Stitched Portraits: Wes Anderson

I remember being a young teenager and stumbling upon Rushmore with my brother while looking for something special in the video store. The cover of the film is a thing to behold and for a couple of sheltered little boys it was fresh. Luckily we loved Bill Murray, so we rented it.

That film opened my eyes to what a film could be, and Wes Anderson has remained an influential presence and a strong voice for bright light in a dreary world.

Check out his acceptance speech for NBR here.

Fantastic Mr. Fox really was, and Wes made choices that were hard for some to understand. Most notably he decided to shoot the stop-motion at 12 frames per second in order to give it that 'Rankin/Bass' feel. Also, using real goat hair and toy fur for the animal skins made the movement appear magical. It reminded me of the way Svankmajer films make objects dance.

Anderson's films have really proven his proclivity to children's themes and his latest is making me giddy just thinking about it. Moonrise Kingdom should be a masterpiece.

An inspiration, Wes Anderson (with Mr. Fox):