Bruce Jackson & Diane Christian Video Introduction to This Week's Film
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April 28, 2020 (XL:13) Wes Anderson: ISLE OF DOGS (2018, 101m) Spelling and Style—use of italics, quotation marks or nothing at all for titles, e.g.—follows the form of the sources. Bruce Jackson & Diane Christian video introduction to this week’s film (with occasional not-very-cooperative participation from their dog, Willow) Click here to find the film online. (UB students received instructions how to view the film through UB’s library services.) Videos: Wes Anderson and Frederick Wiseman in a fascinating Skype conversation about how they do their work (Zipporah Films, 21:18) The film was nominated for Oscars for Best Animated Feature and Best Original Score at the 2019 Academy Isle of Dogs Voice Actors and Characters (8:05) Awards. The making of Isle of Dogs (9:30) CAST Starting with The Royal Tenenbaums in 2001, Wes Isle of Dogs: Discover how the puppets were made Anderson has become a master of directing high- (4:31) profile ensemble casts. Isle of Dogs is no exception. Led by Bryan Cranston (of Breaking Bad fame, as Weather and Elements (3:18) well as Malcolm in the Middle and Seinfeld), voicing Chief, the cast, who have appeared in many Anderson DIRECTOR Wes Anderson films, includes: Oscar nominee Edward Norton WRITING Wes Anderson wrote the screenplay based (Primal Fear, 1996, American History X, 1998, Fight on a story he developed with Roman Coppola, Club, 1999, The Illusionist, 2006, Birdman, 2014); Kunichi Nomura, and Jason Schwartzman. Bob Balaban (Midnight Cowboy, 1969, Close PRODUCERS Wes Anderson, Jeremy Dawson, Encounters of the Third Kind, 1977, Altered States, Steven Rales, and Scott Rudin; Simon Quinn 1980, Gosford Park, 2001, Christopher Guest (animation producer) comedies, such as Waiting for Guffman, 1996, and A CINEMATOGRAPHER Tristan Oliver Mighty Wind, 2003); Jeff Goldblum (The Fly, 1986, EDITOR Edward Bursch and Ralph Foster; Andrew Jurassic Park, 1993, Independence Day, 1996, Thor: Weisblum (supervising editor) Ragnarok, 2017); Bill Murray (Groundhog Day, MUSIC Alexandre Desplat 1993, Lost in Translation, 2003); Frances Anderson—ISLE OF DOGS—2 McDormand (Raising Arizona, 1987, Fargo, 1996, Joe Roth, saw it and wanted to make Anderson’s next for which she won an Oscar for best actress, Almost film possible. That next film would cement Anderson Famous, 2000, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, as an auteur with a distinct visual style and a signature Missouri, 2017, for which she won an Oscar for best use of classic rock and pop and contemporary indie actress); Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson (Ghost rock as well as classical pieces in subsequent films. World, 2001, Lost in Translation, 2003, Match Point, Rushmore (1998) would also, effectively, reorient 2005, The Prestige, 2006, Under the Skin, 2013, Jojo comedian Bill Murry’s career, from star of goofy, Rabbit and Marriage Story, 2019; Harvey Keitel well-made comedies (Groundhog Day, What About (Mean Streets, 1973, Taxi Driver, 1976, Reservoir Bob?) to damaged lead in bittersweet tragicomedies Dogs, 1992, Pulp Fiction, 1994, The Irishman, 2019), (Sophia Coppola’s Lost in Translation, Roger Yoko Ono (artist and musician); Tilda Swinton Mitchell’s Hyde Park on Hudson), as well as a staple (Orlando, 1992, Adaptation, 2002, Michael Clayton, in Anderson’s films, to this date. The film, also, seems 2007, for which she won an Oscar for best supporting to have made possible a whole genre of tragicomic actress, We Need to Talk About Kevin, 2011, The Only films with bright color palettes that made generous Lovers Left Alive, 2013); F. Murray Abraham (All use of similar styles of bygone pop music throughout the President's Men, 1976, Scarface, 1983, Amadeus, the 2000s (Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton’s Little 1984, The Name of the Rose, 1986, Finding Miss Sunshine, Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Forrester, 2000, Inside Llewyn Davis, 2013); Ken Whale, David O. Russel’s I Heart Huckabees, Rian Watanabe (The Last Samurai, 2003, for which he Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom). Perhaps, in a fit of was nominated for the Oscar for best supporting actor, Letters from Iwo Jima, 2006, Memories of Tomorrow, 2006, Batman Begins, 2005, Inception, 2010); Liev Schreiber (Big Night, 1996, Scream, 1996, The Sum of All Fears, 2002, Spotlight, 2015, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, 2018); Anjelica Huston (Prizzi’s Honor, 1985, for which she won an Oscar for supporting actress, The Dead, 1987, Crimes and Misdemeanors, 1989, Enemies: A Love Story, 1989, for which she was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actress, The Grifters, 1990, for which she was nominated for an Oscar for best actress, Manhattan Murder Mystery, 1993, Buffalo ’66, 1998). WES ANDERSON (b. May 1, 1969 in Houston, Texas) has written and directed ten feature films and late 1990s nostalgia for the 1960s, the film, and three shorts associated