#wes anderson analysis

[amorisastrum]

What if the Knox and Chris sub-plot had meaning?

WAIT NO GUYS IM SORRY PLEASE HEAR ME OUT I BEG PLE-

Okay I'm starting this post off by restating my downright hatred for Knox. I do not like his character, what he did was wrong, it's creepy and fucking disgusting. I will however like to talk about how his relationship with Chris could have potentially added to the story.

We all know (at least I hope) that practically everything in this film has meaning. I had spent ages wondering why they thought it was a good idea to include this frankly ridiculous sub plot to the story. And then I thought about it. Like really thought about it. I don't exactly remember what I was doing when I thought about it, but I do know that I had DPS playing in the background. (I initially thought about this on April 7th. It is May 29th when I am typing this up.)

So, here are all my reasons as to why I think they added the Knox and Chris sub-plot!

My first point is about this scene:

I believe that this line could be a form of foreshadowing. Yes, it is Knox being a dramatic and insufferable prick but it also feels like it could be more. Obviously it isn't Knox who dies in the end, but the idea of not being able to have something leading to suicide feels very important to the story.

Neil is unable to achieve a career in acting because of his father. As well as this, he is being taken away from his family. His real family. By not being able to have this thing that he so desperately wants, he feels like there is no other solution than death.

Knox says that if he can't have Chris he will kill himself, Neil has practically everything he loves stripped away from him- he cannot have it. So... He kills himself. There is a lot of foreshadowing in this film that hints to Neil's death at the end of the film and I do truly believe that this is a part of that foreshadowing.

My next point is that it is used as a form of contrast.

We see that Knox is extremely open about his attraction to Chris... In a multitude of ways, repeatedly throughout the film. Whether his actions that show his attraction are good or not is a different matter (Knox... God how I hate you.)

Arguably this is used as a juxtaposition. Knox (and Chris?) are relatively open about their attraction to one another- while Neil and Todd are very closed off about it. It is never explicitly stated that Neil and Todd like each other in that way, but through subtext it is heavily implied.

Why might this be? Well, considering the film is set in 1959, it could be because homosexuality simply wasn't legal at this point in time. Neil and Todd weren't allowed to be open about liking each other. Being open about it could put them in danger, they had no choice but to stay quiet.

However, as well as a contrast, it poses similarities between Knox and Chris and Neil and Todd. By setting up this contrast, it only brings to the surface some quite significant similarities.

Because let's be real.

How can THIS be a look of true love...

And THIS not be?

Or falling in love or admiring one's beauty or WHATEVER you want to call it. That's not the point. The point is, they're not that different.

You can see similarities between Knox's behaviour towards Chris and Todd's behaviour towards Neil (and vice versa). One of the main similarities is, well, how they look at one another. I personally don't see how the way Knox and Chris look at each other is true love but the way Todd and Neil look at one another is just... Them being roommates.

The juxtaposition between the two sets of people (I didn't know how else to say this) just doesn't seem accidental. The constant mention of Knox's feelings and love towards Chris just makes the way Neil and Todd interact more obviously... Romantic? Loving?

Their love is stated to allow the audience to see how similar they are to Todd and Neil, while still sticking to one of the key concepts of the film - conformity. Neil and Todd having to conform to societal standards, not being able to share their love for one another.

Knox's feelings for Chris are explicitly stated, repeatedly, because Todd's and Neil's can't. It makes it more noticeable. Neil and Todd's feelings can't really be stated due to the law. So they do it with Knox instead. The similarities can be seen throughout the film in how Knox treats Chris and how Neil and Todd treat one another.

Because again, how can Knox look at Chris like that and that show that he is in love, but Neil look at Todd like that and that just be... Them being friends?

The answer is, it can't. Not really.

Although Knox is a lot more explicit with his feelings towards Chris than the other two are with one another, the feelings they have are the same. Whether it is portrayed in the same way or not, it's love.

[sleepboysummer]

i am never going to move on from her constance and i hope you guys never do either. she is the most genuine constance i have ever seen portrayed to this day.

[eloquentsisyphianturmoil]

Fantastic Mr. Fox is Fëanáro’s fursona; what the fuck

[ratzillaeatsdick]

a look at poison by wes anderson. 

