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'Wes Anderson Centred' video shows Grand Budapest Hotel director's fondness for symmetry

Dotted line traces the centring of shots

Christopher Hooton
Tuesday 18 March 2014 06:12 EDT
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Wes Anderson's latest offering, The Grand Budapest Hotel
Wes Anderson's latest offering, The Grand Budapest Hotel (Fox Searchlight)

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Symmetry was famously an obsession of one Stanley Kubrick, who was known for his corridors and one-point perspective, but it is also employed extensively by Wes Anderson and is a key part of his distinctive style, as demonstrated by the video below.

Scroll down for the video

A dotted line is laid over numerous shots from his filmography, showing how meticulous he is in lining up and centring a shot be it a close-up or wide vista, actor or pile of rocks.

The Vimeo montage features The Fantastic Mr. Fox heavily, but also takes in Darjeeling Limited, Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Moonrise Kingdom and his latest film, The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The technique lends an elegance and sense of precision to his movies, and compounds his characters often dead-eyed expressions.

Bottle Rocket notably doesn't feature in the video however, Anderson's first film that came before he settled into his idiosyncratic style.

The Grand Budapest Hotel, which stars Ralph Fiennes and Tony Revolori, is in cinemas now.

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