The Wes Anderson Collection

I’m a HUGE Wes Anderson fan and have reveled in his entire oeuvre – including commercials. So it was a “no-brainer” for me to purchase this lovely and luscious book, “The Wes Anderson Collection” by Matt Zoller Seitz. Seitz says this book is for “detail-obsessed fetishists” and I guess that describes me! When it arrived I flipped quickly through it looking at the pictures. It’s a scrap-book of sorts for Wes’ seven films: “Bottle Rocket” through “Moonrise Kingdom” (a new film, “The Grand Budapest Hotel”, comes out in 2014). I was thrilled with all the pictures and colorful illustrations because what most of us Wes Anderson fans love about his work is the way his movies LOOK. Part of his style is his incredible attention to detail – every single prop or costume is meticulously chosen. Then I sat down to READ the book because it contains a long conversation between Seitz and Anderson about his films starting with “Bottle Rocket”. Well, I just totally “GEEKED OUT” and realized that I need to re-watch each movie and then read the corresponding interview and look at the photos and story-boards and frame shots. So that’s what I’m doing. Wes Anderson’s films are imminently re-watchable and this book just ups the ante for enjoyment and “insider” information. I highly recommend this book (and it’s a BARGAIN for a coffee table quality book!) to Anderson fans or anyone who revels in reading about great writer/directors. Everything about his work is unique: the look, the sound (don’t even get me started on his wonderful soundtracks!), the HUMOR, the pace, the tone, the pathos…well, you get my drift: I love this book ALMOST as much as I love Wes Anderson’s films.

Im not even a movie buff, this book is a gift for a friend, but wow!! its amazing and great quality.

I was thrilled when I found this book since my boyfriend is a long-time Wes Anderson fan. The book is simply beautiful and very well thought-out. It includes tons of amazing photos from on-set along with interviews and other interesting tid-bits. It was also much bigger than I expected and the hardcover makes it a nice collector's item. Something to be noted: The Grand Budapest Hotel is not included in this book because it has one of its own by the same author. I intend on purchasing that book in the future as well. My boyfriend loved the book and is still reading through it. When I first got the book it was damaged on the corners of the spine (like it had been dropped) but Amazon was great about exchanging it and I had a new book in perfect condition in just two days. Very happy with this book and Amazon.

I had never seen a Wes Anderson movie. I pre-ordered the book simply because I enjoy Zoller-Seitz’s usually spot on movie reviews at Roger Ebert.com and his TV reviews in the New York magazine. The day the book arrived I could not put it down. Very few books are truly unique. This one is. It’s a wonderfully done book filled with production stills, beautiful illustrations, story boards, photos and more. Even more impressive is the interview with Wes Anderson which reveals his thought processes in the writing, producing and directing of his films. It’s fascinating stuff! After reading the book I have watched three of Anderson’s movies and have become an instant fan. Also, thanks to this book, a well informed knowledgeable fan who appreciates the many talents of this wonderful director. Great book! Highly recommended not only for Wes Anderson fans but for anyone interested the process of making a movie.

Cannot adequately review this spectacular film book. Although it is about Wes Anderson's seven films from "Bottle Rocket" through to "Moonrise Kingdom" there is so much more in this extraordinary publication. Essays and interviews by Mark Zoller Seitz, amazing illustrations by Max Dalton and endless fascinating stills from the films plus a potpourri of relevant items from old films, books, magazines, catalogs and advertisements that will have you intrigued and wanting to keep returning again and again to marvel at all this content. You don't have to be a Wes Anderson fan or to have seen all his films to love this beautifully designed book. A remarkable work but one of those books you have to have to fully appreciate its merits. A publishing gem from Abrams and priced very reasonably.

I bought this for my boyfriend as we're both Wes Anderson fans and this book is lovely! It's full of lush illustrations, lengthy interviews, soundtrack notes, and bits of interesting trivia (often in the captions). I absolutely adore it and so does the boyfriend. We've decided to watch every Wes Anderson film and short in chronological order while we make our way through the book. As far as looks, this book is large and heavy (which I like). I believe it's 1 square foot and maybe 1.5-2 inches thick. It would make a lovely coffee table book if your coffee table is tidier than mine. I ordered this book with Amazon Prime two-day shipping and on the second day, I woke up to find it at my door. Wonderful service, as usual.

This is so fun to look at even if you don’t really know any of his movies! My brother is a huge fan and loved this!

