Wes Anderson's weird short films
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
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Wes Anderson is highly regarded for such films as Grand Budapest Hotel and his Roald Dahl adaptation of Fantastic Mr Fox, but what if he made some other Roald Dahl adaptations, too? How well does not just Henry Sugar work? Also, The Rat Catcher, Poison, and The Swan?
My Little Thought Tree is my channel for drawing out the deeper meaning and emotion in film, TV, and the world at large through relaxed, analytical video essays. I am a professional counsellor and often draw on my psychology and therapy background to better understand characters, themes, and emotion in fiction. I upload every Saturday and occasionally on Tuesdays, if I'm feeling productive.
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TIMESTAMPS
00:00 Intro
00:53 Henry Sugar
08:49 WorldAnvil
10:34 The Rat Catcher
19:58 Poison
25:00 The Swan
MUSIC (in order)
Nujabes - Spiritual State
Calme - Ever So Blue
Nujabes - Prayer
Dekobe - Another Time
Nylonia - Solitary Morning
The Miner - Both Are Infinite
Christopher Moe Ditlevsen - Partners In Crime
Idealism - Phosphenes
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#wesanderson #roalddahl #analysis - Krátké a kreslené filmy
BIG PINNED COMMENT!
1) Obviously I have to link World Anvil worldanvil.com/?c=mltt
2) For anyone wondering where I stand on the "separate art from the artist" argument, I think every situation is different but, in this example, funds aren't supporting the artist anymore and his family seem not to support Roald Dahl's personal views. Equally, I don't think we should be reworking old stories just to make them more popular and less controversial. I think when a piece of art is finished, it should stay as it was; open to all of the praise and crticism it deserves, and that trying to cover that just for the sake of selling more copies, is a bad moves (in most instances). In adapting an old work, however, I think it's natural to rework it into something better, sometimes specifically as a means to criticise aspects of the original. We know a lot of cinema can go too far with this. Arguably these adaptations play it a little safe but it works for me.
The biggest draw for stuff like this is the acting. Since there's not much money to be made in short films, everyone in it is doing it for the passion of acting - which can be lacking in Hollywood these days. Good stuff.
I think with The Swan, it feels so real to how many people recount traumatic events that happened to them. When younger you doesn't want/can't fully process or speak of it but older you, looks back with numbness and solemnness. It's an eerie sadness and not really a sadness you cry about, it's more like the sadness you feel in your chest. The Swan fully deserves the top spot and being 10/10
I like Henry Sugar the most.
I think the “story” of the story was about how some practices will change you in ways you didn’t expect purely by the doing of them.
Henry ended up finding a purpose and fulfillment in the practice of meditation- in the certainty and confidence of slowly whittling his time down on reading the cards.
And doing this, with the detox of having been separated from the rich world he had drifted through, led him to (both figuratively and literally) see the world in a different way.
I think Henry Sugar is about the power of perspective, coupled with the power of purpose. You can’t help but be changed by the practices you adopt in pursuit of a purpose- even if that’s not what your intention was to begin with.
I feel like the relentless speed of the narrative mirrors the kind of stupefying wonder one might have on realizing, one day, that you have acquired a perspective so different from the earlier one that your life “before” feels like a dream. Each moment of life feels long when you’re living it, and some moments- like reading the little blue ledger- stick in your mind as much longer than they actually were. But when you look back on your life to see how you got somewhere, many times it’s this rapid, baffling succession of events that sort of swept you along- and it all went so much FASTER then you thought it did! You go “how did I get here, anyway?” And some little moments might stand out- like realizing you saw your old life like a stranger, remembering the moment when someone told you off and suddenly your life was on a new trajectory- but it all feels like it happened so quickly. You never really have the time you want to have, in life, to process or absorb something as deeply as you might want- things Keep Happening!
Beautifully written. This, too, was my favorite.
This.
