Some movie directors delight in talking about their films. Wes Anderson isn’t one of them.
Even so, cultural critic Matt Zoller Seitz can’t help but admire yet another of the signature qualities of the director of such vividly wrought tales as “The Royal Tenenbaums,” “Moonrise Kingdom,” and this year’s Oscar nominee for best picture “The Grand Budapest Hotel”: Seitz can be a tough interview.
A favorite moment in his research for the 2013 book “The Wes Anderson Collection” came when Seitz decided to share with the director and longtime acquaintance his theory of a particular shot that has become something of a signature camera movement in Anderson films.
The director listened. Then, recounts Seitz, “(Anderson) replied, ‘Well that’s really interesting but the truth is the very first shot I did like that, we did because the weather was bad.’ “
Friday, Seitz will be in town for a screening of “The Grand Budapest Hotel” at the Alamo Drafthouse in Littleton. He’ll then participate in a Q&A and book signing.
Editor-in-chief at RogerEbert.com and a critic for New York Magazine, Seitz has followed up his original coffee-table compendium with “The Wes Anderson Collection: The Grand Budapest Hotel,” an even more dazzlingly rich and instructive volume (Abrams 2015).
Q: The Denver Post: What compelled you to return to Anderson so soon after the 2013 book?
A: We didn’t go in thinking “Well, we’ll do more books as he does more movies.” But then people actually bought the book. The question became, “If he’s going to do more movies, what are we going to do about that?” One idea was to do a supplementary volume, like the old Encyclopedia Britannica supplements. (I’m showing my age.) But once I started working on it, I realized I had an opportunity to treat the book as a teaching tool, to explore the making of a movie with a bit more depth. That’s why there are also interviews with the production designer, the composer, the cinematographer.
That’s why we have a whole section about Stefan Zweig (the famed Austrian author of “The World of Yesterday” who killed himself in Brazil in 1942). Because the movie’s not based on Zweig. Yet Wes gratefully acknowledges the work of Stefan Zweig in a title card. I wanted to find out, what is that about?
Q: It’s pretty amusing and clear from your interviews that Anderson can be very resistant — in a gracious way — to confirming or denying ideas about the meaning of his work.
A: Yeah. I’ll say “I have a theory, would you like to hear it?” He’s like. “Oh boy.” He’s like a guy who rolls up his sleeve to get a shot. Wes is really someone who does not like to hear your theories about his work. He’ll answer almost anything else but he likes to keep that door locked pretty tight. I think it’s almost a superstitious thing.
Q: Don’t mess with my mojo …
A: I think that’s it.
Q: Which makes me think that’s why you can talk about Zweig. You can get (Anderson) to open up about other artists.
A: As long as he’s not talking about himself. There are probably people you have who are like that and then there are other people who are different. Actually the new book I’m doing is on Oliver Stone. If anything, he’s a person in which there’s too much information.
Q: So a book on Oliver Stone?
A: Yeah, the “Oliver Stone Experience.” It’s really more of a critical biography in the form of a long conversation between me and Stone that literally goes from the cradle to the present day. He talks about his childhood, his youth. There’s a long chapter on his Vietnam service. Then we go through his career phase by phase. There are too many movies to go film by film. He’s been around. He’s made four times as many films as Wes. He’s lived, shall we say, a more viscerally exciting life. Wes Anderson doesn’t have shrapnel in his butt.
Matt Zoller Seitz will be at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Littleton, 7301 S. Santa Fe Drive, 720- 588-4107, Friday, Feb. 13 for the 7:30 p.m. show and for the aptly named The Grand Budapest Hotel Craft Dessert and screening event, a post-screening Q&A and book signing. More information: drafthouse.com/calendar/denver.
Lisa Kennedy: 303-954-1567, lkennedy@denverpost.com or twitter.com/bylisakennedy
