Day ten: Rushmore (March, 19)

The day with a Wes Anderson movie is a happy one. 

In all his movies, he takes us by hand with songs... so I start this post presenting three songs from Rushmore, the tenth day movie in this dare. I chose those, but in youtube there are the whole soundtrack, that is amazing.

I've read that Anderson wanted a movie with only 

The Kinks songs. But only used this one.

One of my favorite scenes, the tree one. Absolutely 

beautiful and heartbreaking.

At the end of last year, I've read a book, part of a trilogy, called Anna and the French Kiss, by Stephanie Perkins for young adults. Anna is an american teenager studying in Paris against her will. She loves movies, wants to study cinema at the college and doesn't know that Paris is the capital of movie's theaters (a plot with a lot of flaws, as it seems). The book is cute, the characters are cute, and some of their references are incredibly close to my own, like this one:

"Bridge calls as I'm watching Rushmore from the comfort of my mini-bed. It's the filme that lauched Wes Anderson. Wes is amazing, a true auteur involved in every aspect of production, with a trademark style recognizable in any frame - wistful and quirky, deadpan and dark" (p. 237).

One of Anna's favorites films, I've had never seen it until today. All the time I was questioning myself: why you took so long?

Actually, this delay in seeing Anderson's movies is becoming almost a tradition. Except The Grand Budapest Hotel, that I've watched twice at the movie's theater, I use to be a bit cautions regarding Wes' productions (after such a long time, I think we are good on a first name basis). 

The first one, The Royal Tenenbaums (that became the subject of the sencond chapter of my dissertation). About the delay, I can explain: the movie's stills freaked me a little. But in its first scene, I was captured for life in the Wes Anderson's way of storytelling. The next delays were another kind of cautions: I already knew that his movies would shake me for sure. So I'm always take care when approaching Wes Anderson's movies. But, as always again, I'm happily catapulted to his worlds at the first scene.

The day had another color because of Rushmore. And its not a happy story, but a true one. A heartfelt tale of love, loss, growing up, solitude, friendship and the things that matter to us. Wes Anderson is a master in the art of filming life. The no-naturalistic way by which he does that just accentuate the honesty of his films, and not the opposite, as one could think. He explicits the ficcional aspects of his narratives, and, in doing so, he just puts us on in the middle of the tumult of being alive. And happy. And lost. In love. In awe. 

Taking us gently by hand with his images and the always beautiful and heartbreanking songs that he chooses only for these special trips through ordinary life.

The song to this scene is Oh, Yoko, by John Lennon. Thanks God

I was at home... I sang so loudly and jumped from the couch,

dancing and singing happily... Wes Anderson, Ladies and Gentleman!!!!

Rushmore. Directed by Wes Anderson. With: Jason Schwartzman (his first hole); Bill Murray, Olivia Williams. Writers: Wes Anderson, Owen Wilson. US, 1998, 93 min., DTS/Dolby Digital/SDDS, Color (DVD).

PS: As the first movie by which Wes Anderson became known, we can see some appearences that were a constant in his films. There are a lot of familiar faces. It was the beggining of some long time colaborations, and it is curious to read the trivia on the imdb site. The Bill Murray's story is particularly sweet.

PPS:  The Royal Tenembaums' first scene is a beautiful way to present a story, with an orchestrated version of Hey Jude, by Beatles, to take our feet of the floor and embark on Anderson's journey of family and love and inadequacy. 

PPPS: Fragments: The Fault in Our Stars, 2014 (the whole movie, actually); The Hours (2002, beautiful); Divergent (2014).