Known for its meticulously considered DVD releases, Criterion outdid itself with its new 20-disc Wes Anderson collection. Containing the director’s first 10 films on 4K UHD DVD, the Anderson Archive brings the auteur’s precise design sensibilities to this stunning box set. At $400, the price dares potential purchasers to wait for one of Criterion’s many 50% off sales. Still, with the holidays around the corner, it’s a hefty, luxurious gift for the extremely lucky Anderson fanatic in anyone’s life, or the perfect start to a burgeoning cinephile’s physical media collection. We highlighted the collection back in the fall, but it bears repeating: This set contains new 4K masters of the director’s first 25 years of output, running from his early breakout Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and Royal Tenenbaums through 2021’s The French Dispatch. His two stop-motion features, Isle Of Dogs and The Fantastic Mr. Fox, appear alongside 25 hours of special features, 10 illustrated books, and new essays from writers Richard Brody, Bilge Ebiri, and Moeko Fujii, as well as filmmakers James L. Brooks and Martin Scorsese. Could we ask for anything else? Sure, Asteroid City and The Phoenician Scheme. For now, this is most satisfactory.
DIRECTOR-APPROVED TWENTY-DISC 4K UHD + BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION COLLECTOR’S SET FEATURES
– New 4K digital masters of Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, Isle of Dogs, and The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, supervised and approved by director Wes Anderson, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks
Ten 4K UHD discs of the films presented in Dolby Vision HDR and ten Blu-rays with the films and special features
– Over twenty-five hours of special features, including audio commentaries, interviews, documentaries, deleted scenes, auditions, short films, home movies, commercials, storyboards, animation tests, archival recordings, still photography, discussions/analyses, and visual essays
– English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
– PLUS: Essays by Richard Brody, James L. Brooks, Bilge Ebiri, Moeko Fujii, Kent Jones, Dave Kehr, Geoffrey O’Brien, Martin Scorsese, and Erica Wagner
“Each record is pressed on 180-gram heavyweight black vinyl, with 350gsm matt laminated outer sleeve and 350gsm silk matt laminated inner card. The releases are housed in protective PVC sleeves and are limited to 1000 copies wordwide.” The art is magnificent. Note that each vinyl has two songs. More here.
“3 young brothers recreated a scene from Fantastic Mr Fox with stuff from their home & we think you’d really enjoy it & would love it if you were inclined to share too.
They started remake their favorite films when quarantine started- the first being PeeWee’s Big Adventure that Paul Reubens himself shared & even cameoed in one of the boys’ Halloween specials!”
The importance of the books, of the narrators, of the narrative, in the movies made by Wes Anderson are exploded in this beautiful video made by the people from The A to Z Review. Enjoy!
This Q&A hosted by Richard Linklater was for The Grand Budapest Hotel at this year’s SXSW and now you can watch it entirely. 45 minutes long. You can’t miss it!
Spifftacular is a blog about a mum and a wife who like nerd stuff and also to do handicrafts. Well, it seems like she is a big fan of “Fantastic Mr. Fox”, and she wanted to do a thematic birthday for her baby.
How to do a Fantastic Mr. Fox birthday? She has it all planned.
From July 12 to August 31, the Northwest Film Center in Portland will present “Wes’s World: Wes Anderson and His Influences”, an opportunity to know not only his work, but the films who has inspired him along his whole career.
Starting with 1998’s “Rushmore,” the Northwest Film Center program will feature screenings of Anderson’s eight features, including now classics like “The Royal Tenenbaums” and “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.” Matt Zoller Seitz, the film critic and RogerEbert.com editor-in-chief who literally wrote the book on Anderson (“The Wes Anderson Collection”) will introduce “The Royal Tenenbaums.”
“Wes’s World” will also include showings of films by François Truffaut, Jacques Cousteau, Werner Herzog, Jean Renoir and Hal Ashby, among others.
Check out the program’s trailer below. The full lineup can be found here, on the Northwest Film Center’s website.
The Guardian has a nice interview with Wes regarding his style, his critical reception, working with children, and his frequent collaborators. Regarding the last, he says:
“I don’t think any of us are considered ‘normal’ people,” he says. “It’s probably more a family of crazy uncles. But there’s an energy that comes from people who are friends. Whatever chemistry is on set is going to be there in the movie, and you want some electricity that you don’t really control.”
The rest of the interview can be read over at The Guardian.
