Essay on "Royal Tenenbaums Was Directed"

Essay 8 pages (2428 words) Sources: 0

[EXCERPT] . . . .

It gives the reader a sense that Richie is like a melancholy caterpillar, swallowed by the dark merciless cocoon of life. Also notably, when Richie removes his sunglasses, there's a moment when he looks directly into the mirror (or in this case, the camera) and this calls attention to the fact that Richie is at once confronting himself and the viewer.

This is the moment when the camera angle switches (it is also the moment when Richie switches the light on). The symbology of the light being turned on at this moment is a stylistic device which helps to underscore (through a sense of opposites) the bleakness of the moment. The light turning on only generates a clearer sense of the illumination of Richie's own despair. It doesn't provide clarity or peace. Once the light is on, Richie begins shaving and brings the razor to his face, making a single pass through his beard. Once more looking directly into the mirror/camera, Ritchie declares, "I'm going to kill myself tomorrow." This is one of the most brilliant pieces of writing which characterizes the whole film. Stylistically, Anderson has presented the film to us as if it were a book. By acquainting suicide with the sense of tomorrow-ness, Anderson is making a reference to Shakespeare's MacBeth and the idea of "tomorrow and tomorrow." Furthermore, within the reality of the film, the fact that Ritchie declares he is going to kill himself tomorrow and then begins to slice his wrists at that moment clearly alludes to lacking a sense of time and awareness of linear reality. This sentence is able to underscore his pain in a way that is unmistakable and poignant, without actually alluding to any human emotions.

At this point, the editor makes a jump cut to a single shot of Richie at the start of the scene (before the shaving) and then goes straight to a shot of Richie's hands as he removes the blade from its place within the razor. At this moment within the two-minute scene, just one minute and 18 seconds has elapsed. What is about to happen represents stylistically (and in content) one of the biggest departures that the film makes in its entirety and within the scene itself. Anderson presents the viewer with a rapid montage of 18 shots all from earlier moments in the film, and all which are presumably connected to things that Richie is thinking and considering in his melancholy mind. The primary image is of Richie's falcon, the bird that seems to act as a visual metaphor for Richie himself: the falcon is looking to its left (with the blinder on): we then cut back to Richie within the scene, which is now looking to his left. This repeats once more with Mordecai looking to his right, and Richie looking to his right. The symbology between Richie and the bird is solidified. The last image used of Mordecai is when he's not wearing his blinder. The other images which follow in this montage are simply the things he loves: images of Margot, his mother, and Mordecai flying again.

The simplistic choices of such visual images help in further underscoring Richie's pain. The things that one loves are not doubt the elements which can cause one undeniable amounts of pain. The last of image of Margot used within this montage is perhaps the most strategic in that it depicts her from an earlier scene, when she picks him up getting off the Greenline bus. In the clip used from this scene in this montage, she is walking towards him. The fact that the last image seen of Margot is where (in Richie's mind) she is walking towards him, demonstrates his desires for the possibility of true love, but the desperate sense that it will forever be unrequited.

This is image of love, desire and pain is the last thing that the view sees before we cut back to Richie's hands laid out all over the sink (which is covered in his own hair) and the viewer is forced to see the blood spill out from his wrists. It is from that point on that the viewer (and the Tenenbaum family) has to deal with the realities of their situation. Richie is discovered and rushed to the hospital and the warm lighting and tones of the film prevail. However, the images of ugliness and pain continue to subsist. The viewer is not shielded from the images of blood pouring out from Richie's wrists and the viewer has been given ample information to determine why he has done what he has done.

The Royal Tenebaums is a painfully funny, brilliant and precise film that has a remarkable visual style. However, without this critical scene in the film, the movie would have just stayed on a smaller plateau of in-jokes and witticisms. This scene represents a moment in the reality of the film when all characters have to face head on, the sense of collective pain and disappointment that they all feel. As the god of this universe, Anderson makes a clear visual departure from the tone of the surrounding movie, so that he is able to get the viewer's attention, and convey the emotions of the character (and with him, the entire family) in a lasting and meaningful way. Without this scene, it would be easy to dismiss the film as a tale about a quirky family, when in reality it's a tale about a quirky family which has suffered a tremendous amount of heartbreak and pain. READ MORE

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