The short story "The Swan" messed me up as a kid. To realize (and also, somehow, to already know) even a kid could be that cruel to a child and animals that hadn't harmed them at all, for absolutely no reason except boredom and the power a gun gives them, really upset me, as did the depiction of animal cruelty and the fact the cygnets were orphaned. I was very nervous going in that it might re-traumatize me, and was very grateful for the narration and artifice that gave us a level of distance from the events - not enough to dull the awfulness, but enough that it didn't feel like you were experiencing it as Peter in reality.
To claim to be traumatised by such a story when some of us have lived this, it's not a good look. I may be a little too sensitive to posts like these, and I guess that's my own problem I have to own. But give some thought to how this sounds to an actual victim of abuse. They know what being team it used actually feels like.
Sorry, traumatised somehow got spellchecker into "team". Even the fan spell check taunts me!!! FU spellcheck!!!
My reaction to this story in no way minimizes or invalidates what you went though, and my heart goes out to you that you went through that. We all have our own valid experiences, and it's not a contest. I didn't want, in a CZcams comment, to get into the personal history that went into my reaction to this story just to prove that I was valid for reacting that way or for using the word "traumatized." I just wanted to express I think Wes handled the adaptation well, and to explain why, from my perspective, I was anxious about it.
@@squirlmy Hey. I was constantly abused by my caretaker growing up. This was traumatizing. If another child had read my story and been traumatized too, it wouldn't make my pain less significant. It might even validate it.
I loved all of them equally…watched them in the span of a few days…like picking an artisan belgian chocolate from a chocolate box that has different flavours but you don’t know what they are and how the taste is going to “hit” you ❤️
Anderson has SUCH a specific style. I don’t have Netflix so it’s nice to hear about it them and get your perspective at the same time ❤
Surprised Patrick h Willems hasn’t done something on these shorts yet bc that guy loves Wes Anderson id say lol
Hope the bunnys doing well!
Rip Lennon.
The fact that Like Legends of Old doesn't like Anderson, or the framing of fiction as fiction within a film, lowers him in my esteem. Maybe he's too much of a gamer. IDK
Sorry, it's "Like Stories of Old"
Poison was my least favourite on my first watch through but my favourite on my second. The level of depth to this story is remarkable on the second watch through.
I read Henry Sugar as a kid, it was in a Dahl collection I got after "James and the Giant Peach" and watching the first "Charles and the Chocolate Factory" film. Later meditation and Buddhism became very important to my adult life. I suppose I could trace it further back to "the Force" in Star Wars, and even the strange American "Kung Fu", which starred a white man, David Carradine, as an Asian martial arts student. Anyways the effect was profound, not just that sheer concentration can get one "magic" powers, but such power inspires goodness and generosity. I suppose I still naively belief this, just a little bit.
I think you may be disappointed that there's not really much more to the Henry Sugar written story. One thing that struck me as a teen, is the description of different parts of a flame, in candle flames, and rushing to get a candle and actually study how it is exactly as described, and one really can focus and meditate upon such a thing. That certainly impressed me as watching a video never could. I don't know if there's special challenges "dissecting" a candle flame, or otherwise presenting such a yogic meditation as a real, actual mental exercise. Then you start wondering how Dahl discovered this technique!!! I have no doubt it was an actual practice done by Indian yogis. And I believe it was written before the Beatles and late sixties generally made Indian gurus a pop phenomenon. What was the secret to Rahm's success, nyways? lol 😳
I think with Henry sugar, there’s are two things to consider. 1: this is a recounting of “true” events from Roald Dahls perspective. The book itself is quite detached in a way, not necessarily as potent or tense as something like Charlie and the Chocolate factory or Matilda.
2: I think it’s important Henry comes to the realisation on his own. When he was spoilt and purposeless, making money seemed everything to him because it was his only purpose, but given a greater ambition, a greater goal, really putting his effort into something, he realises how purposeless and empty his life was before. But he’s still selfish in the fashion that when he doesn’t want his money he still treats it as useless to him. Which then inspires him through the policeman to do some good in the world. I think if anyone else close to Henry came and prodded him into doing it it would take away from his Epiphany
This is probably not going to be seen, but thank you so much for the content you create. It has comforted me for more than a year or two. Your thoughts are always cohesive and well put. Since my first language isnt english it is nice having somebody express thoughts similar to mine so well in english. All and all i wish you well and will continue to visit your content in the future.
