Tag: movies

If you’re a fan of Wes Anderson’s films then a trip to the Design Museum in Kensington is a ‘must do’ as a festive treat or a New Year resolution. This retrospective is a cracker of a show – filled with props, costumes, photographs, scripts and fragments of creativity which have gone into his 30-year career making memorable films.

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I confess I’ve not seen ALL of Wes Anderson’s films but can attest that the ones I have seen were filled with amazing images and situations which linger in the memory long after the credits have rolled and it’s time to leave the cinema. Above is the spectacular model for the Grand Budapest Hotel which was a gloriously witty, stylised (and Oscar-winning) film.

Wes Anderson has hung onto everything. Above is the spectacular painting ‘Boy with Apple’ which channels the best renaissance painting but was created by British artist Michael Taylor specially for the Grand Budapest Hotel.

From his very first short film, The Bottle Rocket, (when he discovered that the production company has rights over all the props and costumes) he understood the importance of keeping control over items created for films; and ever since he has kept storyboards, costumes, props and memorabilia from his films. Nearly thirty years’ worth of items have been stored in a vast space in Kent and now they have been removed from boxes and displayed for all to see. The curators of the show have done a great job in presenting everything and clips from films are shown on screens too, giving context to the objects.

The little puppets and models for his epic stop-motion films, Fantastic Mr Fox (2009) and Isle of Dogs (2018) are glorious to view. Apparently it was the talented puppet makers and craftsmen of the UK which drew Wes to the UK to make these films.

You might recognise, above, the Royal Tenenbaum props and costumes, or artwork from Moonrise Kingdom.

So, my resolution for 2026 is to watch all the Wes Anderson films I’ve not seen and revisit the ones I have. I think, having seen this show, my experience of the films will be all the richer.

The show is on at the Design Museum until 26th July 2026.

The World of Tim Burton – what a treat. This new show at the Design Museum takes us into the creative mind of a truly original artist, designer and film-maker. Who knew that a boy who loved monsters would grow up to terrify generations of children and adults with his astonishing work.

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Above is Tim Burton’s studio. Wherever he goes in the world he brings the cork boards where he can pin up doodles, sketches, paintings,fragments of information and survey them for inspiration.

it all begins with drawing. At the start of this fascinating exhibition at the Design Museum we learn that young Tim Burton grew up in Burbank, a suburb of Los Angeles where life was very quiet, ordered and conventional. But Tim loved monsters and disrupters – characters or creatures who enter ‘normal’ environments and cause chaos and change. I really liked this example of life drawing, above. He has drawn the model but just look, down below is a fantasy creature – clearly far more interesting to the artist than the pose in front of him.

Having established that he was going to use his artistic talent to make his living, Burton spent some formative years working for Disney, creating animations. Too slow. No, he wanted a far speedier medium. Yes, the creations might all begin as pencil sketches or paintings but soon they became 3D entities when models were made. The world of stop-frame animation suited him far better. With his team of designers, he would create the body of a character and then make a dozen different heads with a variety of expressions which would, ultimately, create the moving image.

This extensive exhibition has some great examples of costumes and props. I was really interested to see the Edward Scissorhands costume – made with a real mash up of fabrics, leather, buckles and buttons.

Not only figures but whole ‘worlds’ are brought to life through these models.

I think this exhibition will entrance all Tim Burton fans and inspire any budding animators, artists or film makers to consider ways of bringing their imagination to life. Definitely a show to catch. It’s on until 21st April 2025.