From elloh’s Etsy store.

These are so fantastic. I hope you buy some.

On this glorious day (May 1), 39 years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Anderson of Houston, Texas celebrated the birth of their baby boy, Wes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, WES!

Leave a birthday message for Wes!

Nice post by Justin over at Tengumaster Chronicles:

Hi everyone,

So I’m late. In more than one way, actually. First and foremost, if you’ve been checking my movie log (and I know you have), then you will notice that I just recently saw The Darjeeling Limited. Forgive me, I know I have sinned, but it was earnest- I was at school, away from limited release theaters, when it came out and by the time I returned for Christmas it was out of theaters. When the DVD came out, they were all gone in the Blockbuster in San Diego, so I finally saw it while at home for spring break. Anyways- amazing movie. Every time Wes Anderson makes a film, it becomes impossible to rank it among the others. This film was absolutely amazing, but was it better than Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums? It’s hard to say, really, they are all just so great. His visual style as well as his use of deadpan humor, minimalist dialog and a number of common themes tie his films together, and sitting next to each other on a shelf, they certainly feel related. I will not go on and on about the movies, as Rushmore Academy (The net’s biggest and best Anderson fan site) has done that well enough. I will say though, that each of his movies has certainly impacted me personally, and the way I look at family, friendship and the human condition. The idiosyncrasies of his characters and the perfection and detail of his sets, wardrobes, and soundtracks certainly convey his own little beautiful world, utterly separate from our own, but it would be hard to call his work fantasy. In the case of his most recent work, I felt so connected to all three of the Whitman brothers, in different ways. I certainly feel that my obsessive compulsive nature can be similar to Francis, but I definitely feel that my attachment to women is conveyed in Jack. Strangely enough, as hard as it is to say (as always with Anderson), my favorite of the three is probably Adrien Brody as Peter. I am in total anticipation for 2009’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox (I loved Roald Dahl as a child.) It is a shame that this film, along with his previous four, didn’t win the oscar.

Thanks, Justin!

A few years back, some of the Yankee Racers organized a Wes Anderson Film Festival.

We want to try it again. We would put up a chat room, meet at a designated time, and press play simultaneously. What do you think? What film should we watch together first?

IGN U.K. interviews Mr. Wes Anderson (hulu.com):

French photographer Pierre Wetzel lives and works in Bordeaux. He specializes in portrait and music photography.

Photos republished with permission from the author. Please visit his online galleries. Reproduction of these photographs without the consent of Mr. Wetzel is a copyright violation.

www.e-photographie.net
www.aufildesjours.info (photoblog)

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Nice post from OMG Lists, a site that apparently specializes in… lists? Nothing earth-shattering here, but worth a look.

The text is reproduced below, but be sure to visit the original post for video evidence.

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He’s one of indie filmmaking’s biggest names. If you ever find yourself watching a film you’re not sure who directed… here’s a checklist of signs to know you’re watching one of Anderson’s films.

5- Bill Murray Being Serious

If you’re seeing this comic king in a movie that was made in the past ten years it’s probably a Wes Anderson movie. Of the last fifteen film projects Murray has done four have been with Anderson. It was his role in “Rushmore” that made him an indie-film darling with such directors as Jim Jarmusch and Sofia Coppola. Murray has a strong commitment to Anderson, backing up the director by pulling out of his own pocket to help shoot a scene and also working for free in “The Royal Tenenbaums”. Their film relationship has produced some interesting film experiences as well as a partnership of respect and comradeship.

4- Slow Motion Endings

In all but one of his films, Anderson has ended with the slow motion shot. We saw Dignan leaving for prison in “Bottle Rocket”, Max’s Dance with Miss Cross in “Rushmore”, Royal Tenenbaums’s funeral, and Steve Zissou walk the red carpet all in slow motion into the end credits. It’s a signature style that Anderson has replicated in most of his films. Also notice the credits, first name in lower and uppercase but the last name is always uppercase. The only movie that broke the slow motion ending tradition? “The Darjeeling Limited,” which began with a slow motion shot of Peter Whitman barely making the namesake train.

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Another Wes sighting in Paris, this time noted on fashion design team Eley Kishimoto’s blog:

Whilst taking Alexis to see the window on the last night of fashion week Wes Anderson strolled by with a banjo over his arm walking with what looked like a band that consisted of two members I didn’t recognise and Jarvis Cocker. Alexis knees buckled fumbling at her crash helmet, it was a pleasant suprise as when we started we had dinner with Jean and met Wes and discussed it. He stated lets stay 2m and take it in, very sweet, honked the horn and off we road.

Wes in a band? With JC? Sounds like a dream come true…

Friend of the site Elaine, who is studying living abroad in France for a year, saw Mr. Wes Anderson at fnac this past weekend. She kindly posted some photographs on our Facebook group, which I have stolen reproduced here.

Vive le Wes!

From reader Michael:

Ahoy,

I randomly stumbled across this just now, not sure if you’ve seen it…

I’m submitting this because a) I hadn’t seen it before, and I’d up until now been fairly certain I’d read literally every interview Anderson conducted in promoting Darjeeling, and b) I’ve been visiting your website at least once a day since I found it, which was some time a few months before Darjeeling was released.

Here’s the pertinent bit for your convenience:

“Noah [Baumbach] and I started working on a…story for a movie without really realizing we were doing it. It wasn’t ‘The Life Aquatic.’ It was something else that we haven’t even finished writing. Whenever we would go to dinner or something, we’d just start making up scenes for this thing and then we just started writing them down because [we realized] that we’ve got a lot of stuff now.”

Best, and thanks for all the work. It’s a great site, and I appreciate the good writing.