Prior to the release of Wes Anderson‘s Moonrise Kingdom I decided I would revisit his entire oeuvre and add Moonrise to the mix upon seeing it at this year’s Cannes Film Festival where it served as the opening night feature (read my review here).
Before sitting down to watch all of Anderson’s films again for this piece, I’d seen Rushmore and The Darjeeling Limited only once each. I’d seen The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou twice and The Royal Tenenbaums I had only seen about 15 minutes or so before I turned it off due to a lack of interest.
However, I’m a huge fan of Anderson’s debut feature Bottle Rocket and love The Fantastic Mr. Fox and have watched both multiple times. As a result it seems I’m an Anderson outlier, considering I always hear about how much everyone loves Rushmore and Tenenbaums and yet these were two of his films I had the least interest in. Going in, I was curious how my return to Anderson’s features would go and how things would end up after my first full viewing of Tenenbaums.
The result was interesting… to me at least.
I watched each film in chronological order, including Anderson’s two short films — Bottle Rocket (1994) and Hotel Chevalier (2007) — and as I went along I found myself growing increasingly comfortable with the worlds and characters he created. I may be luckier than some, loving Bottle Rocket as much as I do, but as I watched each film they all felt like extensions of one another and liking one caused me to begin liking them all more than I could have ever expected.
There’s something a bit “off” about Anderson’s films and yet the real world exists inside them. His characters have their quirks, but it’s easy to find empathy for each of them, to understand them and realize their motivations, desires and dreams.
The influence of the French New Wave is compelling and the production design is always fascinating, simple at first glance, but intricate the closer you look, and it’s not only limited to his feature films and shorts.
Along with my ranking of Anderson’s feature films, I’ve included both of his short films and I’ve gathered a selection of six of Anderson’s commercials for the likes of American Express, Sony, AT&T, Hyundai and a SofBank commercial featuring Brad Pitt. All are featured directly below.
If you haven’t seen them you may find them interesting, or at the very least, a good way to get into the right mood for the rest of the list, which begins on Page 2.
If I may make a suggestion, the commercials are an absolute joy to watch… Highly recommended.
Bottle Rocket (1994)
starring Luke and Owen Wilson
| Part One | Part Two |
Hotel Chevalier (2007)
starring Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman
The Commercials
And so, with the introduction out of the way, let’s begin ranking Anderson’s films. Click on over to Page Two and we’ll begin the seven film countdown as we explore the wonderful world that is Wes Anderson.
