Wes Anderson Exhibition
As I’ve stated previously and as you can probably tell by this site’s aesthetic and naming, I’m a pretty huge fan of Wes Anderson. When I heard last year that a special exhibition dedicated to the whole breadth of his work was being staged in Paris, I knew that I had to make a trip there.
I visited the exhibition officially named “Wes Anderson, The Exhibition” at the Cinematheque in Paris at the start of June this year. The Cinematheque is an organization dedicated to the celebration of cinema in all it’s forms. The building located in the Bercy neighborhood of Paris, was designed by Frank Gehry and is very reminiscent of his Guggenheim Bilbao and Abu Dhabi designs.
The exhibition was a special ticketed event, and it took up an entire floor of the museum. The layout was a winding path through the floor, laid out in theatrical release chronological order from Bottle Rocket to Asteroid City. There was over 500 different items on display that ranged in size Max Fisher’s pocket knife all the way to 20 foot wide models of the Grand Budapest Hotel facade.
For me the most interesting pieces on display were ones that showcased Wes Anderson’s creative process. There were a number of storyboards from some of his earlier works showing how meticulously he blocked his films from the very beginning.
The centerpiece showcasing his planning and preparation was a giant display case that contained dozens of notebooks and on-set polaroids from many of his films. I will admit I was a little surprised, given Anderson’s aesthetics, that the notebooks were almost all the super generic style that you could buy at Walmart or even Amazon. I expected he would use some ultra fancy Japanese or European style one, but it seems in this case that functionality wins out over form.
Overall, the exhibition was a truly great experience and I think anyone with even a passing interest in Wes Anderson’s works would be interested in seeing it. When you read this though, sadly you will have missed your chance to see it in Paris, but it is transferring to the London Design Museum starting in November of 2025, so if you’re at all interested and are in the area I would highly recommend a visit. Stevsie will be waiting for you.
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The Centre