April 15, 2014 (Series 28: 11) Wes Anderson, THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS (2001, 110 minutes)

Directed by Wes Anderson Cinematography by Robert D. Yeoman Written by Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson Produced by Wes Anderson, Barry Mendel and Scott Rudin Edited by Dylan Tichenor Gene Hackman ... Royal Tenenbaum Anjelica Huston ... Etheline Tenenbaum Ben Stiller ... Chas Tenenbaum Gwyneth Paltrow ... Margot Tenenbaum Luke Wilson ... Richie Tenenbaum Owen Wilson ... Eli Cash Bill Murray ... Raleigh St. Clair Danny Glover ... Henry Sherman Alec Baldwin ... Narrator Wes Anderson (director) (b. Wesley Wales Anderson, May 1, 1969 in Houston, Texas) wrote 12 films: 2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2013 Castello Cavalcanti (Short), 2012 Cousin Ben Troop Screening with Jason Schwartzman (Short), 2012 Moonrise Kingdom, 2009 Fantastic Mr. Fox, 2007 Hotel Chevalier (Short), 2007 The Darjeeling Limited, 2004 The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums, 1998 Rushmore, 1996 Bottle Rocket, and 1994 Bottle Rocket (Short). He also directed 13: 2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2013 Castello Cavalcanti (Short), 2013 Prada: Candy (Short), 2012 Cousin Ben Troop Screening with Jason Schwartzman (Short), 2012 Moonrise Kingdom, 2009 Fantastic Mr. Fox, 2007 Hotel Chevalier (Short), 2007 The Darjeeling Limited, 2004 The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums, 1998 Rushmore, 1996 Bottle Rocket, and 1994 Bottle Rocket (Short). Robert D. Yeoman (cinematographer) (b. Robert David Yeoman, March 10, 1951 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) was the cinematographer for 47 films and television shows, including 2014 Love & Mercy, 2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2013 The Heat, 2012 Moonrise Kingdom, 2011 Bridesmaids, 2008 Yes

Man, 2008 A Matador's Mistress, 2007 The Darjeeling Limited, 2005 The Squid and the Whale, 2004 The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums, 2000 Beautiful, 1999 Dogma, 1998 Rushmore, 1997 Dog Watch (Video), 1997 White Lies, 1996 Bottle Rocket, 1994 Somebody to Love, 1993 The Paint Job, 1993 “Double Deception” (TV Movie), 1991 Past Midnight, 1990 Too Much Sun, 1989 The Wizard, 1989 Drugstore Cowboy, 1988 Johnny Be Good, 1987 Rampage, 1986 “C.A.T. Squad” (TV Movie), and 1983 Hero. Gene Hackman ... Royal Tenenbaum (b. Eugene Allen Hackman, January 30, 1930 in San Bernardino, California) is the winner of two Academy Awards: 1993, Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Unforgiven (1992), and 1972, Best Actor in a Leading Role for The French Connection (1971). He appeared in 99 films and television shows, among them 2004 Welcome to Mooseport, 2003 Runaway Jury, 2001 Behind Enemy Lines, 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums, 2001 Heist, 2001 The Mexican, 1998 Enemy of the State, 1997 Absolute Power, 1996 The Chamber, 1996 Extreme Measures, 1995 Get Shorty, 1995

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Crimson Tide, 1995 The Quick and the Dead, 1994 Wyatt Earp, 1993 The Firm, 1992 Unforgiven, 1991 Class Action, 1990 Postcards from the Edge, 1989 The Package, 1988 Mississippi Burning, 1988 Another Woman, 1988 Bat*21, 1987 No Way Out, 1987 Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, 1986 Hoosiers, 1985 Twice in a Lifetime, 1983 Uncommon Valor, 1983 Under Fire, 1981 Reds, 1980 Superman II, 1978 Superman, 1977 A Bridge Too Far, 1975 Bite the Bullet, 1975 Night Moves, 1975 French Connection II, 1974 Young Frankenstein, 1974 The Conversation, 1973 Scarecrow, 1972 The Poseidon Adventure, 1972 Prime Cut, 1972 Cisco Pike, 1971 The French Connection, 1971 The Hunting Party, 1970 I Never Sang for My Father, 1969 Marooned, 1969 Downhill Racer, 1969 The Gypsy Moths, 1967 Banning, 1967 Bonnie and Clyde, 1967 “The F.B.I.” (TV Series), 1964 Lilith, 1963 “Route 66” (TV Series), and 1963 “Naked City” (TV Series).

