jexxica
Hutch's Tiny Dancer
I always wanted to be a Tenenbaum
Posts: 82 
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Post by jexxica on Oct 30, 2008 17:29:43 GMT -5
I know it's not new...  It's about time. And, well, a little late. It would have made perfect sense to release a Criterion Collection DVD of Wes Anderson's Bottle Rocket last year, when it quietly celebrated its tenth anniversary. But hey, better late than never, right? While promoting his latest film, The Darjeeling Limited, Anderson told MTV Movies Blog that he's begun work on a Criterion edition of his debut feature. The director said there's a lot of stuff to go into it, including a lot of footage that was left on the cutting room floor. And certainly he will have to put his original black-and-white short, also titled Bottle Rocket, on there. For those Anderson fans who haven't seen it, the short is basically just early versions of scenes that ended up in the later film, including the part in which Dignan (Owen Wilson) and Anthony (Luke Wilson) rob Anthony's parents' house -- with the soundtrack set to jazz rather than Love. When I first saw it -- Lincoln Center screened it with The Royal Tenenbaums on the eve of that film's release -- I thought it was a little bit funnier than the full-length. But looking at it now, I just think it's a neat curiosity for the fans. You can check it out on YouTube if you aren't willing to wait to see if Criterion includes it.
Bottle Rocket can feel pretty slow and uneven compared to Anderson's later releases, all of which have already received the Criterion treatment. But the crime caper comedy does feature a younger, funnier Owen Wilson, back when he was even more wide-eyed and excited than we're used to now. And it does at least have the obligatory homages to J.D. Salinger (think of Anthony as a grown-up Holden Caulfield) that links it up with the rest of Anderson's work. The main thing missing, of course, is Bill Murray, who has appeared in all of Anderson's films after this one. Maybe, as I suggested last week, somebody can do a special alternate version in which Murray is inserted into the film, possibly replacing James Caan. That would be a fun bonus feature. Or maybe Anderson and Murray could stage some fake auditions (like the real ones on the Criterion Rushmore) where Murray tests for each of Bottle Rocket's characters. Currently there is no release date, nor any news on the Criterion site, for Bottle Rocket, but hopefully we'll hear more about it soon.
Why do these things NEVER come to Argentina?!  |
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Post by Librarian on Nov 29, 2008 16:11:05 GMT -5
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Post by scarletshoes2000 on Nov 29, 2008 19:16:20 GMT -5
My copy arrived from Amazon this morning - and I have just spent a very happy few hours going through all the amazing bits and pieces on the 2-CD set. Not only do you get the original short and the full length movie (both beautifully cleaned up), but also a wonderful set of photos from Laura Wilson of her sons and Wes taken during the writing, casting and making of the movie; a 'Making of....' feature where most of the orginal cast discuss (separately) their memories of making 'Bottle Rocket'; a number of deleted scenes; Wes' original storyboards and - most interesting of all - a full length optional commentary over the full length movie by Wes and Owen. This is undertaken by the two of them via inter-continental telephone (whilst Owen is in Miami filming 'Marley' and Wes somewhere else working on the fox movie). It starts off a bit slow and stilted - but soon warms up wonderfully and really gives an amazing insight into both their friendship and working relationship. Really, really worth getting.............
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Post by Librarian on Nov 30, 2008 0:32:43 GMT -5
Thanks for the details Scarletshoes! I can not wait to get mine! Maybe Wednesday at the latest.
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Post by texasgal on Nov 30, 2008 12:37:51 GMT -5
Everytime I try to open Librarian's car wash scene, my computer goes bonkers. Apparently, the excitement is too much for it.  Edited to add: I ordered my copy too. Should arrive in a week or so, the perfect Hanukkah present to myself. ;D |
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Post by Librarian on Dec 3, 2008 18:25:14 GMT -5
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chevygirl
Air Kentucky Flight Attendant
Keeper of
The Keys to
Luke's Challenger
Posts: 265
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Post by chevygirl on Dec 3, 2008 23:39:53 GMT -5
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Post by Remi on Dec 8, 2008 13:41:18 GMT -5
They are auctioning the original artwork from the Criterion DVD to benefit the North Texas Food Bank. Click Here |
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Post by bluebutterfly on Dec 22, 2008 12:18:23 GMT -5
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jexxica
Hutch's Tiny Dancer
I always wanted to be a Tenenbaum
Posts: 82
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Post by jexxica on Jan 6, 2009 17:40:09 GMT -5
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jexxica
Hutch's Tiny Dancer
I always wanted to be a Tenenbaum
Posts: 82
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Post by jexxica on Jan 6, 2009 17:51:46 GMT -5
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Post by iluvtexas on Apr 27, 2009 19:46:40 GMT -5
Another Good Interview  Wes World: Mr. Anderson Welcomes Us InBy Pat McGuire | 04.27.2009 For most of us, it’s hard to remember a time before the red cap & Speedos and fur coat & eyeliner-crazy world of Wes Anderson. But the visionary auteur didn’t exactly burst upon the American film scene with his 1996 debut film, Bottle Rocket. Instead, like most young filmmakers, with his first work Anderson planted the seeds that would grow to compose his singular, indelible style—filled to the theatre lobby with snug details, realized relationships, and every last story stone overturned.
