TheChez.net

By Pedro

Steve Zissou...

Eleanor Zissou: Your cat died.
Steve: Which one?
Eleanor: Marmalade.
Steve: Well how did it die?
Eleanor: A rattlesnake bit it in the neck.
Steve: God damnit, Eleanor. Couldn’t you have broken it to me a little easier than that?
Ned: What kind of cat was it?
Steve: Who gives a shit. (Pause) I think it was a tabby.

This is one of my favorite quotes from a great movie, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. This movie, released in 2004 by film maker Wes Anderson, is one of the greatest movies I’ve ever seen. Now, I don’t pick favorites in anything, but this ranks in my library of greatness and I felt like writing about it.

This film marks the journey of a crew of “scientists” as they track down the endangered “jaguar shark” that ate the leader of their exhibition. The scientific reason of killing it? Revenge.

The story takes off after the public release of Team Zissou’s documentary of the death of their leader. In their journeys the team of scientists meets with Steve’s lost son, a pregnant reporter, and pirates. Each episode of this film is as hilarious as the next. The humor does not only lie in the dialogue, but also in the camera work. One of my favorite shots is when Steve Zissou feeds the whale. Another funny point is when we view a cross section of the boat and the narrator explains each room.

The Life Aquatic has a great soundtrack. It is provided by Seu Jorge, a Portuguese singer/songwriter. Most of the tracks are Portuguese covers of David Bowie songs. The CD release of The Life Aquatic Studio sessions includes one or two additional tracks that are not Bowie songs, but they are not in the movie. Seu Jorge plays in the movie as a physicist and original score composer for Team Zissou. He can be seen at completely random times playing his guitar. My favorite spot with him is when the pirates board the ship.

This movie was good for its silence. The dark humor is tragic and rhetorically profound. I love Anderson’s camera work in all of his movies. He has a way of isolating certain aspects of character in his subject matter. This movie is his best work, in my opinion, and contains my favorite roles for actors Bill Murry, and Owen Wilson. Many other famous actors such as Willem Defoe, Kate Blanchet, Angelica Huston, and Jeff Goldblum are also in this movie.

For those of you who like awards, this movie has been nominated for a few. The most esteemed was the 2005 Critics Choice Award for Best Acting Ensemble. It did win the 2005 COFCA Award for Actor of the Year, with Kate Blanchet, and the 2005 CGD Award for Excellence in Costume Design for Contemporary Film.