Anjelica Huston ... Etheline Tenenbaum (b. July 8, 1951 in Santa Monica, California) is the winner of the 1986 Academy Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Prizzi's Honor (1985). She appeared in 77 films and television shows, including 2012-2013 “Smash” (TV Series, 32 episodes), 2011 The Big Year, 2010 When in Rome, 2008-2009 “Medium” (TV Series, 8 episodes), 2008 The Kreutzer Sonata, 2007 The Darjeeling Limited, 2005 These Foolish Things, 2004 The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, 2002 Blood Work, 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums, 2000 The Golden Bowl, 1998 Buffalo '66, 1995 The Crossing Guard, 1993 Addams Family Values, 1993 “And the Band Played On” (TV Movie), 1993 Manhattan Murder Mystery, 1991 The Addams Family, 1990 The Grifters, 1989 Enemies: A Love Story, 1989 Crimes and Misdemeanors, 1989 “Lonesome Dove” (TV Mini-Series), 1988 A Handful of Dust, 1987 The Dead, 1987 Gardens of Stone, 1985 Prizzi's Honor, 1984 The Ice Pirates, 1984 This Is Spinal Tap, 1983 A Rose for Emily (Short), 1982 Frances, 1981 The Postman Always Rings Twice, 1976 The Last Tycoon, 1975 One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1969 Hamlet, and 1967 Casino Royale. Ben Stiller ... Chas Tenenbaum (b. Benjamin Edward Stiller, November 30, 1965 in New York City, New York) appeared in 117 films and TV shows, among them 2013 “Big Time in Hollywood, FL” (TV Series), 2012-2013 “Burning Love” (TV Series), 2013 “The Birthday Boys” (TV Series), 2013 The Secret

Life of Walter Mitty, 2005-2013 “Arrested Development” (TV Series), 2013 He's Way More Famous Than You, 2011 Tower Heist, 2010 Little Fockers, 2010 Greenberg, 2009 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, 2008 Tropic Thunder, 2004-2007 “Curb Your Enthusiasm” (TV Series), 2007 The Heartbreak Kid, 2006 Night at the Museum, 2006 School for Scoundrels, 2005 Madagascar, 2004 Meet the Fockers, 2004 Starsky & Hutch, 2002 “The Simpsons” (TV Series), 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums, 2001 Zoolander, 2000 Meet the Parents, 1999 The Suburbans, 1998 There's Something About Mary, 1997 “The Larry Sanders Show” (TV Series), 1996 The Cable Guy, 1994 Reality Bites, 1992 “The Ben Stiller Show” (TV Series), 1989 Next of Kin, 1987 Empire of the Sun, 1987 Hot Pursuit, and 2002 “Reel Comedy” (TV Series). He also directed 14 films and television shows: 2013 The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, 2010-2011 “Stiller & Meara” (TV Series short, 5 episodes), 2009 “The Station” (TV Movie), 2008 Tropic Thunder, 2007 “Untitled Christine Taylor Project” (TV Movie), 2001 Zoolander, 1999 “Heat Vision and Jack” (TV Short), 1996 The Cable Guy, 1994 Reality Bites, 1992-1993 “The Ben Stiller Show” (TV Series, 9 episodes), 1990 “The Ben Stiller Show” (TV Series), 1989 “Elvis Stories” (Short), 1987 “Saturday Night Live” (TV Series), and 1987 “The Hustler of Money” (TV Short). Gwyneth Paltrow ... Margot Tenenbaum (b. Gwyneth Kate Paltrow, September 27, 1972 in Los Angeles, California) is the winner of the 1999 Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role for Shakespeare in Love (1998). She appeared in 47 films and television shows, including 2010-2014 “Glee” (TV Series), 2013 Iron Man 3, 2012 The Avengers, 2010 Country Strong, 2010 Iron Man 2, 2008 Iron Man, 2006 Running with Scissors, 2006 Infamous, 2003 Sylvia, 2002 Possession, 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums, 2000 Bounce, 1999 The Talented Mr. Ripley, 1998 Shakespeare in Love, 1998 Hush, 1998 Great Expectations, 1998 Sliding Doors, 1996 Emma, 1996 The Pallbearer, 1995 Jefferson in Paris, 1994 Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle, 1993 Malice, 1991 Hook, and 1991 Shout. Luke Wilson ... Richie Tenenbaum (b. Luke Cunningham Wilson, September 21, 1971 in Dallas, Texas) appeared in 56 films and TV shows, including 2014 A Many Splintered Thing, 2014 Ride, 2013 The Skeleton Twins, 2011-2013 “Enlightened” (TV Series, 15 episodes), 2012 Meeting Evil, 2009 Middle Men, 2008 Tenure, 2007 Blonde Ambition, 2007 3:10 to Yuma, 2007 Blades of Glory, 2006 Hoot, 2006 Mini's First Time, 2005 The Family Stone, 2004 Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, 2004 Around the World in 80 Days, 2003 Legally Blonde 2: Red, White & Blonde, 2003 Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, 2003 Masked and Anonymous, 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums, 2001 Legally Blonde, 2000 Charlie's Angels, 2000 Bad Seed, 1998 Rushmore, 1998 Home Fries, 1997 Bongwater, 1997 Scream 2, 1997 Telling Lies in America, 1996 Bottle Rocket, and 1994 Bottle Rocket (Short). Owen Wilson ... Eli Cash (b. Owen Cunningham Wilson, November 18, 1968 in Dallas, Texas) appeared in 54 films and television shows, among them 2014 Inherent Vice, 2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2013 You Are Here, 2013 The Internship, 2011 The Big Year, 2011 Midnight in Paris, 2010 Little Fockers,

