After James Cameron, Wes Anderson will be entitled to his exhibition at the Cinémathèque

“I indirectly connect my own cinematic education to Henri Langlois and his acolytes,” says the director.

Right now, Wes Anderson is entitled to all the honors. Last March, he left the Oscar ceremony, his first statuette in his pocket – the one rewarding Best Live Action Short Film – to The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. This month, he will be one of the guests of honor at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, which awarded him a Cristal for Fantastic Mr. Foxin 2014, but also the jury prize, for the music video for the song “Aline”taken over by Jarvis Cockertwo years ago.

This time, it is up to the Cinémathèque française to pay tribute to the fifty-five-year-old director, with the “first retrospective exhibition of (his) work”, organized in collaboration with the Design Museum in London. It will be held from March 19 to July 27, 2025, and will therefore follow on from the installation dedicated to James Cameron, which will close its doors early next year. Once the Parisian version has closed, the exhibition will move to London in a revised version.

For the curators of the exhibition, Matthieu Orléan (Cinematheque), Lucia Savi And Johanna Agerman Ross (Design Museum), it will be “to explore the aesthetic specificities of his entire filmography, and to reveal his inspirations, his homages, and the meticulous craftsmanship that characterizes his staging”. At the same time, it will also be possible to (re)discover the films of Wes Anderson, with the Cinémathèque française accompanying its retrospective exhibitions: The Tenenbaum Family, Life Aquatic, The Grand Budapest Hotel… All his work will be visible alongside the event.

Like James Cameron, Wes Anderson (with American Empirical Pictures, his production company) was personally involved in the design of the installation which will be dedicated to him.

The American filmmaker, who gives France a special place in his heart – to the point of living there and filming there – had already visited the Cinémathèque in 2017, during a film lesson. Even before that, he had visited the French institution in his youth. A founding experience of his cinephilia according to him, and which he recounts in the press release of the exhibition:

“I visited the Cinémathèque for the first time 25 years ago, when it was still at the Trocadéro, but I had already surveyed it in my imagination (through the letters of François Truffaut) at the time of avenue de Messine and rue d'Ulm – and in a certain way, I indirectly connect my own cinematographic education to Henri Langlois and his acolytes – it is therefore a particular pleasure for me to participate in this exhibition, whatever we choose to present!”

By the start of the exhibition, perhaps we will have heard from The Phoenician Scheme, the director's next feature film. For now, all we know about this film is that Michael Cera, Benicio Del Toro And Bill Murray will share the poster, and that its release is planned for 2025.

Wes Anderson doesn't have a “particular style” according to him