Poison is by far my favorite of the four short film adaptations Wes Anderson has put out of Roald Dahl's short stories. Poison tells the story of Harry Pope, a white British soldier who fears that a krait, a poisonous snake, has crawled under his covers and is poised to bite him. He is helped by Timber Woods, an Indian-British soldier, and Dr. Ganderbai, a local Indian doctor. The film takes place at Woods’s house, where Harry Pope is staying, in British-ruled India. The film, like the other stories in the Dahl collection, is shot like a play, with stunning set work and stagehands at the ready to help with props. 

The basic story, if you haven’t watched the film yet (which you should), is this: Woods drives home and finds Harry Pope laying in bed very, very still. Pope tells him that while he was reading in bed, he saw a krait crawl under the covers and fall asleep on his stomach. He has been lying still and silently since then. At first, Woods proposes that he, armed with a knife, pull back the cover, brush off the snake, and cut the snake and suck out any poison himself. Pope is scornful toward the idea, calling Woods an idiot, and tells him to call for a doctor. Woods calls Dr. Ganderbai, who makes his way over quickly. He first administers some serum to Pope, so that if he is bitten he (maybe) will be safe regardless. After debating with himself outside of the room, he decides to soak the mattress in chloroform, hopefully sedating the krait and saving Harry Pope. Dr. Ganderbai painstakingly funnels the chloroform to the mattress. For 15 minutes, the trio wait in silence, with Dr. Ganderbai staring furiously at Pope, after he has a loud outburst. The smell of the chloroform reminds Woods of an operation he went through, which left a scar on his forehead. Finally, Dr. Ganderbai and Woods prepare to lower the cover and remove the krait. When the cover is removed, the krait is not there. Dr. Ganderbai remarks that the krait could be anywhere, even up the pajama leg. At this, Pope, who has been growing increasingly twitchy, jumps up on the bed and moves furiously. When he does not die of snake bite, the room goes quiet. The camera work at this point has gone shaky, and the lighting flickers while a heartbeat plays in the background of the scene. Dr. Ganderbai teases, lightheartedly, that perhaps Pope dreamt up the snake. Snake hissing is now audible. Pope does not take the teasing jokingly however and is offended. He explodes at Dr. Ganderbai, yelling abusive, racially motivated insults. When Dr. Ganderbai breaks a chair and storms out the room, the lighting stabilizes, as does the camerawork, and silence permeates the set. Woods follows Dr. Ganderbai out the house and tells him that Pope doesn’t know what he’s talking about and that he (Dr. Ganderbai) saved Pope’s life. Dr. Ganderbai says, “No, I didn’t.” Woods tells him that Pope owes him his life. Dr. Ganderbai says “No, he doesn’t.” Woods apologizes. Dr. Ganderbai looks at Woods and says, “You can’t be.” With that, the film is over. 

If you still haven’t watched the short film, then go do that. My summary does not do it justice. 

This story is run in part by the three characters and the subtext in all of their interactions. Harry Pope is a white, British soldier. Timber Woods is an Indian-British soldier. Dr. Ganderbai is Indian and notably an outsider to the British military. Harry Pope and Timber Woods live on a British Jute and Woods is dressed in a British military outfit. At the beginning, the power hierarchy is not apparent. After all, Pope is immobilized in bed and cannot do anything to aggravate the krait, leaving him quiet and subdued up until the last minutes of the film. However, he is still expressive enough with Woods noting, “The expression was in the eyes and around the corners of the mouth, as you can see.” He manages to be derisive in his interactions with the two men, as is apparent when he calls Woods an idiot and snaps at Dr. Ganderbai: “Get on with it!” His clothing are a pair of light blue pajamas, simple at first glance, though Woods notes that he has a fly button made of mother-of-pearl. Woods remarks that he has never had a fly button, let alone a mother-of-pearl button. This is another difference between the two soldiers, their wealth. However, even in these interactions, Dr. Ganderbai and Woods treat him with kindness and patience. Everything that he is doing is attributed to the stress that the stillness is putting him under, with Dr. Ganderbai calling his behavior understandable up until this point. 

