It is unlikely that you will be able to scroll through Instagram at the moment without stumbling on reels and more reels paying homage to filmmaker Wes Anderson’s aesthetics and cinema.
Suddenly, the world has rediscovered Anderson; the reels have attracted millions of views worldwide. Tracing the genesis of this viral social media trend isn’t difficult. In April, American TikToker Ava Williams posted a video headlined: ‘You better not be acting like you’re in a Wes Anderson film’. The viral Tik Tok video saw Ava filming herself on a New York commuter train, and close-ups of her ticket and shoes, which garnered over 2 million views in 10 days.
It triggered countless Tik Tok videos and then Instagram reels, with highly stylized, symmetrically framed video montages of people going about their everyday life, striding with a seeming purpose. They reference the filmmaker’s poker-faced characters, walking to a coffee shop or a florist on New York’s streets, dressed in '60s-style wide-bottomed pants and an open-collared shirt or dresses, often floral.
The social media videos are backed by whimsical music by Alexandre Desplat (specifically Obituary from Anderson’s 2021 film, The French Dispatch). In one video, Josh Rimmey documented himself working in his wood shop. The title card read: “The shop. 5:30 pm (PST)”. Quick cutting shots move between carefully organized close-ups of tools on his workbench, to others of him donning safety equipments before going about his woodwork.
The colour-saturated world of Wes Anderson’s cinema
It's clear that Anderson’s colour-saturated cinematic aesthetic has hooked a new generation of social media users and influencers, many of them not familiar with his style of filmmaking.
The attempt is to recreate his unique cinematic aesthetic, which is visible in classics such as The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Darjeeling Limited, and Fantastic Mr Fox. The visual appeal of balance and symmetry, a touch of enchantment and the whimsical are difficult to ignore.
Victor López G., a film critic and Instagram content creator, believes Wes Anderson’s cinematic view lends itself to a largely beauty-driven social media. “Symmetry is tremendously attractive to the brain since it is easy to analyze and process; it creates a sense of order, elegance and simplicity,” he says. This—along with zenithal shots, the ones that are seen from above—creates a pleasant sensation for the viewer while the characters interact and seem to be part of the story in an integrated way.”
Anderson’s use of colour in a cinemascape dominated by sombre grey palettes, makes him apt for creating videos that have the potential for going viral.
Indians, with no access to TikTok, have taken the trend viral on Instagram. That the country has colour woven into its DNA, makes it easier to recreate some of the aesthetic. But how many know that Anderson has, over the years, spoken about how India inspired his cinema?
India in Anderson’s cinema
In an interview with The New York Times a couple of years ago, Anderson spoke about how Satyajit Ray’s cinema and India’s colour-splashed heritage buildings, such as Hawa Mahal, inspired so much of his visual aesthetics.
The filmmaker acknowledged that the idea of The Darjeeling Limited was rooted in his desire to pay tribute to Ray, whose "films have inspired all my other movies in different ways. Ray’s Pather Panchali, about an impoverished priest who leaves his rural Bengal village in search of work, has direct ties to Darjeeling. In the final scene, Jack, Peter and Francis run after the Bengal Lancer train, mirroring the way Durga and Apu from Pather Panchali run across a meadow as a train goes by in the distance.”
The Darjeeling Limited
Those who have watched and loved The Darjeeling Limited may also remember a portrait of Ray seen above the three Whitman brothers while they sit in their cabin aboard the Bengal Lancer. For The Darjeeling Limited, Anderson also borrowed Ray’s music score ‘Charu’s Theme’ from the film Charulata, which bounds the tragi-comedy of the Whitman brothers together in the film.
“It’s some of the most unique music that we’ve ever used,” Anderson had told The Rolling Stone magazine at the time. “I had to personally introduce myself to the Satyajit Ray family and foundation and convince them that it was worthwhile to digitize all of his master tapes. I wound up sitting in Calcutta for five days waiting for them to hand them over. But that was one of the great experiences of my life.”
The song Charu’s Theme for the other Ray classic, Charulata, plays in the background when Jack invites Rita into the train’s bathroom to smoke a cigarette, and again when Rita says goodbye to Jack and his brothers through the train window. The Darjeeling Limited also included music from Ray’s other films such as Joi Baba Felunath, Teen Kanya and Jalsaghar.
How Hawa Mahal in Jaipur inspired Anderson
The mithai pink of Jaipur's old city buildings, particularly Hawa Mahal, has found resonance in many of Anderson’s movies.
“The red sandstone palace in Jaipur, India, with its five-story pyramidal shape, built-in 1799 by Maharaja Sawai Pratap Singh, is one of the most beautifully symmetrical and colour-saturated buildings I have seen,” he said in The New York Times interview. The famous honeycomb latticework was originally built to allow royal ladies to observe the city from above without being seen since they could not go out in public without face coverings.
From Fort Kochi to Mumbai’s Ballard Estate, Kolkata’s buses, Delhi’s Lodhi Colony to Goa’s pastel-coloured homes, the country has no dearth of locations Anderson loved and wanted to film in.
Wes Anderson and pop culture
Is the current viral trend just a blip in the social media universe, or is Wes Anderson fast achieving pop-culture icon status, much like Che Guevara, of whose politics and philosophy the young generations know little, but whose image continues to be printed on everything, from T-shirts to bags and bandanas. Or like Frida Kahlo, the Spanish artist who has, in recent times, achieved cult status on social media.
Anderson’s colour palette, the graphic design elements in his films, the symmetry and the world he creates, have a legion of fans, and two Instagram handles dedicated to his visual aesthetics. Accidentally Wes Anderson (2 million followers) creates pink and blue and yellow-saturated colour guides on atypical destinations.
Then there is Wes Anderson Planet, which posts photographs of destinations, cities and moments shot by Wes Anderson fans and followers across the world in his quintessential style.
In the meantime, Wes Anderson refuses to see any of these viral videos. Talking to Jake Coyle in an interview with the Associated Press, he said self-effacingly: “I’ve not seen the ones related to me or the ones not related to me. I have a feeling I would just feel like, gosh, is that what I’m doing? So I protect myself.”
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