Jessica over at the Yankee Racers forum posted this tidbit a while ago, but I never shared it on the site. On her very cool site GOOP, Gwyneth Paltrow (The Royal Tenenbaums) recently asked “five brilliant directors (four of whom I have worked with and one who I worship) to share their top five DVD rental picks.”
Wesley Wales Anderson answered as follows:
Wes’ Picks:
(Wes Anderson directed Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, etc. He is one of the most specific directors I have ever worked with. When I played Margot in The Royal Tenenbaums, he knew exactly how he wanted my hair, clothes and eye makeup. He is so inspiring to work with because you feel like you are the one crazy, important color he needs to create the whole picture. Also, he is a great dresser.)Terror’s Advocate
Barbet Schroeder’s great documentary, Terror’s Advocate, also relates to another one I would highly recommend, which is Marcel Ophüls’ documentary Hôtel Terminus (except I think you can only get it on VHS). There is kind of a miniature version of Terror’s Advocate in the middle of it.Neon Genesis Evangelion
This is a Japanese cartoon that is very difficult to describe and might not sound that great if I tried anyway. It is 24 episodes, and we watched them all in less than a week because you start to want to believe it’s real. This could spawn something like Scientology.From the Life of Marionettes
I’d never heard of this until last month. It’s an Ingmar Bergman movie he made in Germany where I think he was a tax exile.Life Lessons
The Martin Scorsese part of New York Stories. It’s about a painter.More or less anything that says The Criterion Collection across the top it. The most recent one I had never seen before and loved was Costa-Gavras’ Missing.
The folks over at the Upright Citizen’s Brigade have made a parody of Wes’ filmmaking (The Royal Tenenbaums, specifically). I can’t decide if I think it is funny or not.
That UCB video, unlike the John McCain ad a while back, ssemed more like lazy parody to try to give the video some kind of importance that it wouldn’t have otherwise.
The Wes Anderson parody just felt really forced. If it wasn’t for the music ripped right out of the film and the use of the Futura font, this could really be anyone. On top of that it wasn’t even funny, unlike most stuff from UCB.
Was quite surprised to see Anderson liking Neon Genesis Evangelion, although it is a phenomenal series.
Yeah, that video at the bottom, like most of the Anderson parodies you see on youtube, is pretty shit. I guess because his style is so distinctive a lot of young filmmakers are drawn to lampooning it. The end result is never that great though.
@Xauf: “The Wes Anderson parody just felt really forced. If it wasn’t for the music ripped right out of the film and the use of the Futura font, this could really be anyone.”
I think you missed a lot of the jokes. The subtitles, repeating what Ramsey was reading out of his diary, was a take on the scene in the Royal Tenenbaums in which Richie, aboard the ship near the Cote d’Ivoire, reads his letter to Eli. And, of course, the slo-mo ending is something that sneaks its way into every Wes Anderson film.
For real Anderson fans (as I imagine most of those visiting this site are) I think this is a pretty witty spoof.