WORKFLOW + CCT
Visual Exercise 1 - Film Analysis
The Royal Tenenbaums, Wes Anderson
Suicide Scene - “Needle in the Hay”
Even though Wes Anderson delivers a great deal of dead panned humour in his films, especially this one, he managed to produce a very core cutting scene. I think Luke Wilson is wonderful in all of Anderson’s films and perfectly plays a ‘Wed Anderson character’ – quite unglued and dysfunctional.
The majority of the scene is a close up of Richie, yet the shot is still quite wide. The use of the wide shot allows us to see that he is completely alone in this sad looking room – also showing how he might be feeling mentally as well as physically.
As he begins to cut off his hair, there are a few jump cuts to show that time is passing. This editing technique can sometimes be quite jarring, however, I feel in this scene it really emphasizes the fact that Richie is not mentally stable and time is slipping away.
The cold colouring in this scene perfectly annotates the emotions and thoughts Richie currently has. Anderson always uses a very ‘art nouveau’ style colour palette in his work. For example, instead of using blue and green he has used more navy and moss like tones. The off-colours contribute greatly to tone being conveyed, in this case being very empty and joyless, as well as making the shot feel a little flat.
The song “Needle in the Hay” plays throughout the whole scene. Off the bat, this shows that Richie feels lost and alone, and past the point off saving. Richie looks himself in the mirror and says “I am going to kill myself tomorrow”, the deliverance of this line is incredibly chilling, he says it with absolutely no emotion or regret, making you feel like he is dead already.
Linking to colour as well as the editing, when Richie does begin to hurt himself, fast cutting is used to show what he is thinking about. We see very warm shots of his bird, Margot (who he loves) and his mother. The warmth of these shots heavily contrasts with the cold and dark shots we see Richie in, this shows that they are what brings him joy in his life.
A very typical style used by Anderson is the birds-eye-view shot. It allows us to see everything of importance to the character at the time. Richie’s hair and blood having been scattered around makes the shot very busy, somewhat comparing to what Richie has going on inside his head. Despite being a difficult scene to watch, the complimenting colours of the red blood and blue light make it peaceful and smooth, this might have been done to show the relief Richie has now that he has completed what he wanted to do.
