Producer Scott Rudin points out that what "started out to be more about geniuses, ended up being more about failure.
"I think 'The Royal Tenenbaums' represents a big advance over Wes's earlier films, 'Rushmore' and 'Bottle Rocket,' in terms of complex, fully developed, sophisticated adult relationships," Rudin says.
Anderson says, "In our earlier films nothing could be that serious because of the tone. My idea now was to make something that was more ambitious on an emotional level. The other films did deal with the issue of family, but they were metaphorical families, groups of friends, someone obsessed with a school and wants to be part of it. This one is more directly connected with issues of family, issues that are deeply personal, emotional and serious."
Anderson was careful however not to abandon the stylized point of view and tone that shaped the material initially, and worked to maintain a proper balance between stylization and naturalism in the film. "It became something where you had to make a whole world that was heightened so these things could naturally fit in it. The whole goal is for that stylized stuff to help to make it exciting to be in the world of these characters, but then to quickly seem natural, and to give you details that you respond to and tell you more about them as you go along."
Rudin says, "The relationship between irony and emotion is unique here.
Most films tend to use irony to distance you. This film uses irony to bring you in emotionally."
Part of Anderson's inspiration for the project stems from his vision of New York. According to Wilson, "Wes wanted to try to do a big ensemble movie and wanted to do something that would involve New York. But New York in a romantic way that doesn't really exist."
"The entire film is steeped in some kind of New York literary history," Anderson explains, noting that many of the characters in the movie, their personalities, temperaments, habits, and emotional exploits, could have easily come off the pages of the New Yorker magazine as it existed in a bygone era.
"Authors like Joseph Mitchell, A. J. Liebling, Lillian Ross, J. D. Salinger, John O' Hara, E. B. White, James Thurber, all of them provided inspiration for the film in ways I'm not completely conscious of. In recent years, I've read in backdated New Yorkers various profiles of people you never heard of— intelligent, eccentric, unconventional personalities, the kind of profiles they don't write anymore—and these profil es and personalities have also influenced me." In fact, Anderson grew up reading the New Yorker, and has every issue of the magazine from the past 40 years in his office.
But the New Yorker and its world is not the only source of inspiration for the new film. "I also read a lot of Kaufman and Hart," Anderson says, referring to playwrights George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart, "including their play, 'You Can't Take It With You."'
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