• I think the first hour may be the pinnacle of Wes’ style
  • The entire thing is a singular confident vision that’s perfectly executed
  • Heavy brown and wood color—the fake “New Penzanc” island is a perfect world for Wes for create and diorama-fy
  • Nostalgia and true love- well-earned formally- the emotional resonance
  • As a strict formalist- I love how Wes pulls apart the various pieces in the Benjamin Britten music and then reconstructs
  • I took this from Bordwell but I love how Suzy’s book on children looks like a Saul Bass poster—there’s also a postage stamp that looks like Edward Norton- this level of detail in the mise-en-scene makes for thoroughly rewarding study and dissection
  • Cartography— and a tendency to fix the camera at right angles with characters staggered in profile or at angles
  • This filmed turned back a lot of critics who felt justified in not liking Wes through the Darjeeling and life aquatic phase- lots of “best since Rushmore” in the reviews
  • Rolling tracking shots in the opening are stunning- it’s all done within perfect symmetry in the mise-en-scene. This is Peter Greenaway—it’s a moving painting
  • Letter writing- auteur mark/trait—another is the mentor/father/family issues—a dead dog
  • The shot of Suzy in the tower is a stunner as well
  • There’s another actual play in the film- again another reoccurring trait in Wes-world- rich detail- clearly it’s pointing to the storm/flood as it’s Noah’s ark
  • Wes is clearly in love with the preparation of camps and scouts—“maybe we should take an inventory”—but she’s a singer and he paints
  • Murray’s pants
  • Very 1960’s/70’s cinema zoom-heavy in the inlet
  • That dancing scene is just so damn sweet
  • Multiple times with have split screen usage with juxtaposing rich mise-en-scene(s)—stunning work
  • I missed it before but there is slow motion here- leaving the makeshift chapel after the marriage
  • That first hour before the storm— I feel like after the storm the film gets a way a little
  • Another level of detail is the ongoing love between Norton and the phone operator- multiple viewings
  • 16mm which I find hard to spot- it looks too gorgeous to me
  • The film opens and closes perfectly- blending painting with actual location (Suzy’s family’s red cottage house to open then the “moonrise kingdom” inlet to end)—so perfectly bookmarked
  • A masterpiece