HPPH's favourite Wes Anderson scenes

Before we begin screening favourites like The Grand Budapest Hotel, Rushmore and the new film, The Phoenician Scheme, we wanted to hear about our staff, work experience student and volunteers' most-loved scenes from a Wes Anderson film. Here's what they said...

Ollie: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

“Increasingly known for his hyper-real sets, picture-perfect framing and deadpan performances – Wes Anderson films are sometimes accused of not carrying the same emotional heft as more naturalistic dramas. However, when you look beyond the staging, and then dig only a little deeper, moments of heart, poignancy and genuine emotional connection aren’t hard to find.

This scene from The Grand Budapest Hotel is a great example of how much love Anderson has for his characters and their emotional connections to one another – which when expressed more explicitly can often catch you off guard, and hit all the harder as a result.”

Ollie, Marketing & Communications Manager.

Vee: Asteroid City (2023)

“A beautiful & melancholy scene about feeling lost in creating something, Margot Robbie is heartbreaking. I love how Asteroid City pushes Wes Anderson-ness to the max and pits it against a sense of spontaneity to confront his own doubts about filmmaking, but all of the (carefully composed) loose ends still feel playful - it feels like Margot Robbie isn't even supposed to be there but she still delivers such a crucial moment!”

Vee, Venue Coordinator.

Ian: Rushmore (1999)

“Rushmore isn't even my favourite Wes Anderson film probably not even in my top five films of his. However, the yearbook montage which comes not even five minutes into the film screams a work of a new unique cinematic voice. The compositions which would become Wes' trademark, the needledrop of The Creation's sensational Makin' Time. It's a sequence that is like a cinematic manifesto that lays out what Wes as filmmaker is about. I personally think Wes is about a lot more than sequence in particular, this is a sense he is a dreamer more in the vein of Terry Gilliam or Tim Burton which I don't think he ever gets the credit for, he makes very distinctive worlds that may have some relation to our own but exist only in Wes Anderson land. There is also a sense of melancholy that runs through his entire body of work. Maybe it's just the merging the song, editing and images but it gives me the same energy that the opening of Pulp Fiction or the dance sequence in Godard's Bande à part, just pure cinema that merges music, performance and image seamlessly.”

Ian, Volunteer.

Simon: Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

“Sam and Suzy run away to a New England tidal inlet with a record player and a handful of 45s. Under the spell of Françoise Hardy’s 'Le Temps de l’Amour,' they sway through an awkward dance and into their first kiss, reaching for a grown-up sophistication that remains just out of reach.”

Simon, Volunteer.

Martha: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

“It’s hard to decide on a favourite Wes Anderson scene because there are so many wonderful ones that stand out. My favourite ones are usually where Anderson fully embraces his unique style of narrative storytelling and gives some backstory, like the scene where he explains the stories of the genius Tenenbaum children, or the scene in Moonrise Kingdom where you get an insight into the love of Sam and Suzy by getting to read snippets of their letters. This scene in The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou where Bill Murray’s character Steve Zissou begins, “Let me tell you about my boat” is maybe my favourite.

The set created for this scene is incredible – a boat cut in half showing all the amazing innards of the Belafonte. It feels very nostalgic to me because it reminds me of a picture book shaped as a boat I had as a child, where with each turned page, you’d discover more stories happening in each cross-section of the boat. The pink sky, turquoise sea colour scheme is glorious, as is usually the case with Wes Anderson. Zissou introduces my favourite section of the boat – a cosy compartment where you can lie down and look through little round windows into the sea – by saying, “This is the observation bubble which I thought up in a dream”. And that summarises why I love this scene, this film and all of Wes Anderson’s work. He makes the kind of magical scenes that could only be in dreams a temporary wondrous reality to escape into.”

Martha, Digital Marketing Coordinator.

Marla: The French Dispatch (2021)

"I think that this short scene in The French Dispatch is a window to the obscurity of Wes Anderson films, the stacked chairs, the ladder, the pointing at her appendix, Juliette’s murmuring as she finds the part of the text she is looking for along with the close ups of the crowds faces and their eyes drawn up toward the words being spoken. As well as these, this scene interests me due to the almost comedic placement of the pre-made subtitles and how they perfectly encapsulate Juliette’s way of speaking, making the English subtitles and her French uttering flow into one, allowing us to feel as if we fully understand her language."

Marla, Work Experience Student.

Sylvia: Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009)

"I used to listen to Fantastic Mr Fox on audio tape repeatedly until the tape no longer worked. Wes Anderson’s amazing interpretation manages to bring the story to life and I was instantly transported back although it still maintains the great stylistic aesthetic Anderson is known for, all through immaculate stop motion animation."

Sylvia, Young Audiences Officer.

Han: The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

“I think The Grand Budapest Hotel is my favourite Wes Anderson film but it's hard to decide which is the best scene as there's lots to choose from. I love this short but brilliant scene where Monsieur Gustave calls on the help of the Society of Crossed Keys. It's a great concept that if they're ever in trouble they can call each other up and they'll be ready to swing into action and help out. I really like how it cuts to each concierge by showing a key and a postcard, a lovely detail to show it's a global operation. The iris in zoom where a circle is formed around the concierge when they're calling the next one gives a sense of urgency. It's funny how they have to stop from their duties midway through and rely on the lobby boy to take over as they answer the emergency call.”

Han, Venue Coordinator.

Charlie: Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

“When I recall a Wes Anderson film, I tend to picture a colour palette more than I do a story. I think of style, not of substance; of quippy one-liners, and break-neck pans with the camera, rather than dialogue spoken by people who feel real to me, who transcend their actors' stardom, and who have lived, albeit fictional experiences to share with a curious audience. There's a facade - or, shall I say, a dodecahedronal netting of irony which cradles a timid, beating heart in each of his films, and rarely is the earnest tremor of that heartbeat heard plainly over the postmodern wisecracks and preppy needle-drops that emerge so often as its public decoy. I have, however, enjoyed a great many of his films, with one scene that I particularly love being this extended sequence, which follows Sam and Suzy's first clandestine foray together into adolescence, in Moonrise Kingdom (2012). It's honest in the way that it is rife with faux-pas and subtle clashings of personality, revealing in our protagonists' childliness an instant fondness for each other's company, where neither is afraid to be their own passionate, clumsy self. Sam, the acerbic but empathetic know-it-all, and Suzy, the reserved but meticulous go-getter; together, they form a sensitive pair, who in this section of the film present what may be the most tender and genuine human interaction ever put forth to celluloid by cinema's resident corduroy-donner.”

Charlie, Volunteer.

Helen: Asteroid City (2023)

“Love the embarrassment of the cheeky alien.”

Helen, Volunteer.

Discover our Intentionally Wes Anderson season here.