Exactly! Even better, when he reuses the same aesthetic he doesn't do it in a "Tim Burton manner" as I call it.
With Tim Burton, his movies stopped being good because he uses the same aesthetic in each film. As a director, you have to develop a unique aesthetic with each film, you can't just recycle the same one over and over. Hence, only his really early films from the 1990s are truly great as this was when he first used that aesthetic.
With Wes Anderson, it's different. He uses the same aesthetic, but he finds a new and completely original way to use it with each film he uses it in (and that's the thing, he doesn't use it with every film, just the ones it's best for!) Here's how!
1) The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou
-He makes the flat shots resemble an aquarium miniature or model you would see at a museum
2) Fantastic Mr. Fox
-He makes the whole thing look like sculptures
3) Moonrise Kingdom
-He makes the whole thing look like the simple sets you'd see in a stageplay, which is ultimately how small the scale for this story is! He even goes as far as to have two sets on at once in most shots, something I haven't seen in most films PERIOD.
4) The Grand Budapest Hotel
-This is BY FAR the best he uses the flat camera shot technique. He uses it so brilliantly here, BECAUSE HE DOESN'T ALWAYS USE IT!
-This one works in conjunction with the narrative structure! You'll notice the scenes in the film set in 1968, 1986, and 2014 are surprisingly more logically written (minus the joke with the kid and the joke with the choking dude) but then it doesn't get into the weird looking flat camera shots that look fake until Zero starts telling the story that's set in 1932! It makes it feel more like a delightful story being told than actual transpiring events, which is a really cool way to do it! Then, when the story is over, it goes back to a more logical, realistic narrative because it's no longer a story being told by a storyteller but the actual events!
-If you're just going to talk about the flat shots themselves, however, they are designed in this film so that each shot looks like a postcard, like you'd find in fancy hotels!
As you can see, unlike a "Tim Burton manner" of re-using the same aesthetic in exactly the same manner, he uses his aesthetic in such a different manner specific to serve each film individually rather than each film serving the aesthetic; hence, it still feels as if he's creating a completely different aesthetic for each of his films!
~NW~
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