Dr. Ganderbai approaches the situation with kindness and urgency. He takes every care to reassure Pope that he is in safe hands throughout the crisis. He only starts to lose his patience when Pope also loses his nerve. After Pope’s second outburst (“I can hear him!”), he stares at him, with Woods thinking that he is probably thinking something along the lines of this: “Don’t move, don’t speak! Damn you, you’re not spoiling this now, you hear me?” Even in his anger, he is silent and considerate of the life-threatening situation at hand. 

Woods, the narrator of the whole story, is also considerate and kind. His first scene shows him turning the headlights of his car off immediately, so as not to disturb the possibly sleeping Harry Pope. He takes his shoes off (in his own house), following Pope’s peculiar, distressed orders. He is prepared to literally suck venom out of Pope’s stomach and even agrees with Pope’s assessment that he is an idiot for not thinking of calling a doctor sooner. He is thoughtful of Pope, despite the discomfort brought upon him by the whole situation, be that by Pope’s twitching and his derisive tone (“I didn’t like that. I didn’t like the way he talked either.”), or the smell of chloroform, which seems to remind him of an injury he incurred, possibly by explosion (this is entirely surmised through choice of words and is not definitive). Woods is only non-complacent when Pope does the inexcusable, though even afterwards he apologizes for Pope. 

The playing field, which had Pope more or less at the bottom the entire time, switches the minute Pope is offended at Dr. Ganderbai’s joke. It is now that race bulldozes its way into the story. Pope is a white soldier belittling an Indian doctor who has just taken painstaking measures to save his life. These two represent the two opposite ends of the tense atmosphere that was all of British-ruled India. Pope’s twitchiness, everpresent while he was arrested by the snake, explodes via the words every white supremacist has felt when confronted with somebody of a “lesser” race. The intricacies are most beautifully conveyed via subtext in the ending, which apparently has confused other viewers of the film. The dialogue goes something like this: 

“You saved his life.”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“I- I mean, you might’ve- He owes you his life, I mean, he owes you his life, doctor.”

“No, he doesn’t.”

Beat.

“I’m sorry.”

“You can’t be.”

Dr. Ganderbai refuting that Pope owes him his life, isn’t a show of humility. It’s the caste systems reasserting itself. Dr. Ganderbai knows that there is no way that Harry Pope, a white soldier, owes anything, let alone his life to an Indian. And when Dr. Ganderbai tells Timber Woods that he cannot be sorry, it is not because he thinks that Woods should not apologize on Pope’s behalf, it is because Woods literally cannot be sorry or remorseful. He is a part of the system, though he may not have the same power as Harry Pope. Timber Woods, after all, is a British soldier. He wears the British uniform and lives in a British jute. How can he be sorry, when he wears the uniform of the institution that created the circumstances where Dr. Ganderbai can be treated like that? 

The other driving force of the story, as is the case in any Wes Anderson film, is the camera work and editing. It is most evident in the climax. The minute Harry Pope jumps on his bed, the camera goes shaky-hand and the lighting flickers. A heartbeat plays throughout the following scene. Up until this point, the camera has been steady and smooth, emphasizing the play-like feeling the story holds. When the fourth-wall is broken, it reminds the audience that this is a play, or it should be treated like one. The shift happens right before Dr. Ganderbai enters Pope’s room to administer chloroform. The last look he gives is one that is severe, a sign of the tense scene to follow. When Woods interprets Dr. Ganderbai’s silence, that is also a moment where the fourth wall is broken. Dr. Ganderbai steps forward and a spotlight is shown on him. We are still in a play element. With the shaky camera work, the breaks are more personal and feel more like a call for help or affirmation that they (Woods and Dr. Ganderbai) are not the only ones seeing this. It is also in the context of the shaky camera that the snake is most “visible.” A rattling noise plays in the underscore of the entire scene. Right before Pope opens his mouth to start his rant, a snapping sound is heard, like a snake snapping its mouth closed. The feeling of suspense, of danger, is helped by Woods whispering again, as though the snake has reappeared. The heartbeat goes unsteady and varies in volume and rhythm. When Dr. Ganderbai leaves the room and Woods pulls a knife on Pope to get him to shut up, the heartbeat stops, as if dead. The lighting evens out and we go back to the steady camerawork. The shaky hand makes the moment, the crucial climax, feel real and immerses the audience even further. The last break is when Woods makes eye contact with the camera after Dr. Ganderbai tells him he cannot be sorry, with a sort of somber look. Finally, one last little touch is the book that Harry Pope is reading, The Golden Lotus. Though I personally have never read it, it is a story about two women who are fighting for prestige in their clan, which is declining in power. A fitting story for a British man to be reading, I think.

