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Balancing act: exploring the tone of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou

2011; Routledge; Volume: 10; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/17400309.2011.635035

1740-7923

John F. Gibbs,

Art History and Market Analysis

This paper provides an analysis of The Life Aquatic in the context of debates around tone, irony, the Smart Film, the New Sincerity and the Quirky. It argues that Anderson is one of a small but significant number of filmmakers to escape from the indiscriminate irony of fin de siècle cinema, and finds The Life Aquatic a particularly interesting film in which to explore such matters because of its ready artifice, strong elements of pastiche and measuredly preposterous excesses. Offering a critical analysis, the paper balances an engagement with some of the systemic elements of the film's tone with the detailed organisation of tonal elements in particular sequences.