Wes Anderson is a distinguished director in his own right, the same way Tarenitino and Scorsesi are known for their style. To begin to think of a scene to digest from Anderson’s 2001 The Royal Tenenbaums, would be a tedious task considering every scene is relatively abstract and worth detailing. However, for the sake of this blog, I lended to focus on Richie’s suicide, which comes later in the film.
Quick character synopsis: the Tenenbaums are a dysfunctional family, and throughout the movie you learn the true feelings of the characters beneath the surface. Richie is and has always been in love with his adopted sister Margot, portrayed by Gwyenth Paltrow, whom is already married to Raleighh St. Clair, Bill Murray, but has an affair with Eli Cash, Owen Wilson, who is a Tenenbaum wannabe.
The suicide attempt scene takes place in the bathroom of Raleigh’s home. The only significant music is the excellently placed “Needle in the hay” by Elliot Smith which is played on an acoustic solo guitar coupled with lyrics of longing and failure.
Anderson’s uses a subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, color balance in the background throughout the film. Throughout the colors are warm, varied with yellows and some red, however this scene is a pallete of blue—as cold as it can get.
The beginning of the attempt is a total of eighteen jump cuts, starting with Richie as he ‘normally’ is, shoulder length hair and beard, to bald and bare. The scene is a transformation for Richie, both physically and figuratively. He shaves his head and beard which is him shedding his physical mask that he hid behind as well as removing his trophy Fila headband, which connected him to the only success he ever had as a child tennis champion. Even in the introduction of the Tenenbaums earlier in the film, the child version of Richie is wearing the headband.
The editing of the entire movie, let alone this scene is very jumpy. After his barber attempts, he looks into the camera, which in reality is him looking into the mirror. Then the scene cuts to a view of the mirror from an over-the-shoulder view. Then theres a jump to a close up of him shaving his beard, then back to an earlier shot of him looking into the mirror with his full length hair, then back to him looking into the mirror and whispering, “I’m going to kill myself tomorrow.” Again, aside from the post-production addition of the soundtrack, this is the only dialogue in the diagetic world thus far.
Anderson’s keen detail fro continuity and consistency is seen again, for the same eighteen jumps it took for Richie to remove his identifiable gear (wristband, headband, sunglasses), eighteen is used again, this time eighteen frames of earlier images from throughout the movie thus far of Richie’s life. It’s a rapid montage, about six seconds worth, tuned to a faint hum.
This part in particular is spectacular continuity editing. In the flashbacks, its frames of Richie’s falcon. When in the flashback Mordecai looks left, it cuts to a present scene of Richie looking right. Then Mordecai looks left and so do Richie. Then you realize Richie is bleeding from his wrists. The next scenes where Richie is found is scenes jumped when each family members finds out and rushes to the hospital, and the music picks when Margot asks about Richie at the hospital.
Overall this scene, which is an intimate calculated of Richie’s actions is followed by fast chaotic scenes when the remaining characters have to deal with his consequences and ultimately the cold estranged family comes together.
