Wes Anderson dressed for one of his films. seer behind Freaks Tenenbaum And kingdom under the moon He comes to the interview in a matching blue and white pinstriped suit. All you need is an umbrella and you’ll be ready to stroll down the Croisette. The meeting takes place in Cannes International Film Festival, where is your new movie asteroid city appeared in the competition. In collaboration with Roman Coppola, the film is directly related to Anderson’s love of actors and actresses.
“I have never been in a play,” the director explains. 54 years old He doesn’t look his age. “But when I go to the theater, I want to be part of such a company. And when I act in films, it’s almost the same. Some of my theater actors have told me… but for me this film, the main theme, oh because people make theater Why do I feel this mysterious, mystical attraction to the back room? What is it about putting on a show, performing?”
As for Anderson, asteroid city This is no ordinary back room drama. This is another beautiful piece of art from a Texas filmmaker filled with stars She has worked before (including Scarlett Johansson, Bryan Cranston, Stephen Park and Jason Schwartzman) and others she hasn’t worked with (including Tom Hanks, Hope Davis, Maya Hawk and Margot Robbie). As critic Geoffrey McNab wrote in his five-star review for Independent, “asteroid city Anderson’s most gripping film since grand budapest hotel, nearly a decade ago.”
The action takes place in the 50s, backstage scenes, all in Black and white, imagine a theater troupe on the East Coast reading a play called asteroid city by Conrad Earp (Edward Norton) and directed by wannabe Elia Kazan, Schubert Green (Adrian Brody). When the film fades into color, Acts I, II, and III of the play are visible, all set in an American desert town called Asteroid City, with a population of just 87, which is almost famous for its giant crater that left the meteorite and the observatory.
When several families come to town for a youth stargazing competition, encounter with an alien with a beautiful stop-motion animation scene of Andy Ghent, whom Anderson calls “Laurence Olivier Animators”. Anderson plunged us to the bottom of the ocean with water life, his 2004 film Jacques Cousteau, and introduced us to the mind of a dog in island of dogs The 2018 film is set in Japan. So what is it? His first attempt at a B movie?
“I think there’s definitely an aspect to it,” he says. “How The day the earth stood still such films. Because there movie play, and there is a theatrical interpretation of it. And I think the sci-fi part is something from the 50s. just like we were obsessed with communists there was a lot around aliens“Even Augie Steenbeck, the war photographer played by Jason Schwartzman, has a spirit 2001: Space Odyssey from Stanley Kubrick.
Schwartzman’s character, the father of four children, is experiencing the recent loss of his wife and the imminent arrival of his father-in-law. (Tom Hanks), gives the film emotional weight. “We approached this with a sense of what it’s like when you have to deal with things that are out of your control,” explains Anderson. “And how you react to a world that is so much bigger than you is a mystery. And grief is at the center of everything. Always. Death in the center.” asteroid city It may be charmingly designed (primary colors, geometrically accurate camera movements), but it’s what’s underneath that matters.
“For me, this film is about completely different things,” he says. Hope Davis, who plays Sandy Borden, the mother of one of the astronomer boys. “It’s really about existential anxiety… What are we doing here? How should we do it? Is it worth it? How do we do it? Does anyone know what they’re doing?” The actress quotes a line of dialogue she remembers when asking playwright Norton, “Am I doing the right thing?” “This is killing me,” Davis says. “Because everyone thinks so, right? Am I doing this vital thing the way I should? And the playwright says, “Okay, I continued.”
Nevertheless, it was Anderson’s eclectic style that became decisive in his work. We can say that he cemented them over 20 years ago with Freaks Tenenbaum, and is recognizable by its use of symmetrical close-ups and carefully composed shots, rich colors and impeccable set and costume designs. Also a favorite was his love of architectural models such as the exploration ship. Water life.
It must be admitted that this aesthetic led him to parody. Production trailers artificial intelligence who thought Anderson would lead franchises like Game of Thrones And Star Wars, and they had very different answers. Did they say anything to Anderson? “I know,” he nods. “But I didn’t see them. This is weird. And it’s one of those things where… I’m not sure it’s good for me to know about it. I don’t want to see the computerized version of what I’m doing… just because I don’t want to talk. ‘That’s what I’m doing?’ i think it’s better keep me away.”
Besides, if making a Wes Anderson movie was that easy, I wouldn’t so many big names are lining up to work with him, regardless of paper size. “I heard it margot robbie lobbied to work with him,” says Steven Park, Crime Investigation Chef at French chronicle and here is one of the residents of Asteroid City. “I mean, she sent him some letters. Anderson confirms this: “I had some conversation with her.” Luckily, Robbie’s schedule allowed him to travel to Spain, where he was filming, to film a key moment. “For me, the scene with her is one of the most important scenes in the entire film,” says Anderson. “That was great. You could feel it on set. They were all galvanized.”
the only missing person is a longtime employee bill Murray, who fell ill with covid and were forced to leave the project. replaced it Steve Carell who plays the motel janitor. Otherwise, Anderson was in his element, surrounded by old and new friends in the city of Chinchón, near Madrid. “No one was talking on the phone between takes or staying alone in their room at night,” Davis says. “We were all together.” As Park notes, this approach to filmmaking is based on Anderson’s experience in Water life. “I think in this film he worked in a more traditional way, where people lived apart,” he says. “I think that’s where he decided to work in a different way, and for everyone to be together.”
Anderson confirms this. “Water life it was a very, very big production,” he explains. — I didn’t like it very much. Felt like we were paying to create this machine that didn’t do what we wanted. IN aquatic life all had the most beautiful places to live in Rome. We were an hour and a half from the Cinecittà studio and it took half a day to go back and forth to have lunch and such. Nothing in this movie worked in a good way.”
For Trip to Darjeeling (2007) his next film, an odyssey set in India with Brody, Schwartzman and Owen Wilson, Anderson changed his way of working. “IN Darjeeling we stayed together… and never left the set,” he recalls. Since then, he has encouraged this feeling. communalcoexistence No wonder the performers love it. “I think Wes probably has a penchant for choosing actors and actresses who are good, decent people who understand that You’re not such a great person just because you’re in this business.”says Davis. “I think I will not tolerate people who misbehave.”
Even when the cameras don’t work Wes’s world seems all-encompassing. Davis especially remembers one lunch break in a cabin that served as his dressing room. I looked outside and saw people relaxing at picnic tables and Wes was standing right outside my window in this nice big straw hat and someone brought him the perfect little cup of espresso.” It was like one of his films. “It was quiet on set,” she continues. “No one spoke. And here he is, with his perfect little espresso, looking at it all.”
* From Independent From UK. Especially for Page 12.