Thanks for commenting, it means a lot!
Watching this through and commenting as I watch each segment.
There are a lot of elements in your first review that reminded me of a quote from Federico Fellini: "Studios always want to produce my last film." Like Anderson, Fellini was always becoming more and more "Fellini-esque," his films becoming more surreal and less straightforward with each entry. To call each of Wes Anderson's new works "The Wessiest Wes Anderson film that ever Wessed an Anderson" has become such a cliche that reviewers are now lampshading the comment as they make it. And along with that comment is the lament "I wish it was more like that last one," whether the last one be Royal Tenenbaums, Grand Budapest, or whatever.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is absolutely not like Grand Budapest, but that's the point of making a new film, not to repeat, but make something new. These short stories are all delivered at a breathless pace to the point that much of the subtlety and nuance breezes past. To call that a mistake, I think, misses that it's the point.
With Henry Sugar in particular, the pace gives you a sense of the brevity of life, and how a man reaching middle-age suddenly takes a completely unexpected left turn can be incredibly disorienting. It's clear why his scheme ended up transforming him in a way he never could have expected. But I think there's a narrative intent in the fact that the story doesn't stop to contemplate the reason behind Henry Sugar's transformation. It's the very reason for the story, and yet, it seems opaque to Sugar himself. He has no idea what's changed about him, only that he's changed.
The story of Henry Sugar isn't about how we consciously improve ourselves, through our own introspection and key sage advice of wise friends or loved ones. It's about how change happens to us, and we often don't even know why, as life is going by too fast. Rather than thinking "Today, I shall become someone new, someone better," we find ourselves an uncomfortable fit in our old lives for reasons we're only dimly aware of, and naturally shift into a new mode without much reflection. We're left to look back on our lives, wondering how we got here when we'd made other plans. We put the steps together as best we can. That is, if it's even worth the effort. Sometimes, you just find you've become a better you, and it's not necessarily worth bothering to figure out how it happened. That's what growing up is all about, and at age 52, I'm finding that growing up never stops.
Okay, on to the next reveiw. :)
This was a great summation of the story. I got a huge amount out of your interpretation, especially how you point out that we become the Ratcatcher by judging him. That was an inspired insight.
The other thing that struck me beyond the general examination of class difference is how much the story reminded me of the way we in America, and perhaps all over the world, create and judge this concept we think of as "the criminal class," and how much we become everything vile we project upon this hypothetical group of people. Allegory strikes me better as something the audience can freely apply to art rather than something the artist may have intended (I tend to agree with good ol' J.R.R. Tolkien on that one,) but I see a direct allegory in the Ratcatcher of the state of American law enforcement, which I have a hard time imagining is accidental. This interpretation makes the Ratcatcher's final brutality in a last ditched effort to impress the press and citizenry of the "village" particularly horrifying.
Okay, next.
Poison was an interesting one. I'm still as baffled as you. Saying that the fear of the snake was "racism" doesn't quite cut it. After all, the character's racism doesn't emerge till the imagined danger is gone, and he has nothing to lose by it. But perhaps the point is somewhere in there. We imagine deadly danger, and when it turns out to be nothing, that doesn't remove our terror, our loathing, our shame at our own weakness, so we direct all that toward whatever, or whoever, is around. Perhaps the key moment as the character's growing terror, anger and frustration transferring directly onto the doctor once the imagined danger is dispelled.
With Swan, I think you actually have the meaning of it. The story has all the elements of any adventure story: a beleaguered hero, a damsel in distress, dastardly villains, and a magical intervention that leads the hero to safety. But what's omitted tells us what we're meant to focus on. The damsel and the hero are one and the same. (He's even tied to the railroad tracks in the classic trope.) The magical, sacred being who intervenes is sacrificed for the deliverance of the hero. And it's never even explained what mystical power delivered the boy to his mother. The villains are presumably punished by the authorities for killing the swan, but that punishment isn't a part of the story. The hero is never seen to recover.
