Wes Anderson is one of the most original voices working in American cinema today.
Its even largely shot in the classic Hollywood aspect ratio standard of 1.33:1.
We speak of everything from his influences on the movie to whether he would ever work in 3D.
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Where do you begin when making a movie?
Does that relate to you?
Youre such a design-conscious, visual person, it seems to be paramount for your vision.
Its being written and [Im] also sort of figuring out how to make it all at once.
If I were faced with some of these tasks, I think I wouldnt even know how to begin.
Do you think this movie would work in 3D and what are your feelings about that process?
I dont see why it wouldnt work in 3D.
Would it be a lot harder to make or more expensive?
What do you have to do to have 3D?
You just got to have two lenses, right?
So, I figure we could do it.
My favorite 3D movie that Ive seen is
Dial M For Murder?
Thats the simplest [set-up].
Its in a room.
Not a big Hollywood room.
Exactly, it feels like its in a real London apartment.
And its a very interesting experience.
You find yourself looking at them much longer.
And thats probably the least commercial description of 3D ever conceived of.
[Laughs]
This movie is kind of a salute to this character [M. Gustav].
You are saying that this is a great man.
The second time, Im not so sure about him.
Hes a conman; whats he after?
But we would feel, ultimately, that this is somebody who is a very loyal, true person.
And in our story, I think he becomes a sort of heroic character.
I think thats how Ralph approached it too.
And in the end, whatever we feel about him is whatever Ralph did.
It comes from him.
[Laughs] And I think this one falls more into that category.
[Laughs] But we go a few different directions with it too.
But it kind of closely follows what Hitchcock did, because I love this sequence inTorn Curtain.
Torn Curtainis not a great movie.
But then suddenly, theres this sequence, and you think, Ah, heres Hitchcock.
Now hes doing his thing!
And then that part is over.
One thing is that, traditionally, the movies that I do have no plot, really.
And this one actually does!
I dont mean to brag, but I think it actually does have a bit of a plot.
[Laughs] So, I think that makes a difference.
When we get to the 30s, it sort of starts moving a bit quicker.
Do you see that as a form of an unreliable narrator?
Because its a story within a story within a story?
Yeah, a little bit.
One of the best sequences of the movie is the secret Society of Crossed Keys.
How did you come up with that concept and the casting for it?
First, theres a real guild called The Golden Key that is the concierges of Europe.
But the concept of it comes from that.
And you see concierges wear these crossed keys on their lapels, its like the symbol of concierges.
So, we had that in mind.
I almost felt like I wanted to see a spin-off short film just about those characters.
I think its probably the biggest inspiration for it.
I guess it was that we put friends in it.
Then at the head of the thing is Bill Murray, who has a little bigger part.
Could you talk about working in the 1.33 ratio?
Is it something you would encourage to young filmmakers?
I just think its something we couldnt really do before.
Now that everythings digital, you just sort of can do what you want.
So, its really pretty simple.
My thought being that we could feel it get bigger vertically, not just smaller sideways.
But we loved shooting in the Academy Ratio.
But other than that, movies havent been done that way in years, and its a great shape.
Which actors from the golden age of cinema do you imagine having fun in your films?
One actor that I really love and that I havent known for very long is Joan Blondell.
This is one who I really didnt know anything about.
Also, during that time, there are so many movies that are for women.
Thats who the stars of these movies are.
Even in the ensemble movies, likeThree on a Match, theres three main characters who are all women.
Stanwyck and Crawford are two of the biggest stars of that period doing some of their best work.
Why do you think there is very little originality or imagination in American cinema these days?
That some energy went out.
Well, I dont see that in these movies.
I see that a little later.
I think theres the sense that theyre not going to make boring movies.
Theyre going to make fast, 71-minute long movies where a lot happens.
This is your darkest movie.
There is more violence than usual.
Do you feel like this is a maturity for you?
Are you looking back at a playground in 1930s Europe that is about to be swallowed up?
How is this balanced?
Could you talk a little about a nostalgia in this movie?
This one was particularly nostalgic for a certain era that was already lost by its own time period.
A sense of great loss, and its a loss of a whole culture that he saw.
So, I think our story comes partly out of that, out of his sense of loss.
Stefan Zweig killed himself because of depression over fascism.
Did that somewhat influence the [tone] of this movie?
I think it did, yeah.
And its another one of those things where I was sort of thinking of it later.
I was saying, Well, why did I do this?
Well, I think I did it because of this.
[Laughs]
Thank you for talking to me today.
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