Wes Anderson is a director known for his peculiar style in independent films that, in addition to having incredible handling of color, captivate with their stories. Such is the case of films like Isle of Dogs, The French Dispatch, or The Grand Budapest Hotel, which have become public favorites.
While his cinematographic works are marvelous thanks to his obsession with details, it is time to talk about his undoubted taste for rhythm and melody and the assertion of his auditory link with the visual.
Clicking on musical perception creates visibly extraordinary experiences and dares to transform both the scene and the songs that surround it.
The French Dispatch – “Aline” by Jarvis Cocker
Britpop icon and Pulp vocalist Jarvis Cocker was commissioned to compose the soundtrack for Anderson’s latest film.
Cocker made his own version of French music classics, among them “Aline”, a romantic song made famous by the French singer Christophe.
Timothée Chalamet is the protagonist of this magical scene in which he finds himself in the streets of a fictional French city and enters a bar where he meets the young woman who conquers him, while this iconic melody plays in the background.
Bottle Rocket – “2000 Man” by The Rolling Stones
Besides being the first work of this director, the action and heist film where a thief steals from a thief talks about the friendship between three men who have no idea what to do with their lives, where although they are not the perfect team, the intention is to capture the crime as an afterthought and the demonstration of the genre in its image and likeness.
Wes Anderson has made clear his love for The Rolling Stones in many of his films, but we must highlight as a great success the use of “2000 Man” in one of the most famous scenes of this work.
Well, while his big heist attempt falls apart, he is accompanied by this mythical song in the background.
The Life Aquatic whit Steve Zisson – “Rebel Rebel” by Seu Jorge
Not to be left out of Steve’s bizarre story: a man who loses his best friend to a shark and his quest for revenge on a submarine. This surreal portrait of strange encounters with pirates, a kidnapping, his ex-partner, and a journalist, brings with it an incredible musical selection.
He certainly made a good soundtrack decision, as he chose Seu Jorge (Brazilian musician) and his multiple interpretations of popular works such as “Rebel Rebel” by the iconic David Bowie to accompany the plot.
The Darjeeling Limited – “This Time Tomorrow” by The Kinks
Nothing better than a soundtrack that talks about transience and ephemerality, because what is today isn’t certain to be tomorrow, especially when you don’t know where you’re going.
The Darjeeling Limited is a dramatic film with touches of comedy, it tells the story of three brothers estranged by time and the unexpected reunion thanks to the death of their father. The situation makes them sensitive and reflective and leads them to a train trip through India from which there is no descent very soon.
Between quarrels and the race for the unforeseen, this song by The Kinks sounds, speaking to us of the ambiguous mystery of the future and in its visual company, it lets us see the complex freedom of being.
Moonrise Kingdom – “Le temps de L’ amour” by Françoise Hardy
Full of color, passion, and innocence Wes Anderson wraps us in the sensible understanding of the awakening of love, for in this story two twelve-year-old boys find themselves surrounded by sensations and feelings that more than understanding, they enjoy.
Within this adventure, they look for a way to disappear from the world around them to elope together and continue living their idyllic love.
After showing us a scene that represents how pure the passion of a couple of children in love can be, we can hear that these are times of love and adventure in which we think of nothing else and that they will always be days of warmth and happiness because being in love, the heart beats faster.
Story originally published in Spanish in Cultura Colectiva
