Three grown prodigies, all with a unique genius of some kind, and their mother are staying at the family household. Their father, Royal, had left them long ago, but now returns to make things right with his family.
The official behind-the-scenes companion to The French Dispatch and the latest volume in the bestselling Wes Anderson Collection series The French Dispatch—the tenth feature film from writer-director Wes Anderson—is a love letter to journalists set at the titular American newspaper in the fictional 20th-century French city of Ennui-sur-Blasé. The film stars a number of Anderson's frequent collaborators, including Bill Murray as the newspaper's editor in chief; Owen Wilson, Tilda Swinton, and Frances McDormand, as well as new players Jeffrey Wright, Benicio del Toro, Elisabeth Moss, and Timothée Chalamet, who bring to life a collection of stories published in The French Dispatch magazine. In this latest one-volume entry in The Wes Anderson Collection series—the only book to take readers behind the scenes of The French Dispatch—everything that goes into bringing Anderson's trademark style, meticulous compositions, and exacting production design to the screen is revealed in detail. Written by film and television critic and New York Times bestselling author Matt Zoller Seitz, The Wes Anderson Collection: The French Dispatch presents the complete story behind the film’s conception, anecdotes about the making of the film, and behind-the-scenes photos, production materials, and artwork.
Wes Anderson's films can be divisive, but he is widely recognized as the inspiration for several recent trends in indie films. Using both practical and theoretical lenses, the contributors address and explain the recurring stylistic techniques, motifs, and themes that dominate Anderson's films and have had such an impact on current filmmaking.
The Grand Budapest Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom have made Wes Anderson a prestige force. Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums have become quotable cult classics. Yet every new Anderson release brings out droves of critics eager to charge him with stylistic excess and self-indulgent eclecticism. Donna Kornhaber approaches Anderson's style as the necessary product of the narrative and thematic concerns that define his body of work. Using Anderson's focus on collecting, Kornhaber situates the director as the curator of his filmic worlds, a prime mover who artfully and conscientiously arranges diverse components into cohesive collections and taxonomies. Anderson peoples each mise-en-scéne in his ongoing ""Wesworld"" with characters orphaned, lost, and out of place amidst a riot of handmade clutter and relics. Within, they seek a wholeness and collective identity they manifestly lack, with their pain expressed via an ordered emotional palette that, despite being muted, cries out for attention. As Kornhaber shows, Anderson's films offer nothing less than a fascinating study in the sensation of belonging--told by characters who possess it the least.
Wes Anderson is considered one of the most important directors of the post-Baby Boom generation, making films such as Rushmore (1998) and The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) in a style so distinctive that his films are often recognizable from a single frame. Through the travelogue The Darjeeling Limited (2007) and the stop-motion animation of Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), his films examine issues of gender, race, and class through dysfunctional family dynamics, with particular focus on masculinity and male bonding. Anderson's auteur status is enriched by his fascination with Truffaut and the French New Wave, as well as his authorship of every one of his screenplays, drawing on influences as diverse as Mark Twain, J. D. Salinger, Roald Dahl, and Stefan Zweig. Works such as Moonrise Kingdom (2012) and The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) continue to fascinate with their postmodern, hyper-nostalgic attention to detail. This book explores the filmic and literary influences that have helped make Anderson a major voice in 21st century "indie" culture, and reveals why Wes Anderson is one of the most inventive filmmakers working in cinema today.
An “original and moving” (The New York Times Book Review), “must-read” (People) portrait of an unforgettable, patrician Manhattan family and the tangled nature of inheritance and legacy, from the author of Like Mother, Like Mother “An absorbing page-turner, full of sex and secrets . . . I loved getting to know the entire Falkes clan.”—New York Times bestselling author Emma Straub AN NPR BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR When English-born lawyer Rupert Falkes dies, his wife and five adult sons are bereft—even more so when six months later, their grieving is interrupted by an unknown woman suing Rupert’s estate, claiming that he was also the father to her two sons. The Falkes brothers are pitched into turmoil, at once missing their father and feeling betrayed by him. In disconcerting contrast, their mother, Eleanor, is cool and calm, showing preternatural composure. Eleanor and Rupert had made an admirable life together, and they were proud of their handsome, talented sons: Harry, a brash law professor; Will, a savvy Hollywood agent; Sam, an astute doctor and scientific researcher; Jack, a jazz trumpet prodigy; Tom, a public-spirited federal prosecutor. The brothers see their identity and success as inextricably tied to family loyalty—a loyalty they always believed their father shared. Struggling to reclaim their identity, the brothers find Eleanor’s sympathy toward the woman and her sons confounding, and they begin to question whether they knew either of their parents at all.
The definitive reference for all Wes Anderson fans. Loaded with rich imagery and detailed analysis of his incredible films – including the classics The Grand Budapest Hotel, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and Moonrise Kingdom as well as Anderson's highly anticipated new releaseThe French Dispatch – this is the first book to feature all of Wes Anderson's movies in a single volume. Acclaimed film journalist Ian Nathan provides an intelligent and thoughtful examination of the work of one of contemporary film’s greatest visionaries, charting the themes, visuals, and narratives that have come to define Anderson’s work and contributed to his films an idiosyncratic character that's adored by his loyal fans. From Anderson’s regular cast members – including Bill Murray and Owen Wilson – to his instantly recognisable aesthetic, recurring motifs and his scriptwriting processes, this in-depth collection will reveal how Wes Anderson became one of modern cinema’s most esteemed and influential directors. Presented in a slipcase with 8-page gatefold section, this stunning package will delight all Wes Anderson devotees and movie lovers in general.
Anthony Lane on Con Air— “Advance word on Con Air said that it was all about an airplane with an unusually dangerous and potentially lethal load. Big deal. You should try the lunches they serve out of Newark. Compared with the chicken napalm I ate on my last flight, the men in Con Air are about as dangerous as balloons.” Anthony Lane on The Bridges of Madison County— “I got my copy at the airport, behind a guy who was buying Playboy’s Book of Lingerie, and I think he had the better deal. He certainly looked happy with his purchase, whereas I had to ask for a paper bag.” Anthony Lane on Martha Stewart— “Super-skilled, free of fear, the last word in human efficiency, Martha Stewart is the woman who convinced a million Americans that they have the time, the means, the right, and—damn it—the duty to pipe a little squirt of soft cheese into the middle of a snow pea, and to continue piping until there are ‘fifty to sixty’ stuffed peas raring to go.” For ten years, Anthony Lane has delighted New Yorker readers with his film reviews, book reviews, and profiles that range from Buster Keaton to Vladimir Nabokov to Ernest Shackleton. Nobody’s Perfect is an unforgettable collection of Lane’s trademark wit, satire, and insight that will satisfy both the long addicted and the not so familiar.
Wes Anderson is now seen as one of America's greatest and most stylistic filmmakers. With movies likeThe Fantastic Mr. Fox,The Grand Budapest Hotel,Moonrise Kingdom, andThe Darjeeling Limited, Anderson has solidified his place among the best and brightest of contemporary filmmakers. Anderson's early films, the films that rocketed him to stardom, are often written about separately and in contrast to his later films, inFucking Innocent, John Andrew Frederick, who has taught Anderson's early work at the University of Southern California, examines his three earliest films and discusses each individually and as the burgeoning of the art of one of most talented of American directors. Frederick's criticism looks atBottle Rocket,Rushmore, andThe Royal Tennenbaums in this fun and sharp critique.