NEWS: Wes Anderson and the Politics of Selling Out

CULTURE: Wes Anderson and the Politics of Selling Out

The New York Times has examined the work of Wes Anderson and other "peculiar […] American auteurs" like Alexander Payne and David O. Russell. Anderson is particularly aware of how his niche audience might be alienated by his next round of "mainstream" films. That is, he ponders if a director of notoriety automatically brings with it the air of "selling out."

While other "artier" directors like Christopher Nolan, Sam Raimi, Alfonso Cuarón, and Peter Jackson are now hitching onto the larger projects, Anderson wants to bring larger audiences into his own world instead of bringing himself into the mainstream.

There's a saying I've read and seen on TV when I think of people selling out because studios worry that complex artists won't attract large audiences: if Mohammad won't go to the mountain, the mountain must come to Mohammad. This is the case with Jackson, Raimi, and Cuarón (and hopefully with Nolan). Each of these directors have been able to work within the studio system because each of these directors are taking active roles in their mainstream films.



Of course, mixing street credibility with corporate power tends is the very definition of "selling out" and Anderson, Nolan, Raimi, et al. are not immune to this phenomena. One only needs to look at Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola, and Carpenter for examples of the slow degradation of artistic credibility within the mainstream studio system. In fact, these directors have become studios unto themselves.



Wes Anderson's next project is an animated feature called, Fantastic Mr.Fox.

Compared to what? He's written/directed three movies that have been released, all of them have had the same style.

wes just needs to work with some new subject matter and he'll be fine.

Whatever; I really liked all three of his films. And although I don't know enough about directing or cinematography to pretend as though I know anything at all, this line alarmed me:
"In big six-camera shots, you're supposed to have six cameras going," he said. "And I don't know what to do with the other five."

It made me realize that the simple camera shots and clever editing were a very cool part of those movies. So I hope that doesn't go away. Mostly though, I liked the stories. An undersea adventure seems a lot different than his previous stories.

I should mention Wes is one of my all time fav directors, if anyone thought I was criticizing him.

What a fucking sellout.

sell out all the fuck you want. regardless of whats to come, ill still enjoy the previous three movies all the same.

i think to me, being a '76 baby, a lot of the stylized 70s tone (mood, setting, fashion) is really nostalgic, and most of his characters are really overgrown kids. particularly the dialog is so endearing because it's simple, fresh and innocent: completely meant, just as a child would deliver it.

from what wes has briefly commented on about his father and some of his family life off the rushmore and bottle rocket dvd, i can kind of get why i like the films. in tennenbaums to name one piece, it's the family you always wished you had. it's about belonging, which is i guess reassuring in a society that routinely rejects familiarity.

the overwhelming thing that i always feel in an anderson film though is complete safety and warmth. even when the characters are at their lowest point, you always kind of know they're going to turn out all right. they're good kids all around.

anyway as long as he keeps the mood consistent and isn't doing shit with ben affleck running away from special buildings that explode when you run away from them, i can't see how he could totally screw it up for any of the fans.

The book Fanstastic Mr. Fox is absolutely ace, one of my favourite books from when I was a kid. I reckon it would be hard to fuck up an animated film of it.

Raimi and Jackson are "artier": directors?????? Sorry, but these guys were born sold out. Have you seen the early movies they made??? Nothing arty about them.

The article puts this more accurately:

Raimi knows a money machine when he sees one. It is no surprise at all that he would go big budget the minute he got the chance. Same with Jackson.

I never understood what people liked about Anderson. I don't really get him and don't think he's all that great. But I agree with this to a degree:

I have thought the same about M. Night Shyamalan. Clearly a good craftsman, I would like to see him tackle something completely different, just a work for hire, to see where he can go when he applies his skill alone.


[Edited on Nov 29, 2004 by desperatecomfort]

i like wes, i hope his movie does well, b/c i'd like to see what he can do with his style and some extra bucks.

Nah. Tons of people do that shit when they're young. Coppola did. You know what his last two movies were? The Rainmaker and Jack. Eventually you have a movie that flops and then you're Hollywood's bitch.

And Fincher was a huge music video director whose first major feature was Alien 3. I don't think anyone thought he was independent. Besides, these current "cool" directors are just going to be the ones that the next generation talks crap about. And the ones like Spielberg who are being written off by today's younger generation will be rediscovered for being more talented than people gave them credit for. It's the way of the world.

It's pointless to try and tag a filmmaker with the "sell out" label like you would a musician.

As has been pointed out, all of Wes Anderson's films have been paid for by coporate studios.

Bottle Rocket was rmade by Columbia, which is owned by Sony.

Rushmore, Tenenbaums, and Life Aquatic are all Touchstone films, which is a branch of Disney.

When I was in film school, "El Mariachi," was touted as the cheapest independent film ever made. Robert Rodriguez even went so far as to subject himself to medical experiments to scrounge up the cash to make the movie. But then, it gets picked up by Miramax (also a Disney subidiary) and they pump millions of dollars into cleaning up the negative, remixing the sound, and promoting the film as the "cheapest" independent film ever made.

Now as to who is the true visionary independent filmmaker working in Hollywood today, I can think of only one person that funds his films completely out of his own pocket, takes no notes from a studio, has final cut on his film, and basically sells the distribution rights to his movie to a studio, with no creative involvement from them whatsoever: George Lucas.

[Edited on Nov 29, 2004 by Beastie_Boy]

i know what you mean. for me, i think it's the quaintness, the everydayness, and the exploration of the strangeness within what we think is mundane that i love so much about his films. i really hope this is not lost in his work.

A trusted friend of mine recommended I watch Bottle Rocket on laserdisc and the son of a bitch got me hooked on Wes Anderson ever since. My favorite thing Wes ever did was make more people aware of how flawless Bill Murray is.

All of Wes' work includes a central theme of a man/boy (usually a combination of both) who both has an amazing amount of talent but is somehow lacking, missing something. Not living up to the God given skills and abilities he has. I think a lot of people can relate to that (or think they relate to it). The movies are ultimately about redemption, which is why I personally love them so.