Dir. Wes Anderson
Our second object comes from the whimsical mind of Wes Anderson. If you've never seen a Wes Anderson film before, then you're truly missing something special. His films feel like sinking into a comfy armchair, they're light, breezy and hilarious when it goes against this atmosphere. The Grand Budapest Hotel, his most recent effort to-date is likely my favourite of all his films, Fantastic Mr.Fox, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, and his most under-appreciated in my opinion, The Darjeeling Limited, are superb feats of film-making and design.
Moonrise Kingdom tells the tale of two young kids, a Khaki scout, and an isolated girl with a penchant for old French vinyl. After both run away from their camp/home, they meet and take themselves to a secluded beach. Neither have properly hit puberty. Our scout, Sam, has made fishhook earrings for his new flame, he tells her this, and asks her 'Are your ears pierced?' (Here's another, unfortunately, poor-quality link to the scene).
Anderson cuts to both of them in their tent, both in underwear, with Suzy moaning and gasping in pain from being pierced. Sam hands her a mirror and she remarks "It's pretty, do the other one". Now it's fairly obvious what this represents but that doesn't make it any less effective. It's a metaphor for both Sam and Suzy's sexual awakening. Suzy is pierced and bleeds, clearly in pain, her virginity taken. It's at this moment that the two of them have lost their childhood innocence.
The two pretend to be mature beyond their age throughout the first half-or-so of the film, Suzy discussing her books and records, Sam displaying his traditional male prowess at tying rope, setting up camp, typical scout details. Not long after this scene the two awkwardly dance to the French record, link here. Frankly it's both achingly sweet and hilarious to watch. Sam in particular has no idea what he's doing. They're clearly still children, their bodies are pre-pubescent, their first kiss is quickly followed by Sam spitting "I got sand in my mouth", such a childish action. She feels him getting hard, he touches her chest, Suzy says"I think they're gonna' grow more".
The thing is, out of the film we realise that they are old beyond their years. Sam is an orphan growing up in a scout camp. Suzy's parents (Bill Murray and Fransces McDormand), both lawyers, have clearly fallen out of love. Sam's future adoptive parent (Bruce Willis) and Suzy's mother are romantically interested in each other. The camp-leader (Edward Norton) seems to have nothing more in his life than leading his scout troop. All the adults in Wes Anderson's world are just that, adult, unahppy, unfulfilled in some way. These scenes, where it's clear that Sam and Suzy lose their childhood innocence together, aren't what they seem. In reality, they are both older in mind than they should be, and so this time, the awakward dancing, the kiss, the earring piercing, is them holding on to their non-existent childhood.
The transience of this moment is hammered home at the end of the film fantastically by Anderson. The two remark that the name for the beach they share their moments, it slips my mind but it's essentially a load of numbers and letters, is boring, and that it should have a better name. We never see what they decide, as Suzy says she needs time to think about it. After the disastrous storm later in the film, the Narrator (Bob Balaban), tells us that the beach was wiped off the map. We get a shot of the beach, and the stones read 'Moonrise Kingdom', the title of the film revealed:
The ending is happy, Sam gets a new father, Suzy and Sam get to keep seeing each other, and the Narrator states, in relation to the storm, "The fruits were plentiful". It's all encapsulated in the tile of the film, and even smaller still, in those earrings. The loss of childhood innocence, the transience of vital moments, and love over all.
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