"Because usually you can do whatever you want. Instead, you have to encourage those people to use all their powers, because they're the experts. They have so much to bring to you, once you get them to provide it. But that's all part of managing a group. Something it just backfires, but most of the time it's fun." - Wes Anderson on process Above is basically the gist of this book. The other title really could've/should've been Anderson/Seitz ala Hitchcock/Truffaut. It's difficult actually for me to give this 4 out of 5 stars (sometimes in the book it's more like 3 and a half out of five) because I went into this so ready to think it would be like One Of The Best Books. Perhaps I should manage my expectations better, but MZS is one of the finest critics writing today - the man is chief editor of Roger Ebert for a reason, but even if I just go by his TV review/recaps he's wonderful - and you can get a strong sense of his gift for analysis and depth and insight in the essays that precede the eight films discussed here (it was written and published just prior to Grand Budapest Hotel, which is just hinted at). So, Seitz is a terrific writer. As an interviewer... he's ok. Actually, maybe more than okay in parts. His main aim here is to get Wes Anderson, one of the true independent mainstream American directors working today (that, you know, gets major stars for his movies, basically a younger Scorsese in that he gets to do it HIS way bankrolled by the big studios, usually anyway) to talk about what goes into the mix in his pudding. Sometimes he gets some good insight into just behind the scenes nuggets - casting, like Gene Hackman and some of the difficulty on Tenenbaums initially, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, George Clooney - and things like finding certain locations, finding music... Where it gets tricky and slippery is when Seitz inserts himself into the interviews. Arguably, he does it a bit too much, sometimes bringing his own kids into what they thought of the movies or certain stories. Of course there are reasons for this, to try and bridge the personal into the theoretical, or thematic. Maybe this isn't all Seitz's fault that Anderson tends to get cagey at times with his answers (the aforementioned 'Hmms', of which there are at least, I didn't count 20 here throughout). Anderson reminds me in a way like David Lynch: a true artist, he can talk about things that went into the making of his movies, things that sort of inspire him - other movies, music, art, striking locations - but when it comes to themes or deeper meanings in ideas, things that tie the films together (such as for Anderson's movies, "What is a family?" is a directly related question), he just can't go there. Or maybe the way MZS expresses it isn't quite clear enough for Anderson. Or the tension is just too palpable to really dig farther in. Or, frankly, the context isn't the greatest. And I get that. But there are other times the questions just seem to be Seitz reaching a bit far into the hat to pull something out to try to get something else out of Anderson. And yet, this is a complaint that is... I'd say only about 15 to 20% of a book that is otherwise pretty darn awesome. It's LOADED with photographs, storyboard images, stills, behind the scenes stuff, film comparisons, even stamps from Citizen Kane (!) that make it into like a Big Movie Book, which also brings the comparison up to the Godfather of Movie Books, Hitchcock/Truffaut. Anderson is amiable and can express things well enough and it's a fun, quick read. While I wish some of the things MZS reaches for and expresses weren't quite always AS about him, he mostly steers everything in the right direction which is about process, how a director who does have such control over his movies - I can't see how he could work any other way with the stories and characters he creates, along with his co-writers and collaborators - goes about creating what he does. But, ultimately, the book also illustrates that no matter how much you pick at something you can really only get out of a filmmaker: "I just like it" and that's it. At a certain point we can be critics all we want. It's ours now. And for his reasons... they're so many. And, naturally, it'll be essential reading for Anderson fans, and those just looking to get a sense of what filmmaking at a personal-cum-commercial level is all about in this day and age. But on the other hand... "I think, often, what ends up being important in a movie thematically, or what it ends up being really about, is usually not what you're focusing on. You're focusing on what a certain character is going to say, what this character wants from this other character, how they feel, and how she's going to express what she wants, and what's going to happen, you know? And as with everything else in life or writing or filmmaking, you don't really control what it means - my instinct is that I don't want to control it, because it's better if it just comes to life, in whatever way that can happen. And everything else, everything feels like it has to be created for one of these movies, so I'd rather have the meanings come out of the life of it, rather than wanting to demonstrate a certain theme, or communicate a certain theory." - Wes Anderson on themes "Sammy, I don't talk about themes." - David Lynch.

Für den Filmliebhaber mit dem Fokus auf Originalität und Liebe zum Detail ist Wes Anderson schon seit Jahren kein Geheimtipp mehr. Als Meister des modernen Ausstattungsfilms ist er mittlerweile auch dem Mainstream bekannt und das völlig zu Recht. Mit seinen nur sechs Spielfilmen hat sich Wes Anderson als eine der wichtigsten Kreativkräfte der weltweiten Filmkunst etabliert. Die Mischung von grell-absurder Komik und leiser Melancholie, samt quijotesquen Figuren macht seine Filme in der gegenwärtigen Komödienlandschaft und darüber hinaus unverwechselbar. Wie seine Figuren scheint sich Anderson immer mehr von der Realität abkapseln zu wollen, um in seine ganz eigenen Parallelwelten einzutauchen. Auch wenn Andersons jeweilige Filme dabei nicht immer auf einem gleich hohen künstlerischen Niveau anzusiedeln sind, zeichnet sich ein jeder unter ihnen doch durch ganz eigene Ansätze und Variationen aus, die eine gesonderte Betrachtung verdienen. Mit diesem wirklich sehr, sehr umfassenden (bis ins letzte Detail aufgelistetem) und beeindruckenden Werk bekommt man eine sehr gute Übersicht über die wichtigsten Werke von W. Anderson! --> Nur zum empfehlen - nicht nur für Fans der skurrilen und surrealistischen Welt des Wes Anderson. Es ist wohl das mit Abstand wichtigste und umfangreichste Werk über die Wes Anderson Filmwelt. Leider gibts dieses Buch nur in englischer Sprache, ist aber nur ein kleiner Wehrmutstropfen.

Ksiażka świetna ale zabezpieczenie przesyłki przez sklep Amazon woła o pomstę do nieba. Książka wrzucona do słabej tekturki przez co już po raz kolejny zakupiona ksiązka u Amazona przyszła uszkodzona. Szczególnie mocno uszkodzone zawsze przychodza rogi. Są poobijane i pozaginane - co w przypadku takiego albumu robi fatalne wrażenie. Amazonie czy nie "stać" Cię na lepsze zabezpieczanie wysyłanych paczek? 😠

Shipped and delivered incredibly quickly. The quality of this book is so much higher then I had anticipated.. and I had fairly high standards from reading other reviews. The only thing that kinda bothered me about the book is how many two page LARGE photographs there where. It was a little startling, and hard to comprehend at some times. But that is probably just a personal preference. It really is an in-depth book and completely worth buying for anyone who has a creative interest in Wes Anderson as a director, well, the book is actually so pretty I guess it wouldn't matter who bought it. Worth the buy!!

This book tells who is Wes Anderson, what is. There are a lot of picture how he shooting and what he want to tell us through his movies. Demands of Wes Anderson lover.

It is a great book, all the images are in high quality, and the materials are also great. I gave it to my girlfriend who is a Wes Anderson fan and she said that is perfect for any person that loves his movies.