Obsession with detail and symmetry, chromatic audacity, vintage aesthetic: Texan filmmaker Wes Anderson imposes an inimitable style and signature, whose scope goes beyond the strictly cinematographic framework.. Inspiring the greatest creators of today, his characteristic universe embraces reality in a poetic and playful way by featuring a gallery of zany characters, a persistent melancholy, and heady melodies.
Watching a Wes Anderson film amounts to tracking down the visible and the invisible, to listing the more or less hidden references and winks that this great esthete is fond of. A real treasure hunt of which this book aims to provide you with the keys. Synopsis, genesis, distribution, critical and public reception: all the films, short and feature films deciphered.
A rich iconography: posters, on-set photographs, preparatory materials…
Portraits and interviews with close collaborators of Wes Anderson to go further. Focuses to discover the recurring motifs of the work, the formal obsessions and the director's themes. Unpublished revelations: filming secrets and anecdotes about the creative process…A detailed index to quickly find the works and people cited.
What more can I say about this book by Christophe Narbonne, journalist at “Premiere”, in particular? Well, rarely has a book been as complete and as easy to read as this “Wes Anderson: The Total One”. But above all, there is a love that emerges from this work dedicated to one of the most delightful and timeless American directors. Full of ideas, having over the course of his 11 Films and 7 Short Films been able to set up a universe of his own, with collaborations as fruitful as those with Owen Wilson: “Bottle Rocket” (1996), “Rushmore” (1998), “The Tenenbaum Family” (2001). Noah Baumbach: “Life Aquatic” (2004), “Fantastic Mr Fox” (2009). O again Jason Schwartzman and Roman Coppola: “The Darjeeling Limited” (2007), “Moonrise Kingdom” (2012), “Isle of Dogs” (2018), “The French Dispatch” (2021), “Asteroid City” ( 2023), Wes Anderson has found his place in world cinema and left a lasting impression on our collective unconscious.
The journalist dissects, explains clearly, brings his share of new and unpublished anecdotes, but knows how to communicate the director's works, whatever their format and subject. Wes Anderson's work is like that, continually correlating with previous ones and knows how to commune with a disarming regularity with the public who always comes to discover his new ideas and new fantasies. Wes Anderson is like a child who is thought to be wise when he only seeks to step out of the frame to provoke reactions in his spectators. A “Beautiful Book” to offer to film buffs, fans of Wes Anderson, but also to neophytes in order to discover a major director of American cinema, who continues to follow his own path without worrying about fashion or the influence of moment.
Publisher: Epa Eds Format: 21.00 x 27.00 cm Pages: 288 Recommended price: €39.95
