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The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou

Film // Jim // 24th February 2005

I’m not sure if it is down to guilt, worry or too much caffeine, but I don’t sleep particularly well and haven’t done for a number of years. During the early hours of the morning (if I am not catching up on my reading, writing more of this shite, having a wank or trying to understand confusing American sports on Channel 5) one of my favourite insomniac activities is to re-watch the last two Wes Anderson films; Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums.

Both films are witty, literate, thoroughly engaging and occupy a slightly alternative and vaguely retro world that makes perfect sense at three o’clock in the morning when you need cheering up. I’ve only seen Bottle Rocket once and I couldn’t decide whether I liked it or not, which probably means I will end up seeing it again in an attempt to find out.

Anyway, Anderson’s new film, impressively titled The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou has been on the horizon for some time now. Prefaced by a mouth watering trailer, yet frustratingly out of reach since it opened in America at christmas and has only just made its way over here. For the first week of its release the film is only being shown at the Empire Leicester Square, which was as good an excuse as any for a trip down to London.

I am in a laid-back yet happy mood as I settle into my seat in the cavernous cinema, eagerly anticipating the start of the film. It has been a good morning, the train down to London was easy, I flicked through Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (oddly enough, while Mr Thompson seems to have been contemplating ending it all) and listening to The Wedding Present without a single interruption from the sort of arseholes that usually bother me during rail travel. Once down in London everyone was in a good mood, people in shops were saying things like “Excuse me”, “Sorry”, and “Please” much to my general bemusement. I even managed to to go to the toilet at Marylebone without anyone pissing down my leg. Result.

In other words, I am now in the perfect mood to watch a film like this. Unfortunately the sound at the UCI Empire Leicester Square is shocking, really sharp and screeching, it almost manages to break my zen like state and ruin the film. After a while they seem to sort it out (or I just get used to it) and the film unfolds through its two hour span of comedy, tragedy, pathos and triumph.

I absolutely love it, I walk out of the cinema in blissful mood that is enhanced further as i discover that Cov have beaten Reading (get in!) and I am only slightly despondent when the news is broken to me that the pub I am heading for doesn’t do Guinness. My good mood last through several drinks with sophisticated London types, a nice Thai Meal, some dubious theories about how to make an entrance to a pub (not sure about that one ladies) and my bubble is only burst when the train back breaks down leaving me to freeze on the wind tunnel platform at Banbury station. So how did this film manage to put a man openly referred to as “Unpleasant”, “Evil” and even ”Satanic” by his friends and colleagues in such a nice frame of mind? Let me try to explain.

Murray: Legendary, fraudulent?

Bill Murray heads a really fantastic cast as the legendary, heroic and possibly slightly fraudulent oceanographer and film maker captain Steve Zissou. Recently bereaved, when his oldest friend was chewed (not eaten, chewed) to death by a mythical species of shark which no-one really believes in, Zissou sets out to locate the shark in order to exact deadly revenge.

Morose, sarcastic and vaguely misanthropic, Zissou starts out as a washed up figure, something of a joke amongst his peers and certainly past the prime of his life, his career and his marriage. During the voyage on his ramshackle boat with his suitably eclectic crew he takes turns for the heroic and eventually triumphant, showing that perhaps the legends of the man, which seem so distant at the start of the film are actually true.

Murray is absolutely perfect for the role and holds the film together well while the more eccentric elements that occupy the Anderson universe provide the rest of the entertainment. As mentioned before the cast is superb, I’m not going to run through the whole lot because that would ruin the film, but Willem Defoe is excellent as comedy German, Klaus and Owen Wilson is strangely restrained as the Airline co-pilot with a southern drawl who may or may not be Zissou’s son.

The look of the film is hyper-real with deep saturated colours and fantastic production design, the attention to detail is what you notice in other Anderson films and the trend continues here. The crew are all decked out in uniforms of red bobble hats and automatic pistols, the creatures of the deep are colourful looking stop-motion efforts rather than the usual CGI fare and Zissou’s ship is literally cut in half so that you can watch the whole cast walking around and doing their thing (like a happier version of Dogville in parts). The one element I really enjoyed was Zissou complaining that his line of Adidas trainers never really took off.

The Life Aquatic: Mood enhancing, looks fantastic

The soundtrack is almost entirely based around Hunky-Dory era Bowie, mostly interpreted by “Safety Officer”, Pele and sung in Portuguese however Life On Mars gets a rousing airing early on and Queen Bitch rounds things off over the undisputedly fun credits sequence. David’s little friend Iggy Pop gets a look in as well during one of the surprisingly gung-ho action sequences after the crew runs into some unpleasant pirates. A dreamy bit of Sigur Ros even turns up at one point.

All of the elements blend together to create a world that is a really funny and enjoyable place to spend a couple of hours and I really can’t wait to see it again, ideally very late at night. I wonder if they will be doing any midnight showings around here...

The Links Aquatic

Film web site

All sorts of bits and pieces

The Rushmore Academy

Info on other Wes Anderson films not exactly up to date

Adidas Team Zissou Petition

Yes, there really is an online petition to get them made