When there’s perfect symmetry, a saturated colour palette and kitsch styling, you just know that Wes Anderson (Moonrise Kingdom, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Royal Tenenbaums) has had some influence on it.
Anderson’s iconic directorial style has proved as visual inspiration for a host of video creators on TikTok – the hashtag has 580.8m searches on the app - using his signature style to create super-wholesome, yet delightfully eccentric day in the life snippets.
The trend is even extending beyond TikTok, with a 156% rise in searches on Pinterest for all things Wes, and pastel colours and ’70s silhouettes filtering into our spring fashion choices.
Most of the TikTok videos follow a structure of a title screen featuring the location, date and time, followed by clips in perfect Anderson style – a shot of someone having breakfast at a mid century dining table, a close up of them doing their hair, an overhead shot of them stirring sugar into their coffee, a walk along the pier.
One, by TikTok user Keith Afadi sees him go on a lunch date with the text caption, “You better not act like you’re in a Wes Anderson film at lunch”. The video goes on to see him do…. exactly that.
The cherry on top is when his lunch partner’s hand is gently batted away from stealing one of his chips, while the camera films from above. Very Anderson-ian! One commenter said, “Everyone only ever talks about the symmetry, but you got the pacing and humour SPOT ON.”
The majority of the videos utilise the song Obituary by Alexandre Desplat, a jaunty piano number from the soundtrack of Wes Anderson’s 2021 film, The French Dispatch starring Timothee Chalamet, Bill Murray and Tilda Swinton.
In an interview with i-D, Desplat says the music he composes for Anderson’s films is purposefully fun: “We know that I’m not going to go for a large, dark symphonic piece of music, but something which is, like his films, a bit distant and gentle; poetic and jaunty. All of these elements come together to make something enjoyable and fun.”
If you fancy trying out the trend for yourself, have a look at our favourite videos below that we can’t get enough of…
The colour grading and exotic location? Totally Wes Anderson!
This creator juxtaposes the quirky trend with a wartorn Ukraine for a very poignant video.
We love this one for the outfit choice alone.
The little wave at the end? Chef’s kiss!