ABSTRACT
This chapter defines Wes Anderson as an indie auteur by identifying the unity of his themes and style, employing traditional criteria developed by Andrew Sarris in his auteur theory. But the chapter then makes a case for Anderson’s status as an auteur by focusing on his storytelling techniques (including his use of external narrators, title cards, paradigmatic narration, montage sequences, and mirror shots). Moreover, the chapter argues that Anderson uses many of these techniques reflexively in his breakthrough film The Royal Tenenbaums (2001). The chapter ends by distinguishing the auteur from the director by emphasizing the status of the auteur as a mental image constructed by film spectators.