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2009 Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian, 2008 Marley & Me, 2007 The Darjeeling Limited, 2006 Night at the Museum, 2005 Wedding Crashers, 2004 Meet the Fockers, 2004 The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, 2004 Around the World in 80 Days, 2004 Starsky & Hutch, 2002 I Spy, 2001 Behind Enemy Lines, 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums, 2001 Zoolander, 2000 Meet the Parents, 1999 The Haunting, 1999 Breakfast of Champions, 1998 Permanent Midnight, 1998 Armageddon, 1997 Anaconda, 1996 The Cable Guy, 1996 Bottle Rocket, and 1994 Bottle Rocket (Short).

Bill Murray ... Raleigh St. Clair (b. William James Murray, September 21, 1950 in Wilmette, Illinois) appeared in 74 films and television shows, including 2014 The Grand Budapest Hotel, 2014 The Monuments Men, 2012 Moonrise Kingdom, 2010 Passion Play, 2009 Zombieland, 2009 The Limits of Control, 2008 Get Smart, 2007 The Darjeeling Limited, 2005 Broken Flowers, 2004 The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, 2003 Coffee and Cigarettes, 2003 Lost in Translation, 2001 Speaking of Sex, 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums, 2000 Charlie's Angels, 2000 Hamlet, 1999 Cradle Will Rock, 1998 Rushmore, 1998 Wild Things, 1996 Space Jam, 1996 Larger Than Life, 1996 Kingpin, 1994 Ed Wood, 1993 Mad Dog and Glory, 1977-1993 “Saturday Night Live” (TV Series, 77 episodes), 1993 Groundhog Day, 1989 Ghostbusters II, 1988 Scrooged, 1986 Little Shop of Horrors, 1984 The Razor's Edge, 1984 Ghostbusters, 1982 Tootsie, 1981 “Steve Martin's Best Show Ever” (TV Movie), 1981 Stripes, 1980 Caddyshack, 1980 Where the Buffalo Roam, 1979 Meatballs, and 1976 Next Stop, Greenwich Village. Danny Glover ... Henry Sherman (b. Danny Lebern Glover, July 22, 1946 in San Francisco, California) appeared in 151 films and TV shows, among them 2014 Long Day Journey, 2014 Tokarev, 2013 Extraction, 2013 Tula: The Revolt, 2013 Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight, 2013 Space Warriors, 2013 From Above, 2013 Highland Park, 2013 The Bouquet, 2012 Sins Expiation, 2012 LUV, 2011 Donovan's Echo, 2010 I Want to Be a Soldier, 2010 Death at a Funeral, 2009 Night Train, 2007 Battle for Terra, 2006 Dreamgirls, 2005 Missing in America, 2005 “The Exonerated” (TV Movie), 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums, 1999 The Monster, 1998 Beloved, 1998 Lethal Weapon 4, 1997 The Rainmaker, 1994 Angels in the Outfield, 1994 Maverick, 1992 Lethal Weapon 3, 1991 Grand Canyon,

