Wes Anderson's Asteroid City

A film I just had to see: about  flying saucers; set in mid-1950s America, and Wes Anderson's visually stunning aesthetic - so close to my own tastes. My experience of Asteroid City was very similar to that of watching Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel - a delightful confection, very funny - but ultimately, it could have been deeper in meaning. The Coen brothers would have done a better job. 

Nevertheless, I found myself thoroughly entertained, laughing out loud many times (good that the cinema was nearly empty). I loved the comic touches, the homages to the era, the cultural references and the  overall klimat. And a soundtrack that contains Bob Wills, Hank Williams, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Slim Whitman and other C&W acts from the early- and mid-1950s. And that train at the beginning...

The UFO conspiracy/cover-up theme is right on time - just as whistleblowers are about to be grilled by the House Oversight Committee in real life, the presidentially imposed quarantine on the Asteroid City mirrors the paranoia around the subject. The Military-Industrial Complex, supported by private  foundations, run the show. Who will own the intellectual property of alien-derived tech - free enterprise or the government?

I have a habit of watching a film's credits to the end; there were are large number of Spanish surnames involved in making the set and props (such as the railway - see below) - I naturally assumed that the film was shot in Mexico - but no - it was shot in Spain in a specially made set near the town of Chinchón, some 30 miles south-east of Madrid.

This is, I feel, a film made by a savant about savants for savants - quotable quotes aplenty, details to spot and laugh at (vending machines that served Martini cocktails and sold title deeds to tiny parcels of arid desert land), obsessively symmetrical shots. A sure-fire cult film that will be loved for many years to come by a small die-hard group of devotees, able to single out arcane references to this or that (alien symbols or cattle-ranch brands?). And indifference from the mainstream.

Below: example. Augie Steenbeck*, war photographer, in Asteroid City with his son, nicknamed 'Brainiac'. Note the camera. A Müller-Schmid Swiss Mountain Camera. Well, no. It's a prewar German Contax III or its postwar Soviet copy, the Kiev 4A. My guess is it's the latter, Contax cameras were used by American war photographers, Kievs weren't, so Wes Anderson had the front plate mocked up. Nice touch.

If you enjoy Wes Anderson's movies, you'll know what to expect; it's certainly one I'd want to see again. And then dive into a subReddit (r/AsteroidCity) with hundreds of nerds seeking Significance. You'll find more in The Big Lebowski or A Serious Man. Don't let that put you off - Asteroid City is still a highly likeable movie.

And if you like trains, have a look at this... (and then scroll down this post from 2017.)

* Steenbeck - manufacturer of flatbed film editing machines, used to edit 16 mm and 35 mm optical sound and magnetic sound film.

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