Our favorite Wes parody is still the McCain ad.

via /Film, Yankee Racer Magnus Rushlee

Over at Salon, Matt Zoller Seitz (freelance critic, and author of one the earliest and best profiles of Wes, and this incredible series of video essays from earlier this year) has been taking a look at some of the most influential directors of the decade in an on-going series of essays. Seitz’s latest examines the work of Robert Zemeckis and Wes Anderson.

An excerpt:

That’s where Wes Anderson comes in. The director of “The Royal Tenenbaums” (2001), “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou” (2004), “The Darjeeling Limited” (2007) and this year’s Roald Dahl adaptation “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is as much a train-set filmmaker as Zemeckis, Jackson and Lucas, and like Fincher, Paul Thomas Anderson (“Punch-Drunk Love,” “There Will Be Blood”), Zemeckis and Spielberg, he’s one of the few prominent Hollywood filmmakers working in the ’70s auteur tradition — and doing it with a style so distinct that it can never be stolen, only imitated. He’s notorious for fretting over every aspect of his movies, from the texture of the clothes to the precise geometric motion of each shot and camera movement to the choice of on-screen font (he prefers variations of Futura). Detractors describe his style as fussy, overcomplicated, even airless — and if one prefers a messier, more spontaneous kind of filmmaking, or a more “invisible” style of direction, Anderson is almost certainly the opposite of fun.

I won’t mount a defense of Anderson as an exciting, imaginative and important filmmaker in this article, because I’ve already done it in a series of video essays.I mention him in this piece because of two particular aspects of his art. One is his commitment to analog moviemaking. He shoots on film and prefers to do everything, special effects included, on the set rather than create them after the fact. Even when he employs digital effects or processes, he calls attention to their artificiality; think of the obviously stop-motion sea creatures in “Aquatic” — or, for that matter, the unruly, roiling fur on the creatures in “Fantastic Mr. Fox” — which the director insisted be fabricated with hard-to-manage animal hair rather than more controllable synthetic hair, because he just liked how it looked.

Be sure to read the full piece at Salon, and leave your comments below. It’s a great essay, and well worth the read.

As we mentioned yesterday on Twitter, there’s a great new profile on Wes in this week’s New Yorker by Richard Brody. Click on the thumbnails below to read the article and let us know what you think in the comments.

Brought to you by the 2009 Wes Anderson Film Festival.

Suggest the next Wes Moment! E-mail edwardappleby @ yankeeracers.org or tweet @rushmoreacademy!

Updated: Thanks to everyone who came and watched it with us, see you next time!

Please join us tonight for the second film in our summer Wes Anderson Film Festival.

What do you need to do to be a part of it? Simple, grab your DVD and at 11pm ET/8pm PT, head on over to the Chat Room, press play, and chat with us during the film.

You can view the Facebook invitation here.

More information about the film after the jump.

IMDb

Read some of our posts about The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou in the archive.

“I’ll order you a red cap and a speedo.”

Shoe customizer Ken has been working on the perfect Team Zissou sneakers and has put a finished batch up for sale on EBay. While the real Zissou sneakers used the now rare Adidas Rom, Ken has chosen to use the Adidas Italia. We think the finished product is quite good.

Ken’s Flickr Gallery

Ken’s EBay Store

Related items: Steve Zissou’s cool shoes prove tough to fill (USA Today) | How To Make Your Own Team Zissou Shoes (Instructables.com)

The real deal:

Update: more from Ken after the break…

For those of you unfamiliar with the art of sneaker customization, here’s a breakdown of the professional process I use to create these limited edition items.

Step One:  The Adidas Italia logo must be gently removed from the sneaker.

Step Two:  The thin layer of wax coating covering the three stripes must be gently removed as well.

Step Three:  Using a custom acrylic paint mix intended for leather use, the stripes are made to perfectly color match the sneakers in the film.

Step Four:  The “Zissou” lettering is then applied by hand, in 5mm Helvetica medium condensed font, the official font used by Adidas.

Step Five:  To prevent any cracking, peeling or chipping of the paint, the sneaker is coated in several layers of a special matte varnish and weather protectant.

Step Six:  A pair of perfectly color-matched yellow laces (you’ll be surprised how many different yellows I’ve had to buy to find the perfect ones!) are then laced in.

Step Seven:  A custom Team Zissou sticker is then applied to the box.

The sneaker used in this particular case is the Adidas Italia 74, a cousin to the out of production Rom.

(click for a larger version)

It is, of course, inspired by Miguel Calderón’s artwork from The Royal Tenenbaums.