1991 A Rage in Harlem, 1991 Flight of the Intruder, 1990 Predator 2, 1990 To Sleep with Anger, 1989 Lethal Weapon 2, 1989 “Lonesome Dove” (TV Mini-Series), 1988 Bat*21, 1987 “Mandela” (TV Movie), 1987 Lethal Weapon, 1985 The Stand-In, 1985 The Color Purple, 1985 Silverado, 1985 Witness, 1984 Places in the Heart, 1984 Iceman, 1981 “Hill Street Blues” (TV Series), 1981 Chu Chu and the Philly Flash, 1979 “Lou Grant” (TV Series), and 1979 Escape from Alcatraz. Alec Baldwin ... Narrator (b. Alexander Rae Baldwin III, April 3, 1958 in Massapequa, Long Island, New York) appeared in 99 films and TV shows, including 2013 Blue Jasmine, 2006-2013 “30 Rock” (TV Series. 139 episodes), 2007-2012 “Saturday Night Live” (TV Series), 2012 To Rome with Love, 2009 It's Complicated, 2009 My Sister's Keeper, 2007 Brooklyn Rules, 2007 Suburban Girl, 2006 The Good Shepherd, 2006 Running with Scissors, 2006 The Departed, 2006 Mini's First Time, 2005 Fun with Dick and Jane, 2005 Elizabethtown, 2004 The Aviator, 2004 The Last Shot, 2003 Dr. Seuss' The Cat in the Hat, 2002 “Path to War” (TV Movie), 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums, 2001 Pearl Harbor, 2000 “Nuremberg” (TV Mini-Series), 1999 Notting Hill, 1999 The Confession, 1997 The Edge, 1996 Ghosts of Mississippi, 1996 The Juror, 1995 “A Streetcar Named Desire” (TV Movie), 1994 The Shadow, 1993 Malice, 1992 Glengarry Glen Ross, 1990 Alice, 1990 The Hunt for Red October, 1988 Talk Radio, 1988 Married to the Mob, 1988 Beetlejuice, 1984-1985 “Knots Landing” (TV Series, 40 episodes), and 1963 “The Doctors” (TV Series). From Wikipedia: Wesley Wales "Wes" Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American film director and screenwriter. His films are known for their distinctive visual and narrative style. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for The Royal Tenenbaums in 2001 and Moonrise Kingdom in 2012, and for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature for Fantastic Mr. Fox in 2009. Early life Wesley Wales Anderson was born on May 1, 1969, in Houston, Texas. He graduated from St. John's School in Houston in 1987, which he later used as a prominent location throughout Rushmore. Anderson graduated from the University of Texas at Austin in 1990, where he met future frequent collaborator Owen Wilson. Film career Anderson's first film, Bottle Rocket (1996), based on a short film that he made with Luke and Owen Wilson, was a crime caper focused on a group of young Texans aspiring to achieve major heists. Though well reviewed, it performed poorly at the box office. Anderson's next film, Rushmore (1998), a quirky comedy about a high school student's crush on an elementary school teacher, starring Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman, was a critical success. Murray has since appeared in every Anderson film to date. In 2000, filmmaker Martin Scorsese praised Bottle Rocket and Rushmore. The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), Anderson's next comedy-drama film about a successful artistic New York City family and its ostracized patriarch, represented Anderson's

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greatest success until Moonrise Kingdom in 2012. Earning more than $50 million in domestic box office receipts, the film was nominated for an Academy Award and ranked by an Empire poll as the 159th greatest film ever made. Anderson's next feature, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004), about a Jacques Cousteau-esque documentary filmmaker played by Murray, serves as a classic example of Anderson's style but its critical reception was less favorable than his previous films and its box office did not match the heights of The Royal Tenenbaums. In September 2006, following the disappointing commercial and critical reception of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen released a tongue-in-cheek "letter of intervention" of Anderson's artistic "malaise." Proclaiming themselves to be fans of "World Cinema" and Anderson in particular, they offered Anderson their soundtrack services for his Darjeeling Limited, including lyrics for a title track. The Darjeeling Limited (2007), about three emotionally distant brothers traveling together on a train in India, reflected the more dramatic tone of The Royal Tennenbaums but faced similar criticisms to The Life Aquatic. Anderson has acknowledged that he went to India to film the 2007 movie, partly as a tribute to the Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray, whose "films have also inspired all my other movies in different ways" (the film is dedicated to him). The films starred Anderson staples Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson in addition to Adrien Brody and the script was co-written by Anderson, Schwartzman and Roman Coppola. In 2008, Anderson was hired to write the screenplay of the American adaptation of My Best Friend, a French film, for producer Brian Grazer, Anderson's first draft was titled "The Rosenthaler Suite". Anderson's stop-motion animation adaptation of the Roald Dahl book Fantastic Mr. Fox was released in 2009. Although the film did not earn much more than its production budget, the film was highly praised and nominated for the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Following the critical success of Fantastic Mr. Fox, Anderson made perhaps his best received film to date, Moonrise Kingdom, which opened the Cannes Film Festival 2012. The film, emblematic of Anderson's style, was a financial success and earned Anderson another Academy Award nomination for his screenplay. Anderson's latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014), starred Ralph Fiennes, Jude Law, and Saoirse Ronan, along with his regular collaborators Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Jason Schwartzman. Set in the 1930s, it followed the adventures of M. Gustave, the hotel's concierge, making "a marvelous mockery of history, turning its horrors into a series of graceful jokes and mischievous gestures," according to the New York Times.

Anderson has also created several notable short films. In addition to the original Bottle Rocket short, Anderson made the Paris-set Hotel Chevalier (2007), which was created as a prologue to The Darjeeling Limited and starred Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman, and the Italy-set Castello Cavalcanti (2013), which was produced by Prada and starred Jason Schwartzman as an unsuccessful race-car driver. Additionally, he has directed a number of television commercials for companies such as Stella Artois and Prada, including an elaborate American Express ad, in which he starred as himself. Since Rushmore, each of Anderson's films has been

made by his own production company, "American Empirical Pictures". Anderson's cinematic influences include François Truffaut, Louis Malle, Satyajit Ray, John Huston, Mike Nichols, Hal Ashby, Stanley Kubrick, Orson Welles, and Roman Polanski. Personal life Anderson is dating Lebanese writer and voice actress Juman Malouf. He lives in New York City but has spent extensive time in Paris.

