Part of the appeal of Wes Anderson movies, aside from their immaculate writing and the near-certain presence of Bill Murray, is the way they feel like a portal into a new world. Whether it’s the storybook compositions of his recent movies or the surrealist riffs on action films of Bottle Rocket and The Life Aquatic, everything is immaculately designed and staged, suggesting not just adventure but a rich, lived-in history and sense of order throughout the filmic world. And while we have typically gotten used to visiting those worlds in 90-minute (or so) segments via his films, a subreddit devoted to “Accidental Wes Anderson” finds them out in the real world. It doubles as just a gallery of wonderful photography.
Over on the actual subreddit, an admin has celebrated an influx of new subscribers with a note of concern that they may dilute the quality of the offerings. And they’re right: Just perusing the page, almost all of the submitted images are strikingly Andersonian. The admin writes:
My suggestion for photo guidelines is the following:
Simple/meaningful color palette
Symmetry/order
Healthy balance of foreground and background
Not sets/items/people from the movies
Poor lighting
To which we’d suggest a sixth qualification: Get Bob Balaban in the frame, if he’s available? Feel like that guy helps anything he touches.