Wes Anderson's voice

For this week, I watched three of Wes Anderson's films, including The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, and Fantastic Mr. Fox. I had recently watched The Grand Budapest Hotel and Moonrise Kingdom before, however, I decided to re-watch them to get a better grasp to compare them.

The three films share many similarities including themes, styles and motifs. They all share an adventurous theme. All the protagonists initially had honorable reasons to embark on the adventure, but later their actions either backfire or cause more problems than they had originally for not thinking through it thoroughly.

Wes Anderson has his own unique style to express humor in the three films. For example, when a character is explaining something, they tend to comment with many witty remarks, quotes, references, and side notes. These are shown in M. Gustave and Mr. Fox’s explanations or speeches. In addition, there is an excessive use of body language and gestures depicted in the actors and characters when interacting with others. For example M. Gustave is an overly welcoming hotel manager in The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Mr. Fox's frequently uses a whistle snap as his signature move for attention in Fantastic Mr. Fox. Furthermore, all three films uses a convenient solution to resolve difficult and dangerous situations. For example it is humorous how M. Gustave managed to acquaint his cellmates, asking them to help him escape. Similarly, when Mr. Fox starts explaining a plan for their barrier, only for his Opossum partner to quickly find an easier route. Lastly, I noticed that there is a similarity in the way Wes Anderson ended his films. He used a technique where the scene slowly zooms out to give an indication of how things were resolved in the plot.

All films share a common motif of acceptance into the society. When watching the movies I found that the three main protagonists and some of their closed ones from all three movies tended to be depicted differently from the rest of the characters in society. Even though they were portrayed differently, everyone else eventually accepted them. The second common motif was the paternal bond formed between characters, for example, Zero with Gustave, Sam with the Police Captain Sharp, and Ash with his father Mr. Fox. Another common motif I noticed was the use of thunderstorms and its significance in two of Wes Anderson’s films, Moonrise Kingdom and Fantastic Mr. Fox. In the film Moonrise Kingdom, there was a weather forecast of a storm heading towards the island, that later became a great obstacle for the plot. For Fantastic Mr. Fox, Mr. Fox's wife had a habit of including thunderstorms in all of her landscape paintings foreshadowing the truth at the ending.

In conclusion, Wes Anderson uses similar ideas for themes, styles and motifs in The Grand Budapest Hotel, Moonrise Kingdom, and Fantastic Mr. Fox. These similarities represent his unique way of trademarking his work.

Screenplay statement

Marketing Star Wars Empire Strikes Back

Writing from the position of a Marketing Director for the Star Wars Empire Strikes Back original screenplay, I would start with thinking about the target audience that would be interested in watching the movie. As a marketing director, I believe that the movie is targeted towards all ages. Therefore, I would strategically advertise the movie in public areas where a general target market can be advertised to and giving the greater insight of the content of the movie. For a younger based audience, between the ages of 13 to 25, advertising would mainly be done through social media including Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. A secondary advertising medium would be through television. This generation is extremely tech-savvy and therefore social media is the easiest to approach them. In addition to social media and television, marketing to this generation can be done in a more interactive and entertaining manner. For example, similar to the Lego Movie and Zootopia’s cutout advertising, Empire strikes back can have a cut out of a space ship where younger generations can physically explore the setting and get a feel for the movie. They can them upload the photographs to any social media website to share and promote the movie to their friends. For the older audience from the age of 26+, my marketing strategy is to mainly advertise through television and newspaper articles. I would also have billboards along main highways, bus stops and populated areas visible for everyone. This generation is not in touch with social media as much as the younger generation. They pursue more outdoor activities therefore outdoor advertising works better to reach this market. As a marketing director, these are the elements I would use to promote Star Wars Empire Strikes.

Feminist critical positions in True Grit

For this blog post I will be referring to Mattie from True Grit, the story of Mattie who is on a quest to avenge her father’s death by her family’s servant. During her journey, she hired a Marshal to help her find the culprit, and along the way she met a Ranger who happened to be looking for the same man for the bounty. On their way, they set out to look for clues on the criminal's whereabouts and found he had joined a gang of bandits.Their adventure continued to unfold as the story progressed.

Mattie is the protagonist and the only female character in the story. In True Grit, Mattie juxtaposes most western stories that portray female characters as a “damsels in distress”; she never gave me the impression of a weak minded damsel even though she became one herself when she got captured by the gang. Mattie is mainly portrayed as a strong-willed woman with a stubborn streak who has a tendency to take matters into her own hands, and see through anything she set out to do. Throughout the story, she never went through a character development, neither in the epilogue of the story. In the book, it mentioned that after the journey she never changed her personality and never got married. This showed that Mattie did not feel obligated to take on the stereotypical role that most western female would have in that era.

The other characters reactions towards her behavior varied. The Marshal portrayed her as a stubborn girl. He treated her like a kid and tried to keep her out of the mission to keep her out of danger. However, because of Mattie’s stubbornness, she was determined to stick to the deal. Unlike the “stereotypical” western woman, Mattie’s bravery and determination separates her from the rest of the women. The Ranger had a different reaction towards Mattie’s behaviour, he found that Mattie had a strong determination and attitude that was not found amongst other women. In the Ranger’s first encounter with Mattie, he flirted with her but got shut down immediately, causing their relationship to become bitter. The Ranger was used to male dominant societies where women did not have the confidence to voice their opinions against men. However, Mattie voiced her discomfort towards the Ranger which angered him. Throughout the story the Ranger became more respectful towards Mattie and her determination. This was an unusual situation as the Ranger was not used to having women voice themselves and show courage towards men.

