How colour helps to reinforce the themes of Wes Anderson movies
One thing that you can say for certain about Wes Anderson’s oeuvre is that they are aesthetic feasts for the eyes. This primarily comes from the particular colour palettes that Anderson uses in the set and costume design, resulting in beautifully constructed images and a highly retrospective mood and feel to his films.
Hannah Robertson, an artist and Anderson enthusiast, wrote in a journalistic essay: “Anderson’s colour palettes are integral to his cinematic ‘world-building’. His eye for art direction and fantastic attention to detail creates the appropriate space and tone for his characters to exist in – and for the viewer to lose themselves in. They ultimately become their own visual language; the way character themes are elaborated in cinematic scores, allowing an immersive visual experience whether the sound is on or not.”
By looking at the particular colour palettes that Anderson uses in each of his films, we can illuminate each of their messages and themes. Let’s begin with Anderson’s directorial debut, Bottle Rocket. Luke Wilson’s Anthony is typically seen wearing a bright red sweater, while Owen Wilson’s Dignan sports yellow. During the film’s heist, Dignan insists that the crew all wear yellow jumpsuits, and Anthony eventually relents, which suggests that he has succumbed to Dignan’s leadership.
In Anderson’s second feature-length film, Rushmore, the colour blue is used to great effect. Blue is the colour of the school’s uniform blazer, and whereas red is often used to convey passion or intensity, blue is far more approachable and calm and denotes (especially so in this instance) intelligence and reason. The blazer of Jason Schwartzman’s Max is also more saturated than his peers, which makes him stand out amongst them.
One film of Anderson’s that perhaps uses colour to the best degree is his 2004 picture The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. The oceanographer crew wear blue uniforms, which relates to their ocean research and their intelligence. However, the uniforms are in great contrast to the red hats they also sport. Red, of course, is used to signify the more volatile emotions, in this instance, pain and trauma, as Steve Zissou (played by Bill Murray) is suffering from the death of his friend and his challenging career. The fact that a red colour sits so brightly atop his head suggests that his inner pain is constantly swimming around in his head, even though the blue uniform ought to make him calm while he is working.
Anderson has also previously used black and white to significant effect in his films too. Take, for instance, The Darjeeling Limited and the comparison between the two funeral scenes. During the scene in which the three brothers attend their father’s funeral, they are dressed all in black, which denotes the dour and sombre mood. However, the funeral scene in India had its attendees dressed entirely in white, which perhaps indicates that death, in a way, ought to be celebrated and that a loved one has recently ascended into heaven.
And Moonrise Kingdom opted for an overarching yellow palette for the film, which exonerates the happiness, naivety and innocence of youth. Yet the actual choice of colour is not the only meaningful concept that Anderson toys with here; it’s also how that colour is presented. The yellow in Moonrise Kingdom is presented in a low saturation that exacerbates the timeless, vintage feel of the film. A true master of the palette, indeed!
