The Royal Tenenbaums
Wes Anderson ’s third feature , The Royal Tenenbaums , is often cite as his okay film . This narrative of a family of child prodigies and the many misapprehension made by their emotionally distant father struck a chord with audiences and put Anderson on the mapping after a pair of critically acclaimed but commercially unsatisfying movies .
Whether it ’s Anderson ’s masterpiece or not , The Royal Tenenbaumsadheres to many of the intimate figure and trademarks of his filmmaking . This includes some that were there from the beginning , like kinky costume design and acerate leaf - drops on the soundtrack , and some that the film established for Anderson to carry into his subsequent body of work , like voiceover narration and a sprawl ensemble roll .
Chapters
Anderson frequently divide his movies up into chapters . The Royal Tenenbaumsembodies this figure the most literally , presenting the story to the audience as an actual novel . The Grand Budapest Hotelis similarly dissever into different parts .
The director does n’t always apply literal chapters with their own titles , but almost all of his film are separate into segments : The French Dispatchis an anthology film , The Life Aquaticcharts the days of Team Zissou ’s expedition , andRushmorecharts the month of a school year .
Voiceover Narration
Alec Baldwin ’s rich voiceover narration inThe Royal Tenenbaums , succinctly explain all the ties between the major theatrical role in the opening montage , established a new figure of speech in the Anderson canon .
Since then , Anderson has featured story in a number of his pic . Steve Zissou keep a mission logarithm , an older Zero narratesThe Grand Budapest Hotel , and Bob Balaban explains the looming weather catastrophe inMoonrise Kingdom .
Sprawling Ensemble Cast
Another Andersonian trope established byThe Royal Tenenbaumswas his predilection for sprawling ensemble casts . Bottle Rockethad concentrate on a lowly crook and his put - upon acquaintance , thenRushmorefocused on a sexual love trianglebetween a educatee , a teacher , and a wealthy industrialist . Then , The Royal Tenenbaumscame out of the gate with a humongous 13 major characters .
Anderson apparently took a liking to juggling this many characters , because the wizard - dot ensemble trope was later seen inThe Life Aquatic , The Grand Budapest Hotel , Isle of Dogs , andThe French Dispatch .
Tragicomedy
Anderson ’s filmmaking style combines dry , lightsome , deadpan humor with agonizing , existential tragedy . InBottle Rocket , the rip-off fail hysterically cockeyed and Dignan makes the ultimate forfeiture to save his acquaintance . InThe Darjeeling Limited , Francis has a loafer steal off his foot and a child choke in Peter ’s arms .
InThe Royal Tenenbaums , there ’s lot of humor . Royal takes his grandkids out for a solar day of devilry . Raleigh name Dudley ’s symptom , let in an “ acute sense of hearing , ” whileDudley listens intently from the other way . But there ’s plenty of tragedy , too . Chas is grieving his wife ’s death and Richie attempts suicide . This jarring tonic cocktail comes near to capture the raw messiness of living .
Needle-Drops On The Soundtrack
Like Quentin Tarantino , Martin Scorsese , and Edgar Wright , Anderson is renowned for dropping the phonograph needle on classics from his record compendium in his movies ’ soundtrack . He often licenses the work of fabled musicians like the Kinks , the Rolling Stones , and the Beach Boys .
The soundtrack ofThe Royal Tenenbaumsis no different , despite have an original score by Mark Mothersbaugh . The director opens with a binding of “ Hey Jude ” and ends up boast the piece of work of such iconic creative person as Bob Dylan , Nico , Paul Simon , Elliott Smith , and the Stones .
Dysfunctional Family
As the narrative of a loving female parent and a dire Fatherhood raising three profoundly insecure child prodigies , The Royal Tenenbaumsis a inscrutable dive into the battle of a dysfunctional family .
Dysfunctional fellowship life is a recurring radical in Anderson ’s filmography . InThe Life Aquatic , an bizarre documentarian meets his estranged son . InThe Darjeeling Limited , three brothers reunify a class after their forefather ’s funeral to remove the air .
Frequent Anderson Collaborators
The stamp ofThe Royal Tenenbaumsis filled with actors who are inextricably tied to the conductor ’s panache of deadpan tragicomedy : Owen Wilson , Luke Wilson , Bill Murray , Kumar Pallana , Seymour Cassel – the list goes on .
The phenomenally talented casting also contain a few new collaborators who joined Anderson ’s company of worker afterTenenbaums , like Anjelica Huston .
Quirky Costume Design
From Max Fischer ’s beret to the Khaki Scouts ’ uniforms , Anderson tends to habilitate his characters in quirky fashion choices that would n’t be much of a stretch for the director himself to wear .
InThe Royal Tenenbaums , Richie always covers his fount behind sunglasses and a headband , Margot tire a long mink overcoating to touch her resting immaterial expression , and Chas and his son wear matching ruddy tracksuits ( and matching black tracksuits at Royal ’s funeral ) .
Comedically Unsympathetic Protagonist
Screenwriting formula dictate that the agonist needs to be likable and easy for the audience to rout for , but the clowning genre tend to fly in the face of this ruler with the notion that the more unsympathetic and self - ingest a character is , the rummy they will be .
Anderson has sure enough tested this hypothesis with some of hisreprehensible yet hilarious protagonists , include Max Fischer , Steve Zissou , and indeed Royal Tenenbaum .
Bittersweet Ending
The final scenes of Anderson ’s movies usually chase on a tragedy to a traditional happy ending , conclude his films on a semisweet note . InThe Life Aquatic , Steve stop his docudrama and Jane has her sister , but Ned join Esteban in a watery grave accent . InThe Grand Budapest Hotel , Zero becomes rich and marries Agatha , but M. Gustave is toss off by a fascist death team .
InThe Royal Tenenbaums , the kinsperson finally comes together in the aftermath of Royal ’s lie about being terminally ominous . Shortly afterwards , Royal really drop dead . The final scene takes lieu at his funeral , where there are a lot of mixed emotions .
NEXT:10 Wes Anderson Trademarks In The Grand Budapest Hotel