Poison is a masterclass in subtext and should be required viewing for anybody trying to be a visual storyteller. It is my favorite of the short films released and every time I think of it and the story it tells, I cry. It won’t be the most relatable for any caucasian viewers, but as somebody who has been micro aggressed in my workplace more times than I can count, with seemingly no motivation, I don’t care. It’s brilliant.

[tomcat-reusables]

Another miscellaneous text post on a movie no one cares about: The Royal Tenenabums and horses

Someone else has had to have analysed this by now but I've been itching to post something about it since I wathced The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) with my friend and his mother several weeks ago (albeit for the sixth time because the autism is autisming) and his mother brought up something incredibly interesting to me that explains very complex characters in a simple but in my opinion, perfect way.

Margot Tenenbaum is a zebra, we see zebra symbolism relating to her all throughout the movie, from her wallpaper, to the zebra costume she wore on her 11th birthday, to the zebra exhibit she and Richie slept under at the museum as children. Margot has felt out of place her whole life, like a zebra in a family of horses, she feels like she never was a genius and the only one of the Tenenbaums she could truly connect with was Richie (which is a discussion for another day). We know she was purposefully excluded from multiple family activities throughout her childhood and was constantly introduced by Royal as his "adopted daughter". She wanted to seek out her 'real' family in the first place as she was made to feel like the Tenenbaum household wasn't somewhere she was meant to be.

Chas, Richie, Royal, Etheline, they're all horses, a stable of horses that Margot was lost in (I am by no means a Margot sympathiser by the way, I have my reasons).

Eli Cash, he obviously has a pretty overarching cowboy aesthetic but in the way where he's notably slightly obsessed with chasing after and wrangling wild animals (note the magazine cover where he stands shirtless clasping a snake by the neck in each hand). What throughout pop culture are cowboys known for trying to capture? Horses. Eli has spent his entire life chasing after a false idea of what the tenenbaums have, trying to lasso their fame, their fortune, the sense of belonging and appreciation he thinks they have. But given he was only looking at a false idea of their lives he saw through rose coloured glasses it'll never be attainable to him. He's spent his whole life at this point like a dog trying to bite it's own tail creating a deep void within him that he chooses to fill with drugs and reptiles and homoerotic paintings, but deep down he's still somewhat self aware that he's really just an average b-list author.

And finally, to add a very minor detail to this theory. At the end of the film when Chas's dog Buckley, is hit by Eli's car, royal gives them a dalmatian. This might not seem signficant at all, but in an unrelated google search journey trying to find out why dalmatians were so specific to fire-fighters I discovered they were selectively bred to guide horses. This exchange occurs slightly before the movies resolution where the characts despite what it may appear, don't exactly get happy endings but return to a sense of slightly better yet still undeniably sombre normaly. If the tenenbaums are horses, this addition of a new dog symbolises moving back into a rythm of sorts. A consistent trot throughout the dreary landscapes of their lives.

[pookielious]

Dps fandom we need to not ignore the other characters reactions to Neil's death we only ever talk about Todd's and charlies reaction to his dead which I think it's just because those two are 2 of the most liked charaters and because their reactions are the main focus in most of the scenes after the death and the consequences of it

Neil was important to the group being the 'heart' of it for lack of better words,all of the poets where extreamely attached to him especially charlie knox and meeks at the start,the 3 (the 3 musketeers fr) of them immediately shows up while todd and neil are unpacking to greet him and ask about his summer; they also all show to have some sort of opinion on mr perry like they've met/heard about him before and hits hinted that the poets (- todd) had known eachother for a while before the movie taken place

During the scene where charlie is telling todd about neil we get a shot right before they go outside of pitts, knox and meeks standing there watching

It's only a few seconds of the whole thing but we dont talk about i I feel like I've only seen 1 or 2 people ever mention this scene I had to go on a screencap website just to find it but we get to see the shock on everyone's faces (- cameron) after being told the news