with the features, as well as particularly, then unknown, Jason Schwartzman, also four other shorts. Anderson started making silent garnered comparisons to the young Dustin Hoffman in films, as a child, using his father’s Super 8 camera, The Graduate (this comparison may have also been and, as a philosophy student at the University of fostered, again, by Anderson’s use of 1960s pop to Texas at Austin, he worked as a cinema projectionist. accompany scenes). His anticipated follow-up to He met his frequent collaborator, Owen Wilson, while Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums (2001), a family studying at UT. His first feature, 1996’s Bottle Rocket, story inspired by J.D. Salinger’s family of geniuses, was an elaboration of a short film, of the same name, the Glasses, sported a high-profile cast—Gene made with Wilson and his brother Luke in 1992. Hackman, Angelica Huston, Bill Murray, Danny Though the film drew positive critical attention, it, Glover, Ben Stiller, and Gwyneth Paltrow—as well as mostly, remained obscure outside the world of Wilson’s frequent collaborators and rising stars Owen independent film. Martin Scorsese later named Bottle and Luke Wilson. It also earned Wilson his first Oscar Rocket one of his top-ten favorite movies of the nomination, for best screenplay. He would 1990s. More immediately and crucial to Wilson’s subsequently be nominated in the same category for developing career, an executive producer with Disney, Moonrise Kingdom (2012) and The Grand Budapest Anderson—ISLE OF DOGS—3 Hotel (2014), which also gave him his first Terrence Malick’s The Tree of Life, A Better Life, nominations for best director and best picture. His two Polanski's Carnage, George Clooney's Ides of March, forays into feature animation—Fantastic Mr. Fox La Fille du Puisatier, and Harry Potter and the (2009) and Isle of Dogs (2018)—also reaped Oscar Deathly Hallows – Part 2. Desplat started 2012 with nominations. His other features are The Life Aquatic Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the Florent with Steve Zissou (2004), The Darjeeling Limited Emilio Siri-directed biopic Cloclo, and DreamWorks (2007), and the highly anticipated first live-action Animation's Rise of the Guardians. His other scores of feature since Grand Budapest, The French Dispatch 2012 included Rust and Bone, Zero Dark Thirty, and (2020), inspired by the early days of The New Yorker. Argo, the latter of which earned another Oscar nomination. His 2013 collaboration with Frears TRISTAN OLIVER is a British cinematographer (16 Philomena earned him another Oscar nomination. He credits) best known for his work with Wes Anderson wrote five major scores during 2014, with The Grand (Fantastic Mr. Fox, 2009, and Isle of Dogs, 2018) and Budapest Hotel winning him his first Academy Nick Park (Chicken Run, 2000) in the field of stop Award. His score for The Imitation Game was also frame animated feature films. His work has also nominated, and his win therefore marked the first time covered live action and mixed media commercials, a composer had won against another of their own shorts and feature films. His early collaborations with scores since John Williams won for Star Wars fellow cinematographer and long-term friend and (beating Close Encounters of the Third Kind) in 1978, mentor Dave Alex Riddett resulted in Academy and only the seventh time overall (Alfred Newman, Awards for the Nick Park helmed shorts, The Wrong Bernard Herrmann, Max Steiner, Miklos Rozsa and Trousers and A Close Shave and the feature film, Johnny Green are the only other composers to achieve Curse of the Wererabbit (2005). He also worked on this). He was nominated, again, for an Oscar for Greta the 2017 animated film on Vincent Van Gogh Loving Gerwig’s Little Women (2019), and he is scoring the Vincent, and his upcoming projects are: Where is upcoming Guillermo del Toro adaptation of Anne Frank and Coppelia. Pinocchio. ALEXANDRE DESPLAT (b. 23 August 1961 (age 58), Paris, France) is a French film composer. He has won two Oscars for scores for The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014) and The Shape of Water (2017) and has received nine additional nominations. He has composed for over 100 films, including Lapse of Memory (1992), Family Express (1992), Regarde Les Hommes Tomber (1994), Les Péchés Mortels (1995), Un Héros Très Discret (1996), Une Minute de Silence (1998), Sweet Revenge (1998), Le Château des Singes (1999), Reines d'un Jour (2001), Sur mes lèvres (2002), Rire et Châtiment (2003), Syriana (2005), The Beat That My Heart Skipped (2005), and Stephen Richard Brody: “’Isle of Dogs’ is a Stylish Revolt Frears’s The Queen (2006). In 2008, his score for Against (American) Political Madness” (New David Fincher's Curious Case of Benjamin Button was Yorker, 23 March 2018) nominated for an Oscar, and in 2009, he composed for Wes Anderson’s new film “Isle of Dogs,” a Robert Guédiguian's L'Armée du Crime, Frears’s comedic drama realized with stop-motion animation Cheri, Nora Ephron’s Julie & Julia, and Wes (like his film “Fantastic Mr.