Sally Romanous

Article

The Royal Tenenbaums is a film about a family of three genius siblings that each go through their own individual life challenges around the same time which leads them to move back into their family home and reunite. 

A main theme of the movie is the stages of life. One of the sibling Margot Tenenbaum is the adopted child, she has bottled up her emotions and secrets for her whole life. Her extreme secrecy has led her into a deep depression so she is spending most of her hours in solitude in the bathroom, this being her smoking addiction and her secret lover (Eli Cash) which she is cheating on her husband with. Wes Anderson has shown this through the use of objects, gaze and camera positions. 

In the diagram below both scenes of the bathroom are portrayed in the axonometric. The frame for the 'original scene' hides the objects that her secrets are hidden within.

Although the pink phone that she calls her secret lover (Eli Cash) with is placed in the corner like a hint to the audience.  

In the diagram above Margot and her mother's (Etheline Tenenbaums) gaze is shown through view cones. Margot doesn't look directly into her mothers eyes as if She is hiding something but her mother is looking at Margot's face as if she is trying to extract or understand what is wrong and why she is spending most of her time in the bathroom. The way the frame of the scene is positioned allows the audience to start to understand why they can't see the sink section of the bathroom in that scene.

Note: Section rendered - In the Image above Margot is rendered in Eli's cowboy Jacket and white smoke in a black background. The objects are rendered in a same way so you understand how thee connection works, for example the fan perfume, container and box are used by her to hide her smokes.

The Royal Tenenbaums is full of analysis, go watch it and analyse the other siblings scenes for yourself.

Investigation and Inspiration