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The shared verbal stylistics of Preston Sturges and Wes Anderson

2012; Routledge; Volume: 11; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17400309.2012.728917

1740-7923

Jeff Jaeckle,

Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism

Abstract Scholars have frequently commented on Wes Anderson's visual style of high-angle shots, lengthy close-ups, and mise-en-scène that borders on the baroque, yet discussions of his verbal style have been minimal. An in-depth review of this style, set against the films of Preston Sturges, to which Anderson's are often compared, reveals the filmmakers' shared investments in defamiliarization, including predilections for wordplay, meta-language, explicitly scripted language, and national languages other than English. Such comparisons attest to Sturges' enduring relevance while clarifying the nature of Anderson's verbal style. Keywords: Wes AndersonPreston Sturgeslanguage in cinemaaestheticsformalism Notes 1. Because I focus on Anderson's original screenplays, references to Fantastic Mr. Fox appear only in passing. 2. Here I disagree with David Thompson, who vehemently denies the Sturges–Anderson parallels. In an excerpt from The Biographical Dictionary of Film, posted on The Guardian website (http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2007/oct/26/biographicaldictionaryoffil5), Thompson (2007, October 26) argues, 'Sturges was a pained yet robust citizen of an unhappy world who had thought deeply about the need to be cheerful, while Anderson shows no more than sophomore petulance that his brittle, tender promise counts for so little.' My own reading of Anderson is that while his films are at times in danger of collapsing under the weight of their own whimsical solipsism, such concerns do not negate his and his co-writers' achievements in crafting artful cinematic language. 3. All dialogue quotations are based on my transcriptions of the films.