How Wes Anderson, Tim Burton, and Guillermo del Toro Film Their Amazing Adult Tales

In modern cinema, there are many authors who deliberately give their films the form of a fairy tale. At the same time, the theme of the works does not allow us to consider them for children. Wes Anderson, Guillermo del Toro, Tim Burton - despite a lot of differences in style, these directors make films that are sometimes called fairy tales for adults. We understand how the authors do this and why the fairy-tale form is so convenient.

Wes Anderson is a master of bright colors and melancholy

Wes Anderson is one of the most stylish directors in the history of cinema. Already in the first films, he began to use techniques that later turned into other paintings. The main ones are: symmetry, centering, a large colorful palette, polygraphy, close-ups. The combination of these elements creates a unique style that is difficult to confuse with anything.

To them is added a special relationship to music. Wes Anderson actively uses already released songs, adding to them soundtracks written specifically for the movie. Through hits, the director conveys inner feelings heroes. And sometimes not only the song plays a role, but also the fate of the author. So, in "The Tenenbaum Family" in one of the scenes, you can hear the track of Elliott Smith, a musician who committed suicide. The author uses his music at the most dramatic moment of the picture.

Each technique plays the most important role for Anderson's films - the creation of artificiality, theatricality. When the author shoots a picture about a children's camp (“Kingdom of the Full Moon”), he creates it from scratch instead of using an existing one. In the end, it turns out to be fabulous, a kind of childish view of the world.

But if visually the paintings of Wes Anderson can be called children's, then thematically they are definitely not. Family relationships, the struggle of generations, the search for oneself, the struggle for freedom - it is obvious that such problems are understandable to an adult audience. At the same time, children are often forced to solve complex problems in films. As a rule, they are generally much more mature than adults. When branded visual images are added to the conflict, the melancholy characteristic of Anderson's tapes is born. A colorful world that evokes memories and associations in the viewer is combined with problems from adult life.

It is important that Anderson very rarely uses truly fairy-tale worlds (as a rule, this happens only in cartoons). He is much more interested in creating fairy tales from reality. So the train ("Train to Darjeeling"), school ("Rushmore Academy") and a submarine ("The Aquatic Life of Steve Zissou") turn out to be a better setting than fictional locations.

Tim Burton - the genius of darkness and references

Tim Burton also makes fairy tales for adults, but he does it in a different manner. Perhaps because of his passion for the theme of death, which plays a special role in his paintings. Heroes die, resurrect, fight death, it is always there. However, it is not perceived as something special - it is a natural part of life. The very theme of the films determines the visual images - it turns out dark, gloomy ribbons.

However, Burton's style is determined not only by themes, but also by his personal preferences. The director is inspired by German expressionism. He takes into his films not only individual scenes (he always has a lot of references), but also the spirit of old paintings. Exaggerated emotions, mysterious characters and gloomy worlds are elements that can be found in almost any work of the author. At the same time, it is important that for Burton the importance of light is higher than that of color. Perhaps this is a direct influence black and white cinema, where the ability to play with shadows and midtones often determined the emotionality of the picture.

In addition, Tim Burton tends to gothic. Dark palaces and mysterious villains attract him more than modern landscapes. Even Gotham in his "Batman" is more like the domain of Count Dracula, and not the city from the comics. Over the years, it has become clear that Burton is able to give new life to any work thanks to his visual style.

Despite the darkness and death that set the tone for Burton's paintings, he almost always builds stories around children. More often than the most ordinary ("Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "Alice in Wonderland"), but sometimes around adult children ("Edward Scissorhands»). Childish naivete turns out to be the most important property of the heroes. In addition, it is the child who can look at the world with honest eyes, which helps to solve the problem in a single film.

At the same time, if the films of Wes Anderson are not interesting to the child because of the complex problems, then the films of Tim Burton may well be liked - although they may be a nightmare. Ultimately, Burton's audience is adults who miss interesting fairy tales.

Guillermo del Toro - intellectual maniac and anarchist

Guillermo del Toro demonstrates a special look at fairy tales. He uses them to talk about both the simplest individual difficulties and social ones.

director is a fan monsters. Hellboy, The Shape of Water, Pinocchio, Pan's Labyrinth - in most films, unusual creatures are at the center of the plot, but with typical human problems. For them, accepting themselves and their face and body is a much more difficult task than saving the world. Appearance plays a really important role. For the heroes of del Toro, ugliness is not a negative characteristic, but simply a trait. And beauty in the Hollywood sense is perceived by the director as something negative. Del Toro ready work for years over the appearance of the characters to emphasize their uniqueness.

The Mexican director reinterprets fairy tales from the point of view of not only external elements, but also social ones. Those in power almost always turn out to be villains, while a trickster who tries to destroy the hierarchy evokes compassion. If in the classic fairy tale the prince goes to kill the dragon, then in the world of del Toro everything is the opposite: the tormented monster kills the evil heir to the throne.

The external fabulousness of del Toro's paintings is as deceptive as possible. In his stories, one can find references to historical and political events, as well as to religion. Sometimes it comes out completely on the verge of a foul: for example, in the recent “Pinocchio"The director managed to correlate the wooden doll with Jesus Christ (not to mention the fact that the events of the cartoon are developing in fascist Italy). The ability to play with style and imagery allows del Toro to talk about any topic using metaphor.

Wes Anderson creates fairy tales from reality, Tim Burton turns them into gothic novels, Guillermo del Toro looks for elements of the real world in fairy tales. Each of them works brilliantly with the visual range and mood, it is impossible to confuse their paintings. And despite the fact that films may look frivolous on the surface, they always turn out to be more complicated than they seem.