Short of the Week: ‘Bottle Rocket’, Wes Anderson’s first film
While most auteurs have their own cinematic styles that set them apart from the rest, it can be argued nobody’s work is as instantly recognisable as that of Wes Anderson. Known for his undying obsession with visual symmetry and the unique colour palettes that beautifully complement his artistic vision, Anderson’s brand of whimsical comedy has developed a strong global following.
Currently, fans all over the world are gearing up for the release of Anderson’s latest project, Asteroid City, which is set to come out this summer. Starring the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton and Tom Hanks, his upcoming sci-fi comedy has already started garnering a lot of attention. In anticipation of the release of Anderson’s new project, we felt that it was the perfect time to revisit the very beginning of his directorial journey.
Titled Bottle Rocket, it’s a black and white short that Anderson made in 1992 with Luke and Owen Wilson, which started one of the most iconic on-screen partnerships in recent memory. During an interview, Anderson recalled: “Well, Owen and I had a mutual friend who had gone to my school in Houston and had subsequently gone to military school with Owen in New Mexico, and we knew about each other through him. We met without him introducing us, because we were in a class together — a playwriting class — and we never spoke during the class, but, at the end of it, we, sort of, realised that we were the people who our friend knew. Somehow, it sort of occurred to us; Owen just walked up to me in the hall one day and started talking to me as if we knew each other.”
The director added: “We were both writing short stories, and we started showing them to each other and getting help from each other with them. Owen was actually sharing an apartment with the mutual friend, who had moved to Austin, sort of, along the way, after we’d been in this class together. They’d gotten the apartment that we shared together, and we started working on Bottle Rocket as a feature script. You know, we wanted to write a movie script, and that was the script we came up with. We started trying to film it as a feature with some money from our fathers — we each borrowed $2,000 — and we sort of ran out of money, and it became a short.”
Bottle Rocket is an interesting example of a student film, featuring Anderson’s nascent directorial sensibilities that weren’t yet influenced by his strict aesthetic principles. Inspired by the comedy of Woody Allen, it provided the necessary boost for both Anderson and Wilson, who developed it into a feature and kickstarted their illustrious careers.
Watch the film below.