When Anderson and his University of Texas classmate, Owen C. Wilson, began work on a script about a couple of romantically earnest yet haphazardly incompetent amateur thieves, they knew only one thing about movies: that they wanted to make one so badly they could taste it. Like their characters, Anderson and Wilson were naïve, green, broke, and yet absolutely driven to execute every last immaculately invented detail of their plan. They called it Bottle Rocket, and cast Owen and his brother Luke as the anti-hero leads. But, as Anderson insists, the characters are not slackers; instead, they’re more representative of that lust for excitement and glory that’s so painstakingly absent from most independent films from that time. Misguided as it may be, much like the best works of American adolescent frustration (Salinger, Harold and Maude, Ramones), it’s the act of taking action in which the lesson is learned and the dream is accomplished.
Anderson’s greatest success as a filmmaker may be his ability to work within the complete realization of his vision—a conception that, while undeterred by studio meddling or hamstringed budgets, is distinctly singular yet aided and nurtured by so many talented collaborators. A Wes Anderson movie set may feel like more of an art collective than a compartmentalized food-chain endeavor, with the lanky, tailored man who dreams in anamorphic widescreen calling the shots, genuinely obsessed with every word, every frame, every spark.
Bottle Rocket is, at long last, receiving its due this winter, in the form of a special edition Criterion Collection DVD. Here, Anderson himself takes us back to his humble beginnings as a young Texan with a couple friends named Wilson and a dream.
It’s said that a band’s first album is what their whole life has been leading up to, and then the follow-up is the problem. Is it that way with a first film?
Hmm, I don’t know. With Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, and Life Aquatic, all of those Owen [Wilson] and I had had in mind for years before we started to make them. By the time we were making Bottle Rocket we had a series of things waiting in the wings; we had fleshed out Rushmore as well. It wasn’t like we were starting from square one after Bottle Rocket.
Have you always written what you know or have some things been complete fantasy? Did you know those characters in Bottle Rocket?
Yeah, I think so. I think everything that I’ve had anything to do with has been a combination of people I have known and also inspiration from books, movies, and other stories. I don’t think I’ve ever done a movie that I didn’t feel was personal. Certainly, for The Life Aquatic there’s a fantasy element to the whole thing. The whole criminal aspect to Bottle Rocket was not exactly based on intense and careful research. [Laughs]
At that time, what kind of reaction did you give people if they told you, “Look Wes, you need to do it this way?” Were you headstrong because you knew your vision?
When you have a bunch of people working on a film, you need someone to have a point of view or the movie won’t have a point of view. I guess it doesn’t necessarily need one, but in the case of a movie like Bottle Rocket it does. It’s not that the subject matter is going to be the great thing about it; it’s more the personality of the thing. It’s either going to be good or bad based on that. Owen and I had a pretty good idea of what it ought to be. You need a good core group around you.
There are some real gems included on the Criterion Bonus DVD, including Barry Braverman’s Murita Cycles short. How did that film influence you?
I really loved that piece. Barry shot most of the Bottle Rocket short that we made; he was the director of photography. I don’t know in what ways it influenced us exactly. Part of it was Barry was the first person I remember meeting that had made a film that I thought was amazing. We were amazed that we were in contact with the guy who created it. At that time we didn’t know anybody who had anything to do with making movies. The biggest influence was just the fact that this guy had made it, so we thought, “We can do this too.”
Barry came with us to India to do The Darjeeling Limited. At some point I think we’ll have a Criterion for Darjeeling and he’s made a documentary to go with that. He got amazing material while we were in India.
What was the driving force to write Bottle Rocket?
I think mainly we wanted to make a movie and this was our idea. That was everything to us. And then you develop your story and when you get into it you become completely fixated on all its different aspects. It takes over your life during that period. Everything we were doing was somehow related to Bottle Rocket for years.
Did you take the characters’ now-famous yellow jumpsuits home and live in them, in that sense? In other words, did you live in this world of your own creation?
It’s not like we were at home acting out the story, but we were asking, “How are we going to do this?” We were gathering all these elements we needed to gather. As for the jumpsuits, at that time I didn’t know that there were these giant warehouses somewhere in the San Fernando Valley where the studios keep all the costumes and props from films. They put them in boxes and they disappear and are never seen again. Now I try to archive the stuff in my movies, but then we didn’t know and it all just disappeared. We never took home any jumpsuits. But I’ve still got a couple of Zissou red caps and Speedos. |
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Post by tinalouise on May 17, 2009 20:15:28 GMT -5
Finally got this and loved the commentary with Wes and Owen! I laughed out loud so many times.
It was also nice to hear Wes being light hearted and funny, which is how I think he is but he tends to come off so serious and stiff in some interviews.
I have such a crush on the both of them!!
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Post by tinalouise on Aug 19, 2009 11:11:35 GMT -5
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Post by startip on Jul 13, 2013 23:39:22 GMT -5
On July 27th there is a big gathering at the Days Inn where the movie Bottle Rocket was filmed. I can't share the link, but you can find the info on Facebook if you type in a search for the 2013 Lovely Soirée at the Bottle Rocket hotel. I can't go myself this year, but perhaps others of you can. It looks like it could be a lot of fun!
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