Analyzing Anderson

March 31st, 2009 at 11:17am Will Pfeifer

Here’s an interesting article by Matt Zoller Seitz that examines the influences and visual style of one of the most interesting directors working today, Wes Anderson. I especially like this section, which discusses a suprising (to me, at least) inspiration for Max Fischer, the lead character in Anderson’s 1998 film, RUSHMORE…

When I interviewed Anderson for a 1998 Star-Ledger article about A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS, directed by the late animator Bill Melendez, Anderson cited Melendez as one of three major influences on his work, so we’ll start there. Anderson told me that he and his screenwriting collaborator, Owen Wilson, conceived RUSHMORE hero Max Fischer as Charlie Brown plus Snoopy. He said that Miss Cross, the teacher Max adores and will draw into a weirdly Freudian love triangle with the industrialist Mr. Blume, is a combination of Charlie Brown’s teacher and his unattainable love object, the little red-haired girl. Anderson and Wilson even made Max a working-class barber’s son, just like Peanuts creator Charles Schulz, and gave Seymour Cassel, the actor playing Bert Fischer, glasses similar to Schulz’s.

I never noticed that before, but it makes perfect sense. A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS can be glimpsed during a scene in Max’s dad’s barber shop, and in his next film, THE ROYAL TENNENBAUMS, Anderson used a snippet of music from that TV special on the soundtrack.

Entry Filed under: directors