The three movies Wes Anderson calls “masterpieces”
When it comes to filmmakers with their own focused and unique sense of visual style, there are few who believe in their own vision more than Wes Anderson. His pastel colours and dedication to beautiful symmetrical shots have established the director as a true artist of the cinematic medium, and he has inspired countless children, teens and adults alike throughout his career.
Over the last three decades, Anderson has delivered sweeping narratives of childhood innocence and the dysfunction of the modern family in widely beloved movies, including Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Grand Budapest Hotel, which have all proven his talent and deserving stature at the top of the Hollywood pile.
But like any director worth his salt, Anderson has his own significant influences and his favourite personal choices from the rich tapestry of cinema history. In a feature with Le Cinema Club, Anderson pointed out five films that he truly cherishes and adores and named three old classics he considers “masterpieces”.
Interestingly, those three movies were all from the pre-Code era of Hollywood, which took place between 1927 and 1934 and saw movie productions not put through the rigorous ethics of the Hayes Code, which had often been ignored by filmmakers until it came into proper use midway through the 1930s.
This meant that films in the late 1920s and early 1930s were often filled with drug use, promiscuity, infidelity and abortion, amongst several other social issues that were deemed touchy to the audiences of the time. Anderson said of his choices, “Three Pre-Code masterpieces by three great directors: It took 30 years for movies to get this wild again.”
The first is Wild Boys of the Road, the Depression-era drama directed by William A. Wellman, starring Frankie Darro, Rochelle Hudson and Grant Mitchell, which tells of a group of teenagers who are forced to turn to the hobo life. As a pre-Code movie, Wellman’s 1933 film is edgy, to say the least, and features moments of excessive (for the time) violence.
Anderson follows up with Mervyn LeRoy’s 1932 crime drama Three on a Match, which was released by Warner Bros. The film stars Joan Blondell, Warren William, Ann Dvorak and Bette Davis and tells of three girls who graduate from school and end up in very different lifestyles, including one who descends into drugs and debauchery. Scandalous for the time!
Finally, Anderson names his final “masterpiece” a 1934 movie called Sadie McKee, directed by Clarence Brown and starring Joan Crawford, Gene Raymond, Franchot Tone and Edward Arnold. Crawford portrays a young working-class woman who goes from a life of poverty to a wealthy marriage in which she demands her independence.
The movies Wes Anderson calls “masterpieces”:
- Three on a Match (Mervyn LeRoy, 1932)
- Wild Boys of the Road (William A. Wellman, 1933)
- Sadie McKee (Clarence Brown, 1934)
