Le Trou
Films it shaped
-
One of the films that I think was one of the greatest films I've ever seen, which was a big influence on me, was a French film called Le Trou, which was a prison escape movie. I just loved the way Becker makes real time suspenseful. And I wanted to make movies that had the same look and feel as Le Trou. I remember telling Gordon Willis, I want The Godfather to look like that.
-
Wes Anderson has openly acknowledged that the primary cinematic foundation for his sprawling alpine adventure rests upon the sophisticated comedies of Ernst Lubitsch, particularly The Shop Around the Corner and To Be or Not to Be. Anderson sought to capture the legendary "Lubitsch touch", a remarkably deft, effervescent tone that masks a deeper melancholy regarding the fragility of civilization in the face of fascism. Additionally, the film's intricate tracking shots and sweeping romantic fatalism draw heavily from the elegant camera movements found in Max Ophüls's The Earrings of Madame de.... By channeling these exact works, Anderson crafted a vibrant love letter to a bygone era of European elegance that was largely preserved only in the amber of classical cinema.
