Tag: trauma-writing

Welcome to the Torg Stories Podcast. Last week, Anne and I talked about 100 movies because we talked about the New York Times list of the best films of the 21st Century. This week, we’re just talking about one film: Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums.

Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums. Anne, this was #21 on the New York Times top 100. Neither of us had seen it. What were your first impressions? 

• My first impression: the very famous actors playing distinctive characters were in clothes that bordered on the outlandish. 

What were our expectations going into The Royal Tenenbaums? What did we know already? What did we know about Wes Anderson? 

• Anderson wasn’t a director or storyteller I’d connected with. I thought really visually stimulating. Seen some of the Grand Budapest and thought, look at all that. By which I meant vibrant colors and a lot to notice. 
• A loaded up cast of actors I enjoy watching. 

The Actors: It’s a big cast with a lot of well known actors. Let’s cover them first in this way. I’ll say an actor’s name and you tell me what film or show you think of when you hear their name: 

1. Owen Wilson:    Wedding Crashers 
2. Gene Hackman:   Hoosiers 
3. Ben Stiller: Meet the Fockers 
4. Luke Wilson:   Old School 
5. Gwyneth Paltrow:  Ironman or Shakespeare in Love 
6. Bill Murray:   Groundhog Day Caddyshack, Ghostbusters
7. Danny Glover: Lethal Weapon 
8. Alec Baldwin:   Here’s the Thing podcast, Trump on SNL, Bourne movies 
9. Angelica Huston: I didn’t know her but I see Morticia Addams in 1991. 

What stood out to you as good or interesting in this film? 

1. Cinematography. Every once in a while there was a shot on the screen that you could put on the wall it was so interesting and beautiful. 
2. Quirky distinctive characters: Eli in his cowboy hat, Royal’s butthead personality even when he was trying to get back with his family, Margot in the bathtub all the time
3. Being in Anderson’s edition of the city of New York. 

• Brownstone, streets, old hotels, roof tops, bodegas 

4. Two of my favorite scenes: 

• Royal and Ethel walking in what might be the Ramble in Central Park. Royal says, “Loving every minute with this dam crew,” meaning his family. 
• At the end, Chas says, “It’s been a rough year, Dad.” 

5. Clothes: Eli cowboy look, Royal in his suits, Chas in his track suits, Richie in his FILA tennis gear, Margot in her fur coat
6. Surprisingly hit me emotionally in the end. 

The Characters. Let’s try and come up with an adjective for each character before we talk about each character: 

1. Royal played by Gene Hackman. 

• Self absorbed. Blunt without empathy. 
• Mean to most of his kids, went to prison, lived in a hotel, prominent litigator until mid 80s. No has spoke to him in 3 years
• Royal gets people to be on his side. Pagoda. The bellman. Chas’s kids who are his grand children, 

2. Eli Cash played by Owen Wilson. 

• Lonely. Outcast. 
• Assistant professor, wears the cowboy hat. English lit. Old Custer second novel. 

3. Chas played by Ben Stiler 

• Driven. 
• Trauma from wife daying. Tests his family fire alarms. Wife Killed in a plane crash. Felt sad. My first emotion so far. 
• Said to be depressed but seems less so than Richie and Margot. 
• Favorite moment when his boy climbs down from the bunk bed to sleep next to him on the floor. 
• Adidas track suits 

4. Richie played by Luke Wilson 

• Broken. 
• Alone on ocean liner, seen all the poles
• Always reading something written by his sister Margot 

5. Margot Tenenbaum played by Gwyneth Paltrow

• Intelligent. Depressed. 
• Laughed about her secret recording studio. 
• Fur coat 
• Her real family lives in Indiana. WOODEN FINGER. 
• NYT article on Paltrow selling stuff. Click here. 

6. Raleigh St. Clair played by Bill Murray 

• Academic. 
• Writer and neurologist. 

7. Etheline Tenenbaum played by Angelica Hutson 

• Motherly. Organized. 
• archelogist 

8. Henry Sherman played by Danny Glover 

• Practical. Generous 

9. Pagoda played by Kumar Pallana 

• Loyal. 
• Sweet pink peach pants. 
• He does hand stands 

Alec Baldwin narrates the story. 