In this screencap and the scene before it where they were all out in the snow you can see especially on meeks face the hurt the whole thing had caused since in both he's either crying or his voice is wavering while he trying to comfort todd, knox was also trying to comfort todd and himself by rocking him back and forth and in the sceencap above you can see he had been crying due to the reflection of watery-ness you can see on his face

in the back cameron had his own sad face but I can make a whole separate post about cameron and his response to Neil's death

In conclusion neil was important to just about every poet and the spotlight shouldn't be only on todd and charlie even though those are also very important to the story ty for reading🛐

[goodhealthyshiningcara]

"oh it's not about ANYTHING that's what's so cool, it's about being confused-"

*slaps you*

Shut up!!! That's not what it's fucking about! You can't see something confusing, fail to analyze it, and then say it's about being confused! That's such a lame self-own! C'mon, apply more skills! Apply more critical thinking!

*shaking you*

There was a weird CGI alien! There was a scene where a room full of people all chant the same weird phrase! The kids play a game about memory, and an identical car chase happens like 3 times throughout the movie! You think all that shit is just to be quirky and random?

[archibald-2017]

Something something Mr Fox has a phobia of wolves something something He refuses to consider himself a wild animal when it comes to them living in a hole but also uses being a wild animal as an excuse for stealing food something something Mrs Fox used to 'be wild' and now paints thunder storms something something the wolf at the end is fully wild, doesnt speak, doesnt wear clothes, stands on four legs something something Mr Fox connects with the wolf, connecting with his wild side but letting it go

[scrunckle]

love wes anderson movies because they dont have interaction as formality (hugs that need to be given or hellos that need to be said) they just have interaction as vast and absolute desire. nothing is specifically said to be wrong and we see all reasoning for every characters choice, we can choose to identify with all of them if we wanted. the movies are always so subjective in their framing i feel like i can breathe and make my own decisions about the plot and characters. in saying that i mean the narrative never tries to tell you thing 1 is better than thing 2, it lets the characters make their points and shows you the passage of time to see the outcome in a completely 'bystander' type way. it allows these things to speak on their own without perspective. im so used to seeing an author/creators own faults and world view through the media i take in, then having to look past that to be able to see the world theyve made, for myself. but in his movies i never find myself doing that. simply because of the indifference that the narrative takes in telling these stories. i feel like they are life

[ineffable-hubbiewubbies]

hi dps fandom!! so i've been pretty wrapped up in byler recently but the dps brainrot is setting in just in time for my one year anniversary of watching the film, so heres an analysis that i wrote for school lol. love yall!!

[sakuraswordly]

Let me continue from vole-mon-amour

As you can see Mulder is soft and starts to care about Scully not because is love at first sight but because it is the relationship between partners (Start with Season 1). Mulder knew no one understood him even Scully but Scully as a partner, chose to not leave him even though at first she did not believe in aliens. The relationship between them at first is just like Demi Lovato and Simon Cowell on the X Factor. In Demi's view who calls Simon a grumpy old man, this is the same thought as Scully at first.

As you can see in the X Files Bloopers- Seasons 1, if you compare to that picture scene, what Mulder did here or his feelings, this is the real Mr David Duchovny for Miss Gillian Anderson in season 1. At first, Miss Gillian tried to learn her role and it was super hard for her at first but Mr David Duchovny taught her and always be with her(Until today they're the best(just forget chemistry that they're doing-_-;)) That's why I watch only season 1-4 because that jerk Mulder is the real Mr David Duchovny in his role.

[girlpog]

Cannot stop thinking about this movie

[sunny4thewin]

Heyy tumbr! It's me! Your good friend Sunny! So I just watched the movie 'The Detachment' and I couldn't tell whether or not I hated it? It was sort of like a car crash where I couldn't look away. Don't get me wrong, the content that it covered was very deep, and I think that the cast was trying to do it justice, but something about it seemed weird. I realize that this was also a big role for Adrien Brody, probably the biggest once since he won his first Oscar (from The Pianist). I know he was trying, but I think maybe the script just wasn't working? If somebody could convince me why the movie was amazing that'd be really great!