His brother is artist Eric Chase Anderson, who illustrated the Criterion Collection releases of Anderson's films and provided the voice of Kristofferson in Fantastic Mr. Fox. Recurring collaborators Anderson's films feature many of the same actors, crew members, and other collaborators, including the Wilson brothers (Owen, Luke, and Andrew), Bill Murray, Willem Dafoe, Seymour Cassel, Anjelica Huston, Jason Schwartzman, Kumar Pallana and son Dipak Pallana, Stephen Dignan and Brian Tenenbaum, and Eric Chase Anderson (Anderson's brother). Other frequent collaborators include writer Noah Baumbach (who co-wrote The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr. Fox, with Anderson co-producing his film The Squid and the Whale), Owen Wilson (who co-wrote three of Anderson's feature films), cinematographer Robert Yeoman (A.S.C.), music supervisor Randall Poster, and composer Mark Mothersbaugh. Kent Jones: “The Royal Tenenbaums: Faded Glories” (Criterion Notes) Simply stated, Wes Anderson is the most original presence in American film comedy since Preston Sturges. He is as boundlessly confident as Sturges was in his heyday, and he has a similarly keen ear for gaudy dialogue; a gift for surprise and for topping one joke with a bigger one; a knack for rooting out archetypes hitherto untouched in movies; and a penchant for making films that feel like pageants, composed of a democratically diverse cross section of humanity. ������There the similarities end. Unlike Sturges, Anderson is fixated on failure, hesitation, depression. He has a very keen sense of class envy. Each of his three films is set within a sheltered, semi-exclusive, self-contained universe: a triumvirate of upper-middle-class

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Texas youths with time on their hands in Bottle Rocket, a boys’ prep school in Rushmore, a family of fallen geniuses in The Royal Tenenbaums. Each film is centered around a character from a little lower on the economic ladder, whose aspiration to be part of the exclusive milieu dovetails with an undercurrent of mourning and a longing for family. Owen Wilson, Anderson’s cowriter and most magical actor, plays the role in Bottle Rocket; Jason Schwartzman virtually defines it as Max Fischer in Rushmore; and Gene Hackman adds a touching dimension of mortality to the mix with his threadbare patriarch in Tenenbaums. Wilson’s wigged-out Eli Cash underscores the yearning, the overgrown boy who “always wanted to be a Tenenbaum.” Anderson is a fluid quick-change artist who takes mischievous delight in shifting registers within a film, but he’s also extremely careful to let his characters’ emotional dilemmas take root and flower. In one instant, you’re watching the most flamboyant expository setup: Tenenbaums’ opening index of failure, set to “Hey Jude,” or the private detective’s file on “adopted daughter” Margot Tenenbaum’s indiscretions; Rushmore’s hilarious checklist of Max’s extracurricular activities. Then, almost before you have time to catch your breath, you’re into a moment that’s bursting with life, as surprising as anything in early Renoir. Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums are both very fastidious films—the framing is always neat and foursquare, the action shaped into compact, unitlike scenes (Bottle Rocket, a lyrical idyll disguised as a run from the law, is a looser movie that floats across the screen like a ribbon in the wind). But their formality is emotionally grounded, empathically tied to the depressed characters and their rock-hard defense mechanisms. And the moment captured within each scene is often impossibly fragile, a matter of mood, posture, overcast skies. For instance, Max and his father (Seymour Cassel) having a talk about life, the son in his school blazer and the father in his dull winter jacket and earmuffs, as they walk through a lower-middle-class neighborhood at the end of an autumn afternoon. It’s a little wonder of a scene, with a heartbreaking simplicity. Richie’s and Margot’s visits to the rooftop of the Tenenbaum mansion have a similarly somber beauty, like illustrations from a slightly risque´ children’s book. Anderson’s attunement to his actors as individuals is breathtaking. He fixes on their most private traits and builds their characters accordingly: Gene Hackman’s penchant for bobbing and weaving with his fellow actors, turning the screen into a sports arena; Bill Murray’s wistful, sad-sack withdrawal and real-life disenchantment; Gwyneth Paltrow’s tendency to singularize her characterizations and narrow things down to a finite set of gestures; Ben Stiller’s exaggeratedly physical, high-voltage comic attack. There’s a scene in Rushmore where Max is

