The Films of Wes Anderson

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-viii

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2. The Wonderful Worlds of Wes Anderson

   1. Introduction

      • Peter C. Kunze

      Pages 1-9

3. Part I

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 11-11

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   2. The Short Films of Wes Anderson

      • Nicole Richter

      Pages 13-24

   3. Cast of Characters: Wes Anderson and Pure Cinematic Characterization

      • Kim Wilkins

      Pages 25-37

   4. The Jellyfish and the Moonlight: Imagining the Family in Wes Anderson’s Films

      • Steven Rybin

      Pages 39-49

   5. “Max Fischer Presents”: Wes Anderson and the Theatricality of Mourning

      • Rachel Joseph

      Pages 51-64

   6. “Who’s to Say?”: The Role of Pets in Wes Anderson’s Films

      • C. Ryan Knight

      Pages 65-75

   7. “American Empirical” Time and Space: The (In) Visibility of Popular Culture in the Films of Wes Anderson

      • Jason Davids Scott

      Pages 77-88

4. Part II

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 89-89

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   2. From the Mixed-Up Films of Mr. Wesley W. Anderson: Children’s Literature as Intertexts

      • Peter C. Kunze

      Pages 91-107

   3. A Shared Approach to Familial Dysfunction and Sound Design: Wes Anderson’s Influence on the Films of Noah Baumbach

      • Jennifer O’Meara

      Pages 109-124

   4. Bill Murray and Wes Anderson, or the Curmudgeon as Muse

      • Colleen Kennedy-Karpat

      Pages 125-137

   5. Life on Mars or Life on the Sea: Seu Jorge, David Bowie, and the Musical World in Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

      • Lara Hrycaj

      Pages 139-150

5. Part III

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 151-151

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   2. The Andersonian, the Quirky, and “Innocence”

      • James MacDowell

      Pages 153-169

   3. “I Always Wanted to Be a Tenenbaum”: Class Mobility as Neoliberal Fantasy in Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums

      • Jen Hedler Phillis

      Pages 171-180

   4. Objects/Desire/Oedipus: Wes Anderson as Late-Capitalist Auteur

      • Joshua Gooch

      Pages 181-198

   5. Systems Thinking in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Moonrise Kingdom

      • Laura Shackelford

      Pages 199-213

6. Back Matter

   Pages 215-226

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Wes Anderson's films can be divisive, but he is widely recognized as the inspiration for several recent trends in indie films. Using both practical and theoretical lenses, the contributors address and explain the recurring stylistic techniques, motifs, and themes that dominate Anderson's films and have had such an impact on current filmmaking.

• America
• cinema
• culture
• design
• English literature
• Gerhard Richter
• icon
• kingdom
• literature
• mobility
• music
• sound
• time
• William James

'Kunze's collection offers a broad array of critical responses to Wes Anderson's films - from their quirky sensibility, their portrayal of idiosyncratic characters, their relation to neoliberal fantasies, and the importance of music to Anderson's collaboration with Noah Baumbach. The Films of Wes Andserson is invaluable for bringing us much closer to understanding Anderson's significance as an American Indiewood filmmaker." - Warren Buckland, Reader in Film Studies, Oxford Brookes University, UK

"Spanning a diverse range of perspectives on a figure who is now undoubtedly recognized as the icon of the indie era, this collection valuably complicates and challenges the generalized notions of Wes Anderson that characterize popular opinion. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the work of this director as more than merely 'whimsical.'" - Claire Perkins, Film and Television Studies, Monash University, USA, and author of American Smart Cinema

"Appropriately, the essays collected in this volume provide an array of perspectives on a filmmaker whose work consistently fights against isolation. It is fitting indeed that the first serious book-length exploration of Anderson's work is a truly collaborative effort. Including fourteen essays from fourteen distinct points of view, the reader comes away from Kunze's collection with a sense of the filmmaker and his unusually inclusive worldview, as well as a sense of respect for the power of a critical conversation (as opposed to the monologue)." - Devin Orgeron, Associate Professor, Director of Film Studies, North Carolina State University, USA, and author of "La Camera-Crayola: Authorship Comes of Age in the Cinema of Wes Anderson"

• University at Albany, SUNY, USA

  Peter C. Kunze

Kim Wilkins, University of Sydney, Australia Colleen Kennedy-Karpat, Bilkent University, Turkey C. Ryan Knight, Randolph County Community College, USA Joshua Gooch, D'Youville College, USA Steven Rybin, Georgia Gwinnett College, USA Jennifer O'Meara, University of Dublin, Trinity College, Ireland James MacDowell, University of Warwick, UK Jen Hedler Phillis, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA Rachel Joseph, Trinity University, USA Laura Shackelford, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA Nicole Richter, Wright State University, USA Jason Davids Scott, Stephen F. Austin State University, USA Lara Hrycaj, Wayne State University, USA

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