Director Wes Anderson at the 2021 Cannes Film Festival. Photo / Getty Images
The director treats the biggest stars like family and makes everyone eat together.
It rarely takes more than 10 seconds to identify a Wes Anderson film. The colours, symmetry and quite often the typography (he loves Futura) give him away. Or the stars who keep returning: Anjelica Huston, Tilda Swinton, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe and Adrien Brody have all appeared in four of the 10 films he's directed over 25 years. Owen Wilson has been in eight, Bill Murray an astonishing nine.
Rushmore, Anderson's second film, was the one that broke through, creating his own brand of mainstream. His work makes fantastic money for something so off-kilter, with US$500 million at the box office so far. Everyone has their favourite. Many go for the family dynamic of The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) with Gene Hackman and Gwyneth Paltrow. A growing number opt for The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), with its Cabaret-like twist of having fascism bubbling under a glitzy surface.
Next up is The French Dispatch, a love letter to France and long-form journalism. No other director could make a film like this. Anderson, 52, who lives partly in Paris with his wife, the Lebanese illustrator Juman Malouf, frames the film like the flow of a magazine; there are three parts, each bringing an article to life.
So what is it like to work for him? I spoke to key collaborators on the new film — including Murray (who has been in every Anderson film apart from the director's debut, Bottle Rocket), Lea Seydoux (who has never worked with him before) and Tony Revolori (the child lead as the bellboy in The Grand Budapest Hotel). Then, for the behind-the-scenes take, there's Alexandre Desplat (who has composed music for five Andersons), Adam Stockhausen (production designer on four). Last, but not least, I talk to Jarvis Cocker — the Pulp frontman sings in The French Dispatch, under the name Tip-Top, and is releasing an album of French covers inspired by Anderson's world.
Wes Anderson is such a meticulous director. Is there any scope for improvisation?
Bill Murray: "He knows what he wants — he's uncompromising. And if I had to say one difference between him and other directors, it's that he's really more of a slave driver than the others."
Lea Seydoux: "You don't change anything. No! No! No! But Wes takes tons of takes. One day, they did 70 takes [for one scene]. He is very, very precise. He does not like accidents. He likes watching actors act — one more take, one more ..."
Jarvis Cocker: "He's very particular. But once he asked me if it would be interesting for this character, Tip-Top, to make an album, he left me to get on with it. I remember getting the soundtrack for Rushmore. It's in an American high school, but the music was British invasion rock from the late 1960s. You would expect the film to have US frat rock. That is what he does: combines influences in a way you would not expect. It's thought-about to the nth degree."
He has a new film — how does he let you know he wants you involved?
LS: "Wes didn't pitch the idea for The French Dispatch — he just sent me an email. I said yes before I read the script. He wrote it because he is very inspired by the French New Wave. I must be his vision of French women."
Alexandre Desplat: "It's quite straightforward — Wes sends me the script. We sit in the studio or, in a pandemic, over Zoom. Sometimes musical ideas are stirring in his brain, sometimes it's a conversation building to what the music could be."
Tony Revolori: "Weirdly, I had gone to Paris and emailed Wes asking if he would meet up. He said he was in London but, anyway, 'Would you like to be in French Dispatch?' I said, 'Sure.'"
From actors to composers, people always want to work with Anderson again. And again. What is his secret?
TR: "He creates family-like sets. A summer-camp vibe. Something I have not experienced anywhere else. Everyone stays in the same hotel or area and goes to dinner together, which he hosts. Everyone is talking to everyone. Who knows who you are going to sit next to at dinner tonight? Or tomorrow?"
Adam Stockhausen: "It is like a theatre troupe. It's the same people. That just makes everything richer. You know each other better and the communication is easier and faster. It also means you can get a lot done with a small group, because everyone will help. If it rains, everyone is pitching in and Wes is carrying a tripod and me a box of lenses. It really is a family."
AD: "There is a great brotherhood. Bill, Tilda, George Clooney, Bruce Willis — it's a great talent to be able to unite all these people. Not many directors can do that. In another life, there was Woody Allen ... Aside from Wes and Woody, there are not many directors who capture the desire from actors to be part of the team."
JC: "He's making a film at the moment and I visited the set and everyone had a Blu-ray player in their room with a selection of films that all had some influence on what he was making. If you're interested and want to get into his world, all of the material is there. He's generous and encourages people to jump on this train, join in with the adventure of working for him."
BM: "Some [actors in Anderson's films] have trouble warming up to the atmosphere, but usually Jacuzzi night breaks people down. All of a sudden, they feel what he's trying to get to and they're able to give the kind of performances that he requires."
What do you say to the criticism Anderson's films are overstylised, even cold?
AD: "I never felt coldness in his films — there's a great sensitivity and poetry. Whether it's Moonrise Kingdom (2012) or Isle of Dogs (2018), it's just that the front cover is full of colours. It's much deeper than it looks."
JC: "That irritates him. There are feelings, he just chooses not to overamplify them. Maybe there is a parallel [with the music I make]. I fell in love with pop at an early age. I liked the structure of it and have always tried to smuggle some subject matter into songs that I felt was missing from pop. I liked the form of pop music, but I didn't think it went far enough."
Finally, everyone has their favourites. What is your stand-out from the Anderson catalogue?
JC: "They all have a different kind of thing going on, but I would go for Moonrise Kingdom."
AD: "Fantastic Mr Fox [2009], because it was the first one I did and is extremely cute."
TR: "It was always The Darjeeling Limited [2007] before I worked with him. And now it's Rushmore."
The French Dispatch opens in NZ cinemas on December 9.
Written by: Jonathan Dean
© The Times of London
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