So what's left? The trauma. Whether or not there was ever justice for the boy, or the swan, that justice wasn't the story. The story was the enduring trauma that neither time nor redress has the power to take away. I think we're just meant to contemplate how casual cruelty and dehumanization leaves indelible marks on us.
These were all great comments, thanks!
After watching the Sawn I found myself with a similar hole in my heart. I have come back to it time and time again. I have rewatched the shorts many times, but none nearly as many as how often I find myself rewatching this masterpiece. Everything about is spectacular and painful, and more stories need to be told that leave the viewer with both empathy and with their own pain they must sit with afterwards. 10/10
One thing about The Rat Catcher that occurred to me watching this, just to add on to your point about about us rejecting the rat catcher, is that in the beginning they brought him because they wanted him to kill rats and killing rats is what made them drive him away. He got recognition and appreciation for being good at killing rats, it became his whole identity and everything he was. With everything he did he was trying to get more recognition using the only that thing that got him seen at all, but the further he pushed the more he ended up being rejected for it.
I don't know what it means, that guy was doing some fucked up shit to rats, but it kind of makes you think about how we hate someone for wanting to do something that we want them to do.
I didn't know about Willy Wonka, gonna have to sit with that one for a minute.
Finally, when I watched these I was binging all of them at a friend's house stoned bc I don't have Netflix, I was heavily impacted by The Swan when I watched it but I kinda pushed it off as soon as we started the next one, a little too heavy to process in that setting lol. Watching this made it suddenly all come back and man that's heavy but so so good. All I have to say about it. Great video
Hi, therexx. The swan story (I didn't catch the proper title, I'm so sorry) reminds me of the William Boyd television play "Good at Games", where a young man - played by Anton Lesser- goes to a school reunion solely for the purpose of raining clever and cruel retribution on the gang of boys who bullied him for not being "good at games" (i.e. a roughty-toughty sporty type).
I think Dahl might be trying to make similar points tin Boyd's through the character of Peter. Yes, the poor kid just about survives, may even eventually come out of all that horror "stronger". But, at what cost?
Edit: the television play is called "Good and Bad at Games". I misremembered the titlexx. Whoops!xx
I enjoyed all of them, but yeah, The Swan was the real standout for me too.
Haven't seen any of the films before but I was actually peripherally aware of the poison story, so I already knew the twist. So it was already? Spoiled for me.
With Poison, it's a misunderstanding to say that British people of that time were racist when they were just full on colonial. The attitude from the education system and culture was that Britain was carrying on ancient civilisation and had a moral duty to take it out and enforce it on the world. All utterly revolting but it wasn't skin colour that was the prejudice, it was upbringing and background. Anyone from the colonised areas was accepted so long as they conformed to what it meant to be British. As colonialism was replaced with the neo nazi morons the difference blurred and racism based on skin colour and other nonsense became the norm. You can see it's echoes in the Conservative Party, the colonial traditional conservatives who are 'the nice ones' versus the Brexit types who barely contain their hatred for each other and everyone else.
Not saying Roald Dahl wasn't racist, just that there would be no issue being good friends with an Indian whilst still hating someone from a neighbouring country. One was a member of the Empire or Commonwealth the other proudly refused 'civilisation'.
The Swan made me sick to my stomach. As a bird-lover, a weird kid, it was painful to watch
Appreciate the analysis immensely you took the words out of my mouth I think Henry Sugar should have been a full fledged movie or much shorter. Rat Catcher was amazing and your analysis was great. It is so crazy that I never realized the reason the doctor was ignored was racially charged, just thought he was scared. But it makes so much sense that he'd been battling that racist feeling the whole time. I thought he just got embarrassed that someone he considered inferior questioned him. The poison being racism is genius will rewatch! Swan was hard for me, I paid keen attention and wish I didn't because it made me sad!
Hi! New subscriber, short time watcher (found u a month or so ago)...
I would love to see a couple of films/characters analyzed from a psychology perspective.
