cult favorite—still revolutionary after all these years—is a definite and major influence (talk about May-September romance, this is more January-December). Many story elements appear again and again in both Anderson’s films and this list: an obsession with the past and ‘how things used to be’, a fascination with the secrets our elders and their bygone eras can bestow, not to mention more quaintly existential crises involving mortality and self-worth (look at practically any Wes Anderson character, and these things can be applied). And they’re all here as well, in Bud Cort’s Harold. Plus, Ashby’s exclusive use of Cat Stevens’ music here gets the same cred as the music in THE GRADUATE in item #6.
Author: Dan Heching3. The Films of Martin Scorsese
Marty S. is often quoted as loving Wes Anderson deeply as a director, perhaps recognizing a kindred spirit in how both filmmakers are famously controlling and detail-oriented due to their crisp and clear visions (a trait they share with Orson Welles). But Matt Zoller Seitz for The Museum of the Moving Image calls attention to another spot-on reason these two auteurs can be likened to “a street-tough dad and his college-bound favorite son”—their much loved use of the cinematic device known as slow-motion. This might sound very film buff-y, but it doesn’t take an expert to recall how slo-mo works in to some of the more decisive moments in both men’s works: De Niro’s slowed-down entrance into the bar in MEAN STREETS, for example, and Paltrow’s painstaking exit off the bus and approach toward Luke Wilson in TENENBAUMS—the shots are constructed identically. There are also a fair share of cigar smoking slo-mo shots in the pair’s films, like GOODFELLAS and BOTTLE ROCKET (one of Scorsese’s noted favorites by Anderson). In an overview on Anderson’s influences, Seitz claims how these two filmmakers use slow-motion “to italicize emotion.” And right he is.
Author: Dan Heching2. PAPER MOON
Here we have yet another precocious child caper, this one featuring Oscar-winning Tatum O’Neal as the snarky sidekick to (off-screen dad) Ryan O’Neal in a Depression-period piece (retro for the 70s just like the 60s are retro for Anderson’s films now) that deserves its place on this list. An interesting side note: PAPER MOON’s production designer Polly Platt was later a producer on Wes’ first feature, BOTTLE ROCKET.
Author: Dan Heching1. The Films of Francois Truffaut
If we mentioned Godard, then we must mention Truffaut as well, since this godfather of the French New Wave has influenced countless younger filmmakers, Wes Anderson very much among them. Anderson’s films all boast a fascination with childhood, and how wrongs committed by the innocent are somehow still just; or rather, when the intentions are noble (like Max’s undying love for Miss Cross in RUSHMORE, the quasi-incestual young love affair in TENENBAUMS), ethics can be ever-so-charmingly compromised. He seems to be trying to examine just where the boundary lies between innocence and experience, right and wrong, childhood and adulthood. These are things so beautifully crystallized in both THE 400 BLOWS and JULES AND JIM, Truffaut’s homages to the loss of innocence and the question of sexual ethics, films that are still able to bring a sense of ennui and nostalgia to even contemporary young audiences. Maybe the same will be said of Anderson’s work in the next generation.
Author: Dan Heching
