via Vulture

From Richard Brody’s blog at the New Yorker:

I remembered this passage from the F. Scott Fitzgerald story “The Freshest Boy”:

He had contributed to the events by which another boy was saved from the army of the bitter, the selfish, the neurasthenic and the unhappy. It isn’t given to us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world. They will not be cured by our most efficacious drugs or slain with our sharpest swords.

—and it occurred to me that more than everything else—more than all the things in his stories that I have been inspired by and imitated and stolen to the best of my abilities—THIS describes my experience of the works of J. D. Salinger.

Richard Brody chimes in again for Anderson in his Best of 2009 film list on his Front Row blog. “Fantastic Mr. Fox” is #1 on his list:

1. “Fantastic Mr. Fox” (Wes Anderson): Pure animal wildness plus an exquisitely controlled expressive frenzy; one of the most visually generous movies ever made, comparable in detail to Jacques Tati’s “Playtime.” You have to see it twice to see it once.

via Vulture

Richard Brody profiled Wes a few weeks ago for the New Yorker. On Brody’s excellent film blog for the New Yorker, Front Row, he added some additional commentary (and praise) for “The Darjeeling Limited”:

I’ve seen it many, many times since that press screening two years ago. It has not only held up but gotten richer; each viewing yields fresh wonders.

Anderson and His Friends Bring “Fox” to the City

 by Eugene Hernandez

“I’ve been spending a lot of time in France recently, but this is the Paris that I remember most in my life,” filmmaker Wes Anderson said last night, standing in front of the screen at New York City’s Paris Theater on 58th St. in Manhattan. Across the street at Bergdorff Goodman’s, the windows of the famous 5th Ave. department store were filled with scenes from his new movie, “Fantastic Mr. Fox.” Small figurines, adorned in detailed clothing, played out scenes from the animated film about the Fox family.

“This was the first story that stuck in my mind,” praised Anderson, talking about author Roald Dahl’s book “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which he has adapted for the screen (from a screenplay with his friend Noah Baumbach). Before unveiling the film at a gala screening organized by Peggy Siegal, Anderson brought down cast and crew to join him: Meryl Streep, Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman, and his brother Eric Anderson, all of whom contribute their voices to the characters in the film.

Read the rest of this entry…

Spinner listed its top 10 music-infused scenes from Wes Anderson movies. They pointed out that the Rolling Stones are the band Wes has used most frequently; many associate the Kinks with Wes’s movies more than any other band, but thanks to Spinner we now know the actual answer!

1968 photo of the Rolling Stones by Phillip Townsend

You can see the top 10 list after the jump, but check out the great scene descriptions (& many of the scenes themselves) over at Spinner!

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Enter our Third Annual Wes Anderson Halloween Costume Contest. We are giving away three Fantastic Mr. Fox prize packages, courtesy of our friends at Fox Searchlight:

• A Fantastic Mr. Fox tie, as featured at Comic-Con 2009
• A Fantastic Mr. Fox theatrical poster
• Plus, hopefully some to-be-determined goodies from our pals at Searchlight

The winners, and a few runners-up, will win the CD/DVD set of Noah and the Whale’s latest album/film The First Days of Spring, thanks to the great kids over at Sneak Attack Media.

There are several ways to enter this year:

• Upload your photos to Flickr and tag them “rushmoreacademy2009″ (registration required)
• Tweet them @rushmoreacademy using TwitPic or yfrog
• Upload them to our Facebook page gallery or post them on my wall
• E-mail them as an attachment to edwardappleby@yankeeracers.org

There are three categories this year:

• Most Fantastic Mr. Fox costume, for any costume based on a character in the new film
• Best individual, non-Mr. Fox, for lonely trick or treaters
• Best group/couple, Mr. Fox or not, for a pair or more of costumed hipsters (you will have to fight amongst yourselves over the prizes)

The editorial staff of the Rushmore Academy will select no less than ten (10) finalists. Winners will be decided by the readers.

Who will you be? Mr. Fox? Peter Whitman? Max Fischer? Steve Zissou? Wes Anderson himself? Bob Yeoman? Dart Boy? Check out some of the entries from previous years.

Read the rest of this entry…

Some quick reactions from filmmakers, critics, and London Film Festival attendees via Twitter. Tweet your thoughts to us @rushmoreacademy.

Filmmakers

@edgarwright Fantastic Mister Fox? Fantastic.

@edgarwright You’ll love it. It’s one of Wes Anderson’s best. Brilliantly paced. Really funny. Looks beautiful. As good as the Aardman features.

@markromanek FANTASTIC MR. FOX is beautiful and funny. The attention to detail is just astonishing. Perhaps the most “Wes Anderson” film of all.

@edgarwright FANTASTIC MR FOX also has one of the choice soundtrack picks of 2009 with a brilliant use of The Beach Boys ‘Heroes & Villains”.

Critics

@hitfix Fantastic Mr. Fox is cussing great

LFF Attendees

@shoebird woke up thinking what a great little movie the fantastic mr fox is

@loop_pool Absolutely loved Fantastic Mr Fox. Funny and original. Kids at the screening loved it too – plenty of jokes for kids and for adults.

@richardtid fantastic mr fox is absolutely amazing, wes anderson is just sooo good

@anghazardlights Fantastic Mr Fox was – for want of a better word – well, fantastic

If you are at the BFI London Film Festival or see a good story about Fantastic Mr. Fox, tweet or e-mail your links, news, and photos.

By e-mail:
mrfoxlondon@yankeeracers.org

On Twitter:
@rushmoreacademy

(photo from @bfi)