1. Charlie from The Perks of Being a Wallflower. Super rich character, with a lot of trauma... Wait... did u already do that one? I don't see it in the videos list but I could swear I watched it... Or did bloody CZcams delete it for stupid reasons?
2. Owen from Let Me In... SUPER dark themes amidst the "horror" of the main storyline... In a lot of ways I feel like I see a lot of myself in Owen, from being bullied to feeling isolated and ignored... It's just a really emotional ride for the main character, played pretty darn well by Kodi Smit-McPhee.
3. Last but not least, Duncan from The Way Way Back. A bit more lighthearted of a film, but still pretty deep in terms of the main character's struggle with confidence, acceptance, etc... I imagine this film would be a BIT more enjoyable to analyze, because there's probably more "fun" to be had than darkness, but the main character of Duncan had a LOT of sh*t going on in his life that was threatening to tear his world apart... And he's another character I personally find a lot of traits in common with. Despite it's more lighthearted feel, I would definitely rank this movie pretty high in terms of its ability to delve into the not so great/not so shitty life of the main character, and how he manages to overcome his obstacles (his mom's boyfriend, struggle to be accepted, and his journey towards finding love in the lead actress, played by AnnaSophia Robb. And of course, there's plenty of trauma behind the motivations of other characters, like Duncan's mom and her boyfriend.
Just some suggestions for future videos...
Love what you're doing, and I find a lot of insight in your therapeutic perspective on the characters you've covered. So thanks for that, and keep up the great work! 🙂
Did you know that film is a remake of Låt den rätte komma in, "Let the Right On e In"? If an analysis is done, it should be "Oskar" from the original!!!
@@squirlmy yes, I did... But for the sake of English speaking audiences, which in fairness is more than likely a larger percentage of his user base, doing LMI is probably easier than doing LTROI... I've seen both, and while LTROI is good, I personally prefer LMI...
haven’t finished the video yet but feel compelled to say that yours is one of the few channels where I refuse to skip the promotional sections - they’re relevant and genuine, WorldAnvil has a great partner
The Rat Catcher was the weekest one for me. Didn't like at all. Henry Shugar was my favourite. The other 2 were pretty good too.
I watched these as I'm a great fan of the whimsy of Wes Anderson. However, Poison was also dramatised in the Tales of the Unexpected series in the 1980's, I do think it was done better on that occasion.
Interesting I probably would have exactly reversed the order of which were my favorites lol. But they were all at least good. I just love Ralph Fiennes
Farewell! You forgot the coasters on the wooden tables. Props! Got to be a snob! Ahahahaha!
Whats the twist in The Rat Catcher?
SPOILER:
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There is a body in the hay stack. Thats the food source for the rats. This is suggested by the last(?) image, where the two remaining men look to the news board, where it says that a man is missing for 3 weeks. Funny enough, this can be seen throughout the whole movie, but never draws your attention.
@@Moosbett Wow, I completely missed that. I saw the poster the whole time but the way the ending is done I missed the sudden pause and the look. To be honest all three of the shorter stories felt like they didn’t have endings to me and after hearing this I’m wondering if I missed something in the other two as well.
I took the swan as him dying at the end
I loved this one
I started watching them but tbh, I struggled to keep up with the stories so think I'll just read the book. One of my favourites of Wes Anderson is The Royal Tenenbaums.
The Swan was my least favourite, and maybe The Rat Catcher or Poison were my favourite
I didn’t even notice you were British until you started talking crap about how using “s” at the ends of words was lower class.😆
in the rat catcher
This is just a recap with spoilers
That's not even a little bit true. There is loads of added commentary and analysis.
obviously you never read Dahl nor you understand Anderson. Funny that nowadays everyone can have a platform, put can not claim it lol
What is it I don't understand?
@@mylittlethoughttree Ignore him. He's just gatekeeping to feel special
You do realize Peter does not survive, right? Also Roald Dahl lived in complicated times like how we now live in complicated times. To call him "racist" or "anti sematic" to label him these awful things is to be ignorant of ones life experiences and world issues of the times.