Creative Review - Film

I'm going back a little bit now, but at the start of October, we had our first 'Creative Review' at uni, where we each had to talk about and recommend; a film, an exhibition, an article and a book. These could be about anything and didn't have to directly relate to our work, and was a means to introduce each other to our different interests and influences outside of illustration.

Firstly, the film I recommended was 'A Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou', made in 2004 starring Bill Murray (as well as a tonne of other a-listers) and directed by Wes Anderson. The film centres around Steve Zissou, a Jacques Cousteau influenced oceanographer who makes documentary films of his adventures looking for new marine life. After his friend is killed by the illusive 'Jaguar Shark', Zissou sets out on a revenge mission along with an eclectic crew, whilst also filming it for his next movie.

I only ever seen one of Wes Anderson's other films (Fantastic Mr Fox), but he definitely has a unique style. The film mixes live action with a few moments involving surreal stop-motion animated marine life such as multicoloured sea horses, dolphins and the 'tiger shark' itself. 
It's definitely a comedy, played completely dead pan throughout, but breaks it up with some nice action moments. Not to spoil it, but a gun fight and a mission-impossible style rescue are ones to look out for.

The look of the film is very rich and colourful, and the use of the onscreen writing for the change of locations, and the interesting use of a cross section of the boat (practical set) that the characters walk through, I thought were really cool and definitely made it stand out from anything else I've seen. It also has a really quirky soundtrack/score mixed with on film performances of Bowie covers in Portuguese....., yes that's right.

Anyway, I don't want to give too much away about the plot, but I would definitely recommend watching it. It's not only really funny, but it's definitely visually interesting and has a unique feel to it. I hoping to watch some more Anderson films soon, which I'm definitely looking forward to. 


Check out the trailer above guys! then go watch the film......