What themes do you see in the film? What is it about? What is the story’s impact on our thinking? 

• Family. Invest in your family. 
• Redemption 
• Forgiveness 
• Trauma, especially with the death of Chas’s wife. Eli’s addiction, Margot’s addiction to cigarettes

Questions for discussion: 

1. The Tennenbaum kids struggle as adults. They had a great mom. Let’s go over the ways in which they are healthy and troubled. Why do you think they are like this? 
2. Which kid is the most mentally healthy? 
3. Why did Margot marry Raleigh? 
4. Margot is married to Raleigh. She is cheating on him with Eli. Why did Eli tell Margot that her brother Richie loves her? 
5. Why is Raleigh around at the end? 
6. Henry is the family accountant. What do think of the fact he just shows up at the house every morning? Is this a wealthy family and normal for that? 
7. Why are Eli, Raleigh, and Dudley there at Royal’s funeral at the end? 
8. Royal says about his not real dying, “I’ve had a good run.” Anne, have you had a good run? What’s left? 

Director Wes Anderson has a distinctive style.

• We might say he has a directing movie “voice” or “fingerprint” that is pretty distinctively his. What are the features of that? 

1. Lush color palettes
2. Cast 
3. Symmetrical Cinematography: central character consistently framed in the middle of the shot.  
4. Deep space composition. Multiple layers in focus in a shot  
5. God’s eye close up 
6. Long tracking shots on one character 
7. Visual absurdity – mouse, the emergency room
8. Bold clothing choices. 

We need to attach Robert David Yeoman to Anderson when we talk about Anderson’s cinematography. Yeoman worked with Anderson on all of his live action films from 1996 to 2024. 

• Yeoman also worked on Johnny Be Good, Dogma, Bridesmaids, 2016 Ghostbusters

He’s not particularly subtle. He likes the big effect, the very dramatic camera move, the very theatrical device. I love that! 

-quote from Anderson to Matt Zoller Seitz about Orson Welles: 

Here’s some additional information on the film The Royal Tenenbaums and director Wes Anderson: 

1. Richie’s tennis melt down happens in Forest Hills. I used to live one train stop down from there. I loved looking at the grass courts and walking around Forest Hills. 
2. The 375th St. YMCA is a thing in the movie. I got up to around 240th street when the street numbering stopped. That’s in the Manhattan University, Van Cortlandt golf course, Yonkers and New Rochelle area. Anderson has Norwegian ancestry. There is the 92nd Street Y that hosts events such as with John Oliver and Charlie Sheen, who wrote a book about being eight years sober.  My guy Rob Sheffield talking with Debbie Gibson who has a book Eternally Electric. 
3. Mescaline is a psychedelic. 
4. Anderson attended the University of Texas and roomed with Owen Wilson in 1989. Graduated with a degree in philosophy. 
5. Director Wes Anderson was one of the tennis match commentators. 
6. Bill Murray is the godfather of his daughter Freya. 
7. A gypsy cab is licensed only to respond to advance bookings but nevertheless cruises for prospective fares. 
8. Andrew Wilson is the oldest Wilson brother and was also in this film. I think he was one of the Indiana farmers.  

Which of Anderson’s films are you most likely to see next? 

• Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, Life Aquatic, Darjeeling Limited, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Moonrise Kingdom, Grand Budapest, Isle of the Dogs, French Dispatch, Asteroid City, Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, The Phoenician Scheme 

Keywords Related to The Royal Tenenbaums: 

• Forgiveness, trauma, visual rhetoric 

Influence on Anderson writing The Royal Tenenbaums: 

• Salinger’s Glass family. The Glasses: Beatrix “Boo Boo” Glass Tannenbaum

In the conversation: 

• @CinemaTweets1, @donwinslow, @ThePCCLondon @owenthecreator_    @BenStiller  @GwynethPaltrow

Thanks for checking out this episode of the Torg Stories Podcast!