[merriclo]

teachers get a lot less mad when u watch movies during ur free time at school if you make it look like ur studying it. my english teacher ripped my classmate a new one for watching Avengers during class but said nothing when she saw me “taking notes” on Fantastic Mr. Fox

[tomcat-reusables]

Some disjointed thoughts on the bathroom scene/needle in the hay scene from The Royal Tenenbaums (2001)

ok first up, major tw for suicide/suicide attempt, and spoiler for The Royal Tenenbaums (do I need to spoiler warning for a movie from 20+ years ago, I don't know). If you haven't seen the Royal Tenenbaums go watch it and come back to this, hell, watch it twice if you want.

I geniunely believe the bathroom scene from The Royal Tenenbaums is one of the most interesting and important scenes in Wes Anderson's entire portfolio. It might seem insigificant if you watch his movies from oldest to newest, but if you go backwards you might notice some stuff. A lot of the darker moments of his films are still coated in a layer of whimsy and a lot of his typical aestheticism, especially in his newer stuff. Not that that's a criticism at all. But when you look at the bathroom scene it has this unique rawness to it that I've never really seen anywhere else in all his movies. It feels like all of the layers that his characters tend to sheild their emotions with have suddenly and viscerally been ripped away. And the visuals of this scene contribute to it too, it's two things not often seen in Wes Anderson movies: very saturated and somewhat dark/has dimmer lighting. The bathroom feels so out of place in a way that really makes you sit up and go "oh shit, something's happening", the music too, not only does the song choice never fail to make me sob, but the way it stays quiet as Richie stares into the camera and cuts his hair off, and at the final moment of tentsion as his life flashes infront of his eyes the background music slowly grows louder, climaxing as he bleeds onto the tiles before finally stopping abruptly.

The scene itself is truly one of the best scenes Wes Anderson has under his belt too, despite bringing me closer to tears every single time I happen to watch it. Something that'll always stick in my mind is the exact moment Richie Tenenbaum takes off his glasses, the first time in almost the whole film where we properly see his eyes. Richie is a character that has been hiding, both literally seperating himself on humanity by living on a boat for the last four years before the beginning of the film, but also mentally. He's clearly bottling up all his emotions and problems throughout the film (symbolised by the sunglasses, long hair, beard, even margot's line "stand up straight, let me get a look at you") until he cracks under the weight of them and we get, well, the bathroom scene. Seeing his eyes not only, as the saying goes, gives us a window into his soul, but also truly communicates the amount of pain he's in. Pain that's beyond margot, beyond Royal's betrayal of him, and deep within himself.

Richie never finishes shaving, and in my opinion it's a nod to the fact that he himself as a person is unfinished, unresolved, incomplete. Even his plans lay incomplete with the death that would have met him if he wasn't found by Dudley. His only line in the scene is simply "I'm going to kill myself tomorrow" unfinished because well, he tries to that day. Richie to me is one of the most interesting characters in the movie, if not the most. I didn't think that on my first watch-through, but as I watched the movie again and again it quickly became my opinion. He's someone who unlike Chas and Margot is holding onto an idealised version of his childhood, still mentally stuck there and unwilling to believe Royal as a bad person because of the blurred vision of him that he saw as a kid. His concept of human connection is as equally broken as Margots but instead of filling the empty abyss left by it with unpassionate affairs such as her, he cuts himself off from society, and once he's ripped away from and pulled back into the very family he always thought of as a perfect world he breaks just a little more.

I find his relationship with Margot very interesting too, as I don't belive it's simply a case of "these two flawed people are doing something socially unacceptable because they're flawed". Infact, from Richie's point of view I don't even believe it's romantic. Margot and Richie clearly became codependent on eachother from a very young age due to the childhood they were put through by Royal and to a lesser extent Etheline, and as they grew into emotionally broken people with twisted ideas of love and connection they mistook their relationship for romantic love instead of a platonic relationshop, because that's the only way they know to express a close platonic relationship. Being reuinited with Margot is the only thing keeping Richie together throughout the film and when he learns of all her infidelity he unravels immediately something that was hinted at, began to slip through when Richie puts his hand through the bird cage after Raleigh shares with him his suspicions of margot cheating, he's lost his last coping mechanism in other words.

And so we return again to the bathroom scene, hopefully this helped whoever may be reading it appreciate such a tragic scene a little more, or maybe it just made it sadder, I'm not sure. Stay safe out there and remember that help is always available and things will get better.