What with the lavish attention he and his collaborators pay to art, design, costuming, framing, composition, and editing — and especially considering the pains he and his collaborators take to reference and adapt pieces of the art of cinema that came before them — who does it surprise that Wes Anderson become such a fruitful subject for video essayists? His films, from the humble feature debut Bottle Rocket and sophomore breakout Rushmore to more recent extensions of his project like Moonrise Kingdom and The Grand Budapest Hotel, can seem made especially for cinephiles handy with Final Cut to take apart, and put back together again.
“I will NOT be doing a Wes Anderson video essay,” says Tony Zhou, creator of the video essay series Every Frame a Painting. “The market is saturated and I have nothing to add.” Those who have enjoyed Zhou’s astute breakdowns of the work of Martin Scorsese, Jackie Chan, Michael Bay, Edgar Wright, Akira Kurosawa, David Fincher, Buster Keaton, and the Coen Brothers (as well as the use and abuse of his hometown of Vancouver) previously featured here might consider that a shame. But he has put together a list of all the other video essayists’ work on Anderson, which includes Matt Zoller Seitz‘s thirteen pieces:
Bottle Rocket
Rushmore
The Royal Tenenbaums
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
The Darjeeling Limited
Fantastic Mr. Fox
Moonrise Kingdom
The Grand Budapest Hotel
[Note: All of the videos above are gathered here in one place.]
Wes Anderson: The Substance of Style (five parts)
And Zhou’s list features video essays from other creators:
Wes Anderson // Centered
Wes Anderson // From AboveJaume R. Lloret
Wes Anderson // VehiclesRishi Kaneria
Red & Yellow: A Wes Anderson SupercutPaul Waters
Wes Anderson: A Mini DocumentaryWay Too Indie
Mise en Scène & The Visual Themes of Wes Anderson
Zhou also includes three in-depth blog posts by film scholar David Bordwell on Anderson’s shot-consciousness, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Moonrise Kingdom. “Now, never ask me about Wes Anderson again,” having already re-emphasized that he does not, in any case, take video essay requests. But if you’d like to continue seeing him make video essays on whichever subjects he does choose going forward, have a look at Every Frame a Painting‘s Patreon page to find out how you can support his always-stimulating examinations of never-Anderson auteurs.
(And if you still can’t do without more Anderson, spend some time with the related content below.)
Related Content:
Watch 7 New Video Essays on Wes Anderson’s Films: Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums & More
The Geometric Beauty of Akira Kurosawa and Wes Anderson’s Films
Watch a Super Cut of Wes Anderson’s Signature Slo-Mo Shots
Wes Anderson Likes the Color Red (and Yellow)
The Perfect Symmetry of Wes Anderson’s Movies
A Glimpse Into How Wes Anderson Creatively Remixes/Recycles Scenes in His Different Films
Books in the Films of Wes Anderson: A Supercut for Bibliophiles
Based in Seoul, Colin Marshall writes and broadcasts on cities, language, and style. He’s at work on a book about Los Angeles, A Los Angeles Primer, the video series The City in Cinema, the crowdfunded journalism project Where Is the City of the Future?, and the Los Angeles Review of Books’ Korea Blog. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on Facebook.
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