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Wednesday, Nov 25, 2009
Wes Anderson's painstakingly realized films have found a devoted audience -- and "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou" won't disappoint.
Dec 7, 2004 | Wes Anderson has the kind of indie cred other directors would kill for. What else could explain his getting a green light for a movie that follows a Jacques Cousteau-like lead character on a quest that's one part ocean adventure, two parts schizophrenic romp? Anderson enjoys the kind of leeway to indulge strange impulses and thwart audience expectations that other filmmakers can only dream of. From his first film, "Bottle Rocket," to the acclaimed "Rushmore," to his sharp but scattered "The Royal Tenenbaums," Anderson's vision is offbeat enough to ensure that not everyone is going to understand or enjoy the quirky details and stylized interactions of his signature world. But, of course, it's exactly his willfully odd tone and his grasp of a very specific type of postmodern ennui that make Anderson so beloved and embraced by his loyal fans.
But even die-hard fans will find themselves in stranger territory than ever before with "The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou," from the wildly unpredictable story to the seriously strange little baby-blue short shorts worn by Willem Dafoe. As we follow Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) on a nonlinear adventure to find the mythical jaguar shark, it's clear that all of the usual Anderson elements are here: the perfect ironic retro fashions; the disaffected, borderline flat acting; the unexpected splashes of bright color; the infectious soundtrack. Throw in a bizarre, stagey boat set and some fantastical animated fish, and you've got enough of the standard Anderson charms to distract you from some of the movie's shortcomings (a jagged story arc, a vague premise) but that will surely test his ability to draw a larger audience beyond his loyal following.
What's truly odd, given his stubbornly unique vision, is that Anderson actually seems to care whether we get it or not. Despite some predictions that his film might be the sleeper hit of the holiday season, Anderson sounded both anxious and somewhat realistic about the difficulty of finding a broader audience for his work when he spoke to us from his hotel room in Los Angeles.
I just went to a press screening last night ...
Oh, it was a press screening? Not a regular screening?
No. And press screenings are always a little weird, because everyone seems to be analyzing a little too much instead of just enjoying the ride.
I'm glad I wasn't there. I don't want to be standing there and hear people walking by me saying, "Tedious!"
Is that the word you fear the most?
I heard somebody say that at a screening of somebody else's movie the other day. Somebody walked by me, and I just heard him mutter, "Tedious." And I was a few feet away from somebody who was involved with the movie.
That's terrible. But you've been pretty brave in the past, like when you screened "Rushmore" for Pauline Kael. What did you take from that experience?
What was great was, I loved meeting her. And it was funny, because she gave me a very mixed review of the movie. But I had a great time with her. I was a little bit nervous because I wanted to impress her. But she was very engaging. And then, when I was driving home from it, I told a friend all about it in detail, and he told me to write it down. And eventually I did write it down to be used as the introduction to our screenplay. So I wrote it [a version ran in the New York Times, and as the introduction to the published screenplay] and then I sent it to [Kael]. She edited it, and gave me the funniest edits. "My house is not clapboard, it is stone and shingle. The lock on the front door is not broken, it is simply stuck."
