Paul Schlase, Tony Revolori, Tilda Swinton et Ralph Fiennes in The Grand Budapest Hotel(2014)
François Truffaut, the great Nouvelle Vague film director, once said that every French person had 2 jobs: their official job and film critique. It is probably why France has Europe’s most vibrant film industry, fiercely protected by the government. It’s no surprise either that the most important film festival happens to be in Cannes, on the French Riviera. And one of the most important institutions in the world to protect the history of cinema, restore films, make them available to everyone, founded by Henri Langlois in 1936 is the Cinémathèque. The Cinémathèque has just opened an exhibition celebrating the magical, poetic and zany universe of American director Wes Anderson.
Jason Schwartzman, OwenWilson, Adrien Brody in The Darjeeling Limited(2007)
The first ever exhibition dedicated to Anderson presents all his films in chronological order, from his first one, Bottle Rocket (1996), to the most recent, Asteroid City, starring Scarlett Johansson, Adrian Brody, Tom Hanks, Margot Robbie and Jason Schwartzman whose first role was in Wes Anderson’s Rushmore (1998).
Stepping out of the elevator on the 5th floor of the Cinémathèque, one is greeted by a giant image from Anderson’s most successful film The Grand Budapest Hotel, with British actor Ralph Finnes as Monsieur Gustave, the famed concierge of a mountainside resort in the fictional town of Zubrowka, looking at you, next to the lobby boy played by Tony Revolori. Then, one enters the wonderfully whimsical world of Anderson, presented in a series of very photogenic red rooms.
Fantastic Mr. Fox, 2009
Then the director’s unique vision which has birthed some of the most visually and emotionally fascinating films of the past 25 years, unfolds. You have access to Anderson’s notes, storyboards, accessories, the wonderful costumes designed by multi Oscar winning costume designer Milena Canonero, maquettes, paintings made for his films, books, maps of imaginary places like the island of New Penzance, furniture, journals, the puppets from his stop motion film Fantastic Mr. Fox, etc., elements of each of his 12 films in which Wes Anderson transforms the reality of the world we live in. For each character, Anderson has imagined not only their clothes, but the objects that surround them down - a Swiss Army knife for his character in Rushmore, his second film, to the perfume bottles -Air de Panache - from The Grand Budapest Hotel, or the words “Bravo Max ! Love, Mom”, inscribed in golden letters on the typewriter cover of his Rushmore hero, Max. This inscription is symptomatic os Wes Anderson’s attention not only to details, but to the psychological story of the characters he created. Max’s fictional mother died when he was 7 years old. But he finds strength in these words, when everything seems to fall apart around him.
As everything seems very shaky at the moment, a situation Max would appreciate, now is the perfect time to visit the wonderful universe imagined by Wes Anderson.
~Jean-Sébastien Stehli
AnjelicaHuston,BillMurray and CateBlanchett in La Vie aquatique(2003)
Wes Anderson, Cinémathèque, Paris. Until 07.27.25. cinematheque.fr
WesAndersonsur on the set of AsteroidCity(2023). Roger Do Minh.
