Life in the Water was undoubtedly a setback in Wes Anderson's film career, and despite its decent user ratings, it scored only 6.2 in Metacritic's media ratings, the lowest score in his film sequences to date. The film also did not fare well at the box office, and the production cost of 50 million was only recovered by 34 million. Even Wes Anderson himself reflected: in the commentary track, he argued that some of the passages in the film were not well filmed, and jokingly mentioned criticism of the film's "lack of delicacy."
Behind this failure, however, is the first time two unique filmmakers have joined forces. The success of Wes Anderson's former partner, Owen Wilson, in his acting career kept him busy. In Life in the Water, Noah Baumbach collaborated on a screenplay with Wes Anderson for the first time. Baumbach's film career began at a similar time to Wes Anderson, whose first film, Twenty Years of Madness, predates Anderson's Rocket in a Bottle, which eventually became a successful low-budget whispering nuclear film. But after filming Mr. Jealousy, Baumbach didn't make a film for several years. During this time, he became acquainted with Anderson and produced Life in the Water. Wes Anderson worked closely with Noah Baumbach, who was the producer of Squid and Whale, and the two later worked on The Great Fox Daddy. The similarity and mutual influence between the two is not only reflected in the stylistic superposition of these collaborative works, but also in their other independent works.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > similar source of inspiration: childhood, new wave</h1>
In terms of inspiration, both Anderson and Baumbach combine autobiographical elements, especially those related to childhood and their early experiences during the creative process. "Bottled Rocket" and "Youth" were filmed in Anderson's Texas, while the latter was filmed in Anderson's high school. For Baumbach, his father was a successful novelist, like the writer father in Squid and Whale. The family scenes in their films are somehow an extension of reality.
The French New Wave had an important influence on both, which was reflected in their overall style and content, as well as through carefully selected allusions. Some film critics have regarded Truffaut's films as a reference point for "Rocket in a Bottle" and "Youth", while Baumbach explicitly mentioned Houmai's works in "Margot at the Wedding", and even copied Houmai's preferences. The Squid and the Whale includes a reference to Jean Eustash's Mother and the Prostitute and borrows heavily from Louis Mahler's Curiosity. Given their shared interest in the French New Wave, it is not surprising that, although based on Roald Dahl's book, the soundtrack of The Great Fox Daddy also pays homage to the soundtrack from Day and Night. During the filming of Wes Anderson's "French Mission," he also arranged for the crew to watch French New Wave films. In the soundtrack of the director's review of "Life in the Water", they believe that the film satisfies their common desire to "make a movie".
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > fierce family competition</h1>
Anderson and Baumbach's films tend to be filled with fiercely competitive relationships. In Wes Anderson's films, this competition sometimes exists in the family, in "The Genius Family," where children born or adopted compete for their parents' feelings for the rest of their lives; and in Darjeeling, the rivalry exists between siblings. Sometimes this rivalry exists between friends, such as in "Youth", when Max and Bloom compete for Miss Cross's affection, and their friendship is destroyed. Much of the conflict in Baumbach's first two films also stems from competition, but mostly between friends. Since working with Anderson, however, Baumbach has shifted the focus of competition to the family.
Baumbach establishes brutal family rivalry with the opening tennis court scene in Squid and Whale, and as Frank reveals in tennis, the entire film is "Mommy and I Vs. You and Daddy", while Bernard tells Walter how to exploit his mother's weaknesses. In the film, Bernard clashes with his wife's career, and the separation of the two creates tension while the children watch their parents quarrel. In the recurring Pink Floyd song "Hey You", the atmosphere of war in the family is strengthened.
Margot at the Wedding digs further into a competitive family, and the heated dialogue in some of the unexpected moments in the film sounds completely uninhabitative. After son Claude laughed at his mother Margot's embarrassment, Margot's reaction to her son Claude almost drowning in the pool was, "Now we're tied." This is very similar to Royle's "no team" in the BB bomb game in Genius. Pauline also noted that Malcolm "competes with everyone" because he doesn't "believe that everyone has room to succeed."
In a later film, Greenberg, there is also a subtle grudge between the protagonist and his more successful brother. There are similar plots in "Life in the Water" and "The Great Fox Daddy," in which the two collaborated, in which Steve Zissou competes with his son Ned for Jenny's affection. In the latter, Ash expressed disgust for his cousin's innate athletic talent.