chatting up the bombshell mom (Connie Nielsen) of his “chapel partner” Dirk Calloway (Mason Gamble). Just as he’s intoning about the values he’s trying to impart to his self-appointed charge, Dirk shows up and Mrs. Calloway’s attention shifts without so much as a beat. Schwartzman does a perfect rendition of the vain teenager making a show of gracefully withdrawing from the company of an adult who doesn’t really care either way. His reaction is so perfect (and perfectly gawky) that it appears to have been felt rather than acted. Danny Glover and Anjelica Huston’s first kiss in The Royal Tenenbaums: he arrives at her excavation site (she’s an urban archeologist), decked out in trademark blue blazer and bow tie, backs into the subject at hand, then takes a spectacular pratfall before they both stumble into a formal declaration of mutual affection. Other directors would probably break the scene up into cloying, bold-faced moments (befitting the post-Home Alone era of digitally augmented slapstick) and end with the site workers applauding the embrace. Anderson does it in a minimum of setups, and stays on his actors

to let the emotion silently build after Huston’s Etheline Tenenbaum admits that she hasn’t slept with a man for eighteen years. The awkwardness feels real, and achingly human. Anderson is a filmmaker whose work you either get or you don’t. For someone like me, who connected directly with his

sensibility from the first frame of Bottle Rocket, it’s difficult to comprehend how anyone could not get the work of such a devastating entertainer, such a deft manipulator of emotions. First of all, there’s the sheer velocity of Anderson’s storytelling. With each new film, his desire to spell things out for his audience has decreased, in inverse proportion to his ever increasing inventiveness. From the start, Anderson has given his audience just enough to get by. If you blink, you may miss a gesture or a line or a detail that alludes to a crucial aspect of a character’s emotional life, the core dilemma that they’re hiding for fear of being exposed and embarrassed before the world. Max Fischer, more royalist than the king in his ever present school blazer and games of one-upmanship with his headmaster (Brian Cox), could easily seem like just a “creepy kid,” as a friend of mine once put it. But that’s only if you fail to connect with his profound anger and sadness over his mother’s death, alluded to a grand total of two times in the entire movie, and ever so briefly at that (“What a coincidence—we both have dead people in our families,” he says to Olivia Williams’s Miss Cross, in an attempt to be urbanely sympathetic; people are always using language as a shield in Anderson’s films). Otherwise, we’re meant to infer it from his outrageously provocative behavior, begging for negative attention. (In Bottle Rocket, the emotional dilemma behind Dignan’s home invasion drills and seventy-five-year planning is never even alluded to.) Anderson doesn’t linger over the causes but instead homes in on the nuances of the effects, and finds a

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double line of vision in the process: he remains within the obsessive rhythms of his characters’ lives but finds a way of laughing at their excesses. Repetition compulsion is a big item in culture these days. As a form, the expectation of change versus the reality of sameness once seemed like a strictly art-world/philosophical opposition, an exotic novelty in the writings of Deleuze and the music of Glass, Reich, and Reilly. Now it’s pervasive, the perfect form for a depressed age, from Atom Egoyan to Tsai Ming-liang, from Abbas Kiarostami’s The Wind Will Carry Us to Manoel de Oliveira’s I’m Going Home, from Phillip Roth’s American trilogy to Don DeLillo’s Underworld, from Seinfeld to Ghost World to In the Mood for Love to trip-hop. Anderson has mastered the form, making winning, warm movies about angry, dissociated people who never consciously arrive at reconciliation but always stumble into it on their endless quests to recover what they’ve lost. Anderson’s spectacular showmanship can easily overshadow the intricate, motoring designs behind his work. If you don’t recognize the bereavement that animates Dignan, Max, and the entire Tenenbaum family, then Bottle Rocket might seem like another pleasant indie comedy (thus the awful pull quote in Sony’s nearly nonexistent ad campaign: “Reservoir Geeks!”), Rushmore an idiosyncratic coming-of-age movie, and Tenenbaums a menagerie of eccentrics à la John Irving. And if you can’t locate the current of emotion that powers Anderson’s collection of boffo effects, knockout one-liners, and over-the-top inventions, his films may seem like a series of endearing mishmashes. His oeuvre provides an object lesson in just how degraded film-viewing habits have become from too much TV and blockbusterism, how movies and sitcoms have primed us to wait for the underlining of emotions before we allow ourselves to intuit them. Another thing that distinguishes Anderson is his extremely private, rarefied sensibility. His work betrays an overall sense of someone who grew up in a polite, quiet, repressed environment, accustomed to hiding under the covers with a flashlight, folding his emotions into make-believe shadow plays on the ceiling, silently cultivating a poetic universe of self-protection. In this homemade, handcrafted world—embodied by Mark Mothersbaugh’s aggressive, magical, childlike scores—there’s a strong aroma of sixth-grade shop class, of the ashtray you made for your mom found in the back of a closet after twenty years. Engraved pocketknives, shirts worn backward as smocks, old Stones albums, and forgotten board games have weight and presence as tokens of loss. The Royal Tenenbaums is certainly Anderson’s grandest movie, and if it feels like an epic at 110 minutes, it’s probably because there’s so much territory covered in each briskly paced scene and densely packed Scope shot—visual, geographical,

