To begin with, a BIG "Happy Birthday" to a director who, over the years, developed a style completely his own in a genre he made with his own mind. Wes Anderson turns 45 years old today! So a huge shoutout to the amazingly talented director (and one of my own personal favorites) who makes movies like Moonrise Kingdom and The Life Aquatic possible.
Now that the birthday wishes have been said, I am excited to announce my return and I know so many were waiting with bated breath to see more of those *soo* tragically amazing posts, right? Yeah, I made two. But I am making a commitment this time! Well, we'll see... Anyway, I am also excited to introduce a new segment here on LipstickAbuser called Aesthetic Investigation, where I delve into a deep analysis of cinematography and the art of film itself. What makes this movie a film? Where can you see the director's signature here? How is this film using old techniques and creating new ones? What are the colors and the camera angles telling us? We are about to find up.
First up is a Wes Anderson beauty, less talked about than Moonrise Kingdom or The Royal Tenenbaum's, but it holds up amazingly well on its own. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is what we're going to take a look at today. Made in 2004, this film stars Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, Cate Blanchett, Anjelica Huston, Willem Dafoe, and Jeff Goldblum.
Continue into the artistic analysis of The Life Aquatic...
Wes Anderson is known for many repeating visual and stylistic themes throughout his films. The innate amount of detail he gives his film can go by unnoticed if you aren't watching for them. However, even if you do not consciously notice them, the details in the film will always catch you and are what give life to Wes Anderson's films.
What Wes is probably the most known for out of everything is his obsessive attention to balance and symmetry. He loves centering items or characters exactly on film. You may think, "Yes, but all directors must do this. If it's off center, it'd be distracting!" Many times, this can be true, but with Wes Anderson, the balance displayed in his films make it seem almost as if he measured the screen with a ruler.
Wes Anderson frames the centered objects perfectly, as well. The palms surrounding the boy on the island. The knees framing the note in his hand. It creates a perfect visual frame. This allows the viewer to focus more intensely on a certain object or a certain part of the scene. In The Life Aquatic, people are often framed by a circle, as exemplified in the first screencap. This occurs quite often throughout the film.
Most often, it is through circular boat windows that you see people's faces. I couldn't tell you exactly why Wes Anderson chose this route, but I could only surmise it is to further deepen the on boat experience during the film and to give you a deeper sense of the sea. Whether he intended this or not, it certainly adds to the underwater experience and does indeed frame the actors faces well. On a larger, more technical scale, the visual framing makes the eye concentrate on a very small portion of the screen. Often times in film, there can be so much going on in a scene that it is hard to focus on just one thing. This is never a problem in a Wes Anderson film, as the eye goes directly to the center of the visual frame you are given.
Another thing that Wes Anderson just loves is symmetry. Perfect symmetry. People framed with objects and with other people. So perfect it is near sickening.
A good color scheme is another thing loved by Wes Anderson. With each film he has made, every one has their own set of distinguishable colors that if you saw them all together, you are likely to be reminded of the film. These colors are recurring throughout the entire film. Some are just shade variations of the same colors, while other times, two colors can have a stark contrast to one another.
Constant throughout The Life Aquatic are various shades of blue and red. These two colors are the colors of the uniforms of all the crew members, but also, the blue represent the sea. Bill Murray's character, Steve Zissou is an oceanographer and the majority of the film takes place at sea. Various shades of blue drape over the film to remind us exactly where we are. The color blue, the most prevalent color throughout the film, represents depth and stability. It symbolizes one on one communication and our ability to communicate our needs and wants. Now it would surprise me if Wes Anderson looked deeply into the meanings of colors, but communication of wants and needs is a very big theme in The Life Aquatic. Steve and his son, Ned, struggle to communicate to each other what they need, Ned in particular struggles with this. This is also seen with Steve and his wife, Eleanor. Blue itself is calm and tranquil, which I believe is what both Ned and Steve wanted in the end: peace.
Wes Anderson is also famous in the film community for his tracking shots. Long, continuous shots of film that follows characters or places and often has more than one thing going on at once. He has stated that he loves using this type of shot in order to encourage the actors to play the scene through. Wes also believes it makes it more like a play this way.
I am a personal fan of the tracking shot. You get to see the way a character moves, and that to me is always important in a film. I love how Wes chooses to go through the set of the boat in The Life Aquatic. He does this more than once during the film. The audience is shown the boat in a very flat, one-dimensional way. Very storyboard-like. It is a concept that, in my opinion, is not toyed around with enough by directors.
So, if you were looking for a film review or summary, this is clearly not it. There are countless reviews of The Life Aquatic on the internet. This may not stop me in the future, but it stops me today. Yes, because today we celebrate the birthday of Wes Anderson, a director who truly embodies what being a director is all about. It's not about high shots or medium shots. It is all about colors and balance and movement and telling a visual and artistic story. Wes Anderson may not be everyone's cup of tea. However, it is undeniable that he has created a very dreamlike world in which his characters reside and a genre that is totally, completely 100% his own.
Have fun and be creative!!
Tara xx
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