We can see that there is a certain similarity in the works of Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach. As in Wes Anderson's films, many of Baumbach's characters suffered deep emotional damage and were in stunted adolescence. Both directors are concerned with the oppressive potential of families, and the adult characters in their films are often less mature than children. Some scholars attribute the immaturity of the characters in Wes Anderson's films to the Oedipus complex, and there is also a disturbing intimacy in Baumbach's films, where Nicole Kidman has a disturbing intimacy with her adolescent son Claude, whose feelings alternate between love and contempt. In Squid and Whale, father and son have romantic relationships with women; similar to Max and Bloom's generational struggle for Miss Cross in "Youth," and Ned and Steve for Jane's love in Life in the Water.
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > language wars: precision and harshness of dialogue</h1>
Wes Anderson's lines are interesting, and one of the more obvious is the precision of his language, which is reflected in many of his films. In Rocket in a Bottle, Dignam lists the "75-Year Plan." Margot is described in Genius, highlighting that she was "adopted at the age of 2" and that she received "$50,000" in "ninth grade." She disappeared "four years later" and walked "for two weeks". The characters' own language also associates them with time in this way. So when precise numbers appear in a screenplay co-ordinated by Wes Anderson and Baumbach, it is likely that It was Anderson's contribution. For example, in Life in the Water, Steve discusses their route in inches on the map, while In The Great Fox Daddy, Bean demands "three shovels, two axes, and 500 rounds of ammunition." This verbal refinement is consistent with the visual style of Detail in Anderson's films, and it also shows their precise attention to things.
The meticulous consideration of the lines reflects the important place that dialogue occupies in Anderson and Baumbach's films, in addition to reflecting the texture of their films, it also often reflects the dysfunctional parent-child relationship in family competition. This is reflected in the works of Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach. In Squid and Whale, Frank tells his mother that "you're ugly," while in Margot at the Wedding, Margot actually tells her son that he will get cancer if he uses deodorant. Violent rhetoric is also often accompanied by heartbreak for the characters in the film. This kind of language reflects the insensitivity, directness, and lack of empathy of parents to their children in the movie, and reflects the lack of emotional connection between the characters. As Margot at the Wedding shows. Claude is keen and troubled by his mother's oppression. In addition, the two directors usually have the characters interrupt each other's words to show the sharp contradictions between the characters.
These vicious words are often contagious in movies. The characters in the duo's films tend to be critical of the literal meaning of details, discuss the correct meaning of semantics in great detail and insist that one meaning is more important than another. Everyday dialogue is crafted into elaborate games to reveal that family life is an ongoing war of words. In Squid and Whale, after their parents divorce, Bernard and Frank argue between "our house" and "mother's house" about which is the right term. There is a similar exchange in "The Genius Family".
This contagiousness is more pronounced between generations, so much so that it has some genetic trait. Back in Baumbach's Squid and Whales, in the opening tennis court scene, Mother Joan is concerned about her father Bernard's frustrated cursing. In the later development of the film, we can find that Frank developed a bad relationship with his father and used his improper cursing throughout the film. We also saw the spread of the label in The Genius and Margot's "adoption" label in the family. Originally, the label was used by Royle and Margot herself, but in later conversations between Eli Cash and Ritchie Trenbauer, Ritchie continued the idea. In Life in the Water, Wes Anderson also argues in the commentary track that Ned actually inherited some of Steve Zissou's innocence.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > concluding remarks</h1>
Naturally, the similarities between Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach's work do not stop there, and their sensitivity to the soundtrack and their application are also remarkably similar. In Life in the Water, Wes Anderson abandons the music commonly used in the previous works for the Rolling Stones soundtrack in favor of a Portuguese adaptation of David Bowie's work. Baumbach, on the other hand, has used the transformation of in-picture music and out-of-picture music to create surprises in several films.
From the analysis of the works of Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach, we can see the family theme and the centrality of the quarrel in their films. This trait continues to ferment and function in Noah Baumbach's work, and the presence of these elements can also be clearly seen in his later works "Young Age" and "American Lover". Wes Anderson had a widespread success before Baumbach, and after several mediocre films, Baumbach finally made the critically acclaimed Marriage Story last year. And in the core of "Marriage Story", it is still full of those elements that run through his career.