Influence Between Zweig and Anderson

For this blog post, I will be comparing common elements in Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman by Stefan Zweig and The Grand Budapest Hotel by Wes Anderson. Some common elements of both works include: story form and structure, setting, plot ideas and themes.

STORY FORM AND STRUCTURE

Both the story and the film have a similar story form and structure where both are narrated as a story within a story.

SETTING

The setting of both works take place in a hotel in Europe. In Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman, the setting is a small hotel on the French Riveria, similarly in the Grand Budapest Hotel, the setting is a high-class hotel.

PLOT IDEAS

Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman is a short story about a middle aged woman who talked to a stranger for three hours before fleeing with him.

The Grand Budapest Hotel’s plot revolves around the protagonist M Gustave, a wealthy concierge working at a hotel and Zero Moustafa, who works for Gustave as a Lobby boy. One day Gustave was informed about Madame D.’s death and reveals that she left him a valuable Renaissance painting which angered her family.

Both the story and the film share similar plot ideas where it was considered a taboo for women in the time period to interact with a stranger. In the short story, the woman interacts with a stranger and fled with him, and in the film, a similar idea was shown when Madame D. left her valuables to a stranger rather than her family.

THEME

One of the common theme found in both works is obsession. In Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman, the idea of obsession is shown by two characters; the young man who is obsessed with gambling and the middle aged widow who finds an obsession with the man. Similarly, in The Grand Budapest Hotel, Dmitri is obsessed with his mother’s painting and belongings.

CONCLUSION

Personally, I believe that the film The Grand Budapest Hotel borrowed its ideas from the story Twenty-four Hours in the Life of a Woman because Anderson was inspired by Zweig stories. When watching the film, I can see the presence of many of Zweig’s styles and common elements including similar story form and structure, setting, plot ideas and themes.

True Grit

“True Grit” is a novel that was later adapted into a film. I personally think that the story had a very interesting and unique plot for a western theme story. The plot line revolves around a young girl who is after the criminal that killed her father. She hires a marshal to help her hunt down the criminal to give justice to her father’s death. Both the novel and the film use classic themes for a Western story including going to the bar, traveling on horseback, searching for wanted criminals, and the all time favorite, gun fights. However, both have some unique characteristics that are not particularly used in western stories. Some examples include, the use of a female protagonist who has a strong but stubborn personality and the hero who is portrayed by an old drunk marshal instead of a reliable sheriff. In my opinion, the film followed very similar to the novel, however, I encountered some differences. The novel described every scene in detail to reflect the given time period whereas the film naturally selected some scenes to be included due to time constraints. Although the film skipped on some details, it does not stray too far from the main plot. Another difference is that in the novel, each chapter is represented as one day, but in the film, time flows quite naturally due to entertainment purposes. Lastly, the narration of the novel and film vary; the novel is written in first person narrative, this being Mattie the protagonist. On the other hand, the film emphasises on different viewpoints. In conclusion, although both the novel and the film may differ in some ways, the film follows the novel’s plot line very similar. Both contain some of the traditional western genre. In my opinion, I found the story very interesting and fun to read and watch.

The Journey to the West Vol. 1

The revised edition of the classical Chinese legend, The Journey to the West, is a fascinating story filled with adventure, drama, action, and humor. The legend is based on a true story of a Chinese pilgrim's journey to India and back, which introduced China to the Buddhist faith. The first volume mainly emphasizes the main characters’ stories bringing them all together throughout the journey. Every moment in the story is very detailed; it includes funny actions or dialogs, serious moments of suspense, and extremely gory explanations. The volume begins by telling the backstory of the Monkey King, Sun Wukong, which took around seven of the twenty-five chapters in the book. This was the longest backstory I had ever read. It mostly describes his origins and how he obtained his powers and weapon. I was surprised his mischief caused him many troubles that even led to a war against the gods. However, he still managed to stand his ground against them. The book continues with the backstory of the monk, Chen Xuanzang, the most touching and tragic part of the book. It then introduces the Tang Emperor story where he organizes a ritual, the main purpose of the journey. Through the journey, the monk encounters four monsters separately, each become his disciples and join him as his guardians; the Monkey King, a dragon who accidentally ate the monk's horse and had to transform into one, a fat pig demon who is the main comic relief of the story and a water imp that keeps the group in balance. Overall, the author of the book uses sections of poetry to describe characters and sceneries to enhance the book and give the audience vivid insights to the story. One of my favorite characters was Bodhisattva Guanyin, the one behind organizing the journey. I like Guanyin because of her supportive nature with the main characters and the way she teases the Monkey King. In addition, my favorite moments in the story are the Monk’s reactions to the Monkey when he does something crazy or reckless. However, there was one thing in the book that I thought was not necessary which were the literal translations of the religious name for the three creatures. In my opinion the translations make it more confusing for the reader to understand which character is being referred to. For example, the pig's religious name is Zhu Bajie, which translates into "Zhu (Pig)” and “Bajie (Eight Rules)". However, the author often addresses the pig as Eight Rules instead of Zhu Bajie, which makes the name blend into the sentence. Often I do not realize that the author is referring to him until much later. Overall, I really enjoyed reading the story since it contained many side stories to keep it interesting.