Wes in Gwen’s Goop and directing “First Grade Journal” (a parody)

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.

Tenenbaum FAIL, or SUCCESS

A new site, titled “Tenenbaum FAIL,” recently popped up on the blogging site TumblerSlash Film reports:

Imagine if FAIL Blog was a hipster blood bath sponsored by the Criterion Collection. The nascent but incredibly popular tumblr, Tenenbaum FAIL, posts abhorred photos of people dressed up like the famously stylized, overly fetishized characters from Wes Anderson’s filmography.

Many of the photos were ripped off borrowed from our Halloween costume contests.  Unlike the folks at FAIL, we think the costumes are fantastic! A few of our favorites after the break…

Continue reading “Tenenbaum FAIL, or SUCCESS”

Fantastic Mr. Fox screening?

Guy on imdb claims he has screening tickets to see Fantastic Mr. Fox (out this November) this Sunday.

I don’t trust information from the imdb message boards, but has anyone heard anything about this? Comment, e-mail, or tweet (@rushmoreacademy) me.

I will report back to the team.

Bottle Rocket Short Film Soundtrack

The renowned jazz label Fantasy Records released a digital soundtrack for Wes Anderson’s short film Bottle Rocket (1994) back on December 9. Read on for the press release. Click below to buy it on Amazon and support the site!

bottlerocketshort

1. The Chant / Artie Shaw
2. Old Devil Moon / Sonny Rollins
3. The Route / Chet Baker
4. Skating / Vince Guaraldi Trio
5. Stevie / John Coltrane
6. Nothing But The Soul / Horace Silver
7. Happiness Is / Vince Guaraldi Trio
8. Jane-O / Zoot Sims Quartet

Continue reading “Bottle Rocket Short Film Soundtrack”

Cool Wes-inspired DVD cover by Ian Dingman

Thanks to friend of the site Fahim for this great Wes-inspired DVD cover for the film Sasquatch! (Ian Dingman)

sasquatch


On the trail of Mr. Fox

wesfoxThis intelligence report is a community effort. Comment, tweet (@rushmoreacademy), or e-mail additions and corrections. I will add them to the post. Discuss the Fox over at the Yankee Racers forum!

Released by Fox Animation Studios (originally Revolution Studios)

Release date: November 6, 2009

Directed by Wes Anderson
Novel by Roald Dahl
Screenplay by Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach

Animation by Mark Gustafson (originally Henry Selick)

Music by
Alexandre Desplat, composer (The Queen, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button)
Jarvis Cocker

Cinematograpy by Tristan Oliver (Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run)

CAST
George Clooney as Mr. Fox
Cate Blanchett as Mrs. Fox
Bill Murray as the Badger
Jason Schwartzman
Anjelica Huston
Meryl Streep

Continue reading “On the trail of Mr. Fox”

Mailbag

(Just a reminder: Owen Wilson will be presenting tonight’s Top Ten List on the Late Show with David Letterman.)

  • From Sean, a Rushmore-inspired music video from Company of Thieves:

The debut music video from Company of Thieves, is inspired by Wes Anderson’s Rushmore. The video for the song “Oscar Wilde” was filmed at Sycamore Elementary School in Kokomo, Indiana, over the course of just one day in December 2008. It includes over 60 props which were mostly bought from flea markets and vintage stores. The video was shot on Kodak Vision3 500T 16mm film using an Eclair ACL camera with 12mm and 14mm lenses, with 23 lighting setups. The footage was digitally transferred to uncompressed 10 bit format and edited in Final Cut. If you like the song, it’s available for free download.

Where the Wild Things Are

Yankee Racer Loraxaeon posts about Spike Jonze’s long-awaited Where the Wild Things Are:

I don’t know if anyone else is excited about this, but there’s a poster now and it looks awesome. Supposedly the trailer will show infront of Monsters vs. Aliens in a week or so and I’ll try and find a link when it comes online. But for now, enjoy the awesomeness (images stolen borrowed from SlashFilm):

wherethewildthingsareposter

Continue reading “Where the Wild Things Are”

Rushmore joins the Texas Film Hall of Fame

Rushmore has joined (can a film join something?) the Texas Film Hall of Fame. Luke Wilson accepted the honor.

Robert Wilonsky, from the Dallas Observer:

As promised this morning, here’s Luke Wilson accepting the Texas Film Hall of Fame award for Rushmore — though, as I vociferously and rather drunkenly pointed out to Texas Monthly president Evan Smith after the ceremony, Luke’s in the thing for all of the one scene, so how’d he get the honor? Hell, Andrew Wilson has a bigger role, and he was there last night — at least, I think that was Andrew Wilson behind Zac Crain’s beard. Maybe that’s why Luke didn’t really, ya know, talk about, ya know, Rushmore. (Besides, shoulda inducted the far superior Bottle Rocket. You know I’m right.) Anyway, nice to see Luke dressed for the occasion.

Rushmore is my favorite film of all time. It converted me (in a very real and religious sense) to Wes Anderson and film more generally. As for Robert’s concerns about Luke’s suitability: Luke was in the dinner scene! “These are O.R. scrubs.” I rest my case.

Some shaky video of Luke:

Thanks to Patrick Michels, the web editor over at the Dallas Observer.

NYT: Dave Kehr reviews the new Bottle Rocket Criterion DVD

An old favorite of ours, Dave Kehr, has a great review piece on the new DVD:

Stylistically, “Bottle Rocket” swings between poles of tension and release, order and chaos. In purely visual terms the film is tightly structured, with a systematic use of color (white for Dignan, bright red for Anthony), frontal compositions anchored by the horizon line, and a self-consciously theatrical sense of space: an open foreground for the action, played against a flat, immobile background (just as the motel rises from the flatlands around it). And there is no more linear plot structure than that of the heist film, in which pleasure lies in the orderly fulfillment of a precise program.

Read the full piece.