gestural, and emotional. The setting is a timeless version of greater Manhattan (as opposed to a timeless version of greater Houston), but it’s far from a tourist’s inventory of the Big Apple. This is a New York of faded, seedy grandeur, where Holden Caulfield might cross paths with the unlucky hustler of Lou Reed’s “Street Hassle.” It’s true that Tenenbaums is filled to the brim with high-flown comic inventions, like Owen Wilson’s J. Peterman-ish all-star novelist Eli Cash, or the outlandish worldwide wanderings of Paltrow’s Margot. It’s also true that it’s shorter on the kind of detail work that endeared Rushmore to its fans, like that brief yet indelible shot of Sara Tanaka’s Margaret Yang at the science fair, delicately craning her neck to look for Max, or the barely glimpsed name “Thayer,” printed with early adolescent awkwardness on Max’s Latin reinstatement petition. But then this is a different film, even more melancholy than its predecessor, with a different configuration of characters. And it’s about a different kind of longing, too: to “restore” a family that

was never that happy in the first place to an eminence that never was. It’s funny that some critics have gotten tripped up by the fact that none of the Tenenbaum children appear to be part of the same family. Because that’s pretty much the point. Anderson is tackling a difficult, sad (and sadly familiar) dynamic here: a loving but fundamentally inattentive matriarch, a long-gone father who hides behind layers of guff and nonsense from western dime novels (“Look at that old grizzly bear,” he says of Glover’s beyond elegant suitor, Henry), and three overgrown children with nothing

but the memory of their own glory days for company. They’ve each built their own genius-stricken identity (Stiller is the “preternaturally” talented financial whiz kid, Paltrow is the playwright, and Luke Wilson is the tennis star) in a failed effort to define themselves outside of their unfathomable but inescapable family. The film proudly wears its inspirations on its sleeve: Welles’s The Magnificent Ambersons, Salinger’s Glass family stories, the old New Yorker of Ross and Shawn, From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, the Velvet Underground, a tinge of Fitzgerald, a dash of Philip Barry. But it speaks in its own singular voice: at once tender and probing, mindful of New York and its special mixture of grit and glory, but confident enough to mold it into a big, faded magic playhouse, a limitless extension of the Tenenbaum family’s private universe. The spectacle of father and children contriving to return home and make amends (“Why are they allowed to do that?” asks Paltrow when Etheline tells her that Stiller’s Chas is moving his family back into the Tenenbaum mansion) deepens with each new viewing. The movie only gets funnier (Royal and Chas’s screaming match inside the games closet; Royal’s outlaw excursions with his grandsons, to whom he offers the following condolence for the accidental death of their mother: “I’m sorry for your loss—your mother was a terribly attractive woman”),

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more moving (Richie and Margot’s secret tryst in his tent as they listen to “She Smiled Sweetly” and “Ruby Tuesday” on an old record player; every interaction between Etheline and Henry; Royal taking Margot out for ice cream over the melancholy strains of Vince Guaraldi’s immortal A Charlie Brown Christmas theme), and more sheerly delightful (Eli quietly bugging out on national television). The word epiphany gets thrown around a lot, but it should be reserved for moments like the flight of Richie’s falcon over the New York skyline, bearing away the lost splendor of the Tenenbaums; or Margot, armored in her fur coat and striped cotton dress, her eyes shrouded in mascara, her hair pushed back with a barrette like a twelve-year-old’s, her mouth creased in an adolescent half smile, approaching Richie to the tune of Nico’s evanescent “These Days.” Or the moment near the end of the film when Chas, a mountain of hyped-up, burning anger in a red tracksuit throughout the movie, suddenly switches emotional gears for a final parting. I’ve never seen moments like these in any other movie.

Ron Deutsch: “Chef du Cinema: The Royal Tenenbaums” (Criterion Notes) Wes Anderson, as a young man growing up in Texas, had a dream of becoming a filmmaker. He came up with a few ideas for movies when applying to film school that eventually evolved into his first three feature films. The idea of family is present in the first two films (Bottle Rocket and Rushmore) but in the third, The Royal Tenenbaums, Anderson made it explicit. “The other films [I made] did deal with the issue of family, but they were metaphorical families, groups of friends, someone obsessed with a school and wants to be part of it. This one is more directly connected with issues of family, issues that are deeply personal, emotional, and serious,” Anderson said in the press notes for The Royal Tenenbaums. “Well, it’s about a family of geniuses,” he continued elsewhere, “except that I always feel that’s wrong, because it’s really more about failure. Then I want to say it’s a comedy, but then I think it’s as tragic as it is comic. So I’m terrible at explaining it.” “What the story says,” cowriter and costar Owen Wilson explained, “is that even though everyone goes through hell with their family, still—as corny as it sounds—family members are still the ones you have to be close to, and really the only ones who will understand what you’re going through. We don’t balk at showing some of the rough stuff families endure, but we show in the end that it’s worth it.” “Certainly most families are to some degree or other dysfunctional. But the capacity to forgive can help us to heal and overcome our dysfunctionalism,” said Danny Glover, who plays

