{"id":691,"date":"2023-01-17T09:52:33","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T09:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/?p=691"},"modified":"2024-01-04T14:08:42","modified_gmt":"2024-01-04T14:08:42","slug":"minimalist-moments-the-life-aquatic-with-steve-zissou","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/?p=691","title":{"rendered":"Minimalist Moments: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sharks have never really had a great rep in cinematic history. Jaws <\/em>established the popular stereotype of those big-jawed dudes as fear-inducing, violin-accompanied agents of dread and death. Sharknado<\/em> probably didn\u2019t help either. Nobody wants to think about a load of those guys attacking you in a weather cyclone, right? I guess there is a positive portrayal of ye olde shark in Shark Tale<\/em>, but then again, that movie\u2019s pretty shite. Shite Tale, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

With The Life Aquatic<\/em>, the shark in question isn\u2019t exactly a nice guy (although he\u2019s better animated than any of the sharks in Shark Tale<\/em>. Which isn\u2019t a hard feat to achieve, but y\u2019know). The fact that this shark kills Steve Zissou\u2019s best friend is the film\u2019s driving plot, as Zissou tries to exact revenge by locating killing the animal, losing his son in his quest for retribution. By the time he eventually finds the animal in question, however, he has a change of heart. Its appearance is preceded by a fleeing group of jellyfish , at which point Sigur Ros\u2019 \u2018Staralfur\u2019 starts to emerge and bring in some amazing ambience. The stop-motion animated shark doesn\u2019t appear at once, but we just see a glimmer in the distance as Steve and the rest of the crew wait in anticipation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time the illuminated creature reaches the window of the submarine, we can see a shark with some eccentric cross patterns, and instead of attacking the submarine, it rises over the structure and disappears, but not before eating the ship\u2019s engine. Staralfur continues to play over Zissou\u2019s deadpan dialogue informing his crew that they\u2019re most likely in danger, and when he considers if the shark remembers him. It\u2019s a simple moment of poignancy and light comedy that is perfectly articulated through soaring music and parred down acting. Life Aquatic<\/em>, Wes Anderson\u2019s fourth film, was his first to use a large amount special effects during post-production, and if you\u2019re getting Nightmare Before Christmas<\/em> vibes from that shark design, then you\u2019re on the mark. Henry Selick designed the creature, and it\u2019s pretty unconventional and intriguing in terms of its overall make-up. Sigur Ros\u2019 emotive tune was played on set during production to get the melancholic vibes grooving. And it\u2019s pretty darn powerful, mesmerising and impressive. Shark Tale<\/em>, not so much. The less said about that, the better.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sharks have never really had a great rep in cinematic history. Jaws established the popular stereotype of those big-jawed dudes as fear-inducing, violin-accompanied agents of dread and death. Sharknado probably didn\u2019t help either. Nobody wants to think about a load of those guys attacking you in a weather cyclone, right? I guess there is a positive portrayal of ye … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Minimalist Moments: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=691"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1318,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/691\/revisions\/1318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nancyepton.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}