Anjelica Huston’s suitor Henry Sherman in the film. “You know, Ben Stiller’s, Gwyneth Paltrow’s, certainly Anjelica Huston’s . . . all those families are real kind of achievers, and fame is an issue for their whole families,” Anderson told Film Monthly. He also noted the similarities between Huston’s character, the matriarch of the Tenenbaum clan, and his own mother. “You know, my mother was an archaeologist,” he admitted, “and also just her approach to raising the children and the kind of household—that character runs, I think is, you know, connected to my mother.” The Royal Tenenbaums is one of my favorite films of the past fifteen years. It’s a fairy tale for grown-ups. It’s one of those cases when the classic Hollywood ending—where the story wraps up all its elements in a nice little package—doesn’t leave you feeling cheated. There isn’t much in the way of food in the movie, though; I think the only person we actually see eating is Gene Hackman’s character, Royal, gobbling down a greasy (but tasty-looking) cheeseburger (a Royal with cheese?). I did find, however, a video from a few years back of Glover demonstrating how to make sweet potato pie on The Martha Stewart Show. “This recipe was my mom’s,” he said. “She was an absolutely wonderful cook, a wonderful baker, and she always used to tell my dad that he didn’t know how to boil water before he met her . . . We all had to learn to cook in my family.” One of the great African American traditions is the passing down of one’s family’s sweet potato pie recipe. It is without a doubt the crown jewel in the soul food recipe box. And its roots run deep through African American history. African slaves arriving in the Americas thought they recognized a food they had known back home. They called it the nayami, but eventually it was referred to as the yam. It was not the vegetable they were familiar with, however. This was a sweet potato. Yams are native to Africa and Asia, while sweet potatoes are from Central America. In fact, the two are only very distantly related. Yams were, however, beginning to be grown in the Caribbean around the same time, brought over by the very same slave ships from Africa. By the eighteenth century, both yam and sweet potato varieties were being farmed in the United States. And both George Washington and George Washington Carver grew sweet potatoes. So it just seemed fitting to make this sweet potato pie recipe from Mr. Glover, which has its own family history, to go with the story of the Tenenbaums and theirs. And besides, it’s some real fine pie. Danny Glover’s Sweet Potato Pie ���Adapted from a recipe at MarthaStewart.com ��� Makes one 9-inch pie 1½ pounds sweet potatoes ���½ cup (1 stick) room temperature butter, cut into pieces ���1¼ cups granulated sugar ���2 large eggs ���½ teaspoon ground allspice ���1 teaspoon ground cinnamon ���½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg ���1 teaspoon vanilla ���1 tablespoon lemon juice ���1 9-inch deep-dish unbaked pie shell ���Whipped cream Preheat oven to 375˚F. Cook sweet potatoes either in microwave (Pierce a few holes in them with a fork, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and cook on high for 5 to 8 minutes, until soft. Carefully remove—they’re hot!—from microwave and let cool a minute or two before removing plastic wrap) or on the stove (Put

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2 inches of water in a medium saucepan; place over high heat and bring to a boil. Fit saucepan with a steamer basket, add sweet potatoes, and cover. Steam until potatoes are easily pierced with a fork, about 1 hour. You may need to add more water as sweet potatoes steam.). Let sweet potatoes cool slightly, then remove skins. Put sweet potatoes in bowl of electric mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until well mashed and, if any stringy pieces have wrapped themselves around the paddle

attachment, remove it, wipe clean, and return to mixer. With mixer on low speed, add butter and beat until well combined. Add sugar gradually. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. Add allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and lemon juice. Continue beating until well combined. Pour mixture into pie shell. Transfer to oven and bake until the center has set, 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool. Serve with whipped cream.

The online PDF files of these handouts have color images

Just three more in the Spring 2014 Buffalo Film Seminars:

April 22 Tommy Lee Jones, The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada, 2005, 120 min April 29 José Padilha, Elite Squad, 2007, 115 min

May 6 John Huston, The Dead, 1987 83 min

CONTACTS: ...email Diane Christian: engdc@buffalo.edu

…email Bruce Jackson bjackson@buffalo.edu ...for the series schedule, annotations, links and updates: http://buffalofilmseminars.com

...to subscribe to the weekly email informational notes, send an email to addto list@buffalofilmseminars.com ....for cast and crew info on any film: http://imdb.com/

The Buffalo Film Seminars are presented by the Market Arcade Film & Arts Center and State University of New York at Buffalo

with support from the Robert and Patricia Colby Foundation and the Buffalo News