Influence

As I read the novellas of Stefan Zweig, I started to connect them to Wes Anderson’s style of writing. Wes Anderson often has a character that ends up meeting, and having a fascination with an interesting, mysterious character. Often times the writing of Wes Anderson, as well as Stefan Zweig, will be almost like a confessional of the secrets between the main characters. “The Grand Budapest Hotel” is a good example of these types of mysterious characters, but I feel that if I were to compare Zweig’s novella, “Journey Into the Past”, with any of Anderson’s work, I think “Moonrise Kingdom” would be a great comparison. “Moonrise Kingdom” and “Journey Into the Past” both have two main characters that have fallen in love even though they aren’t meant to be together. I think Wes Anderson and Stefan Zweig both write on that fine line between a dream-like fantasy, and reality. With both works I find some level of truth. For example, we have all had a love interest or crush that we will never be with, but we find some happiness in thinking about it. I think they both take the reader or viewer to a place where they can dream about what would happen if they were put in those situations.

Zweig and Anderson both do a good job at transferring the anxiety of the characters to the audience. They both focus a lot on the character development, and the stories within stories. They embellish their stories in a way, and get carried away by almost putting the story on a halt to tell us the background of a character.

I also think that both Zweig and Anderson use these works as an extension of themselves. Stefan Zweig is like his characters because they are innocent people venturing into a dark territory. Zweig takes light-hearted ideas, such as the two characters falling in love in “Journey Into the Past”, and turns the plot around to where they cannot be together. Wes Anderson takes that idea and makes it into a satire. Wes Anderson’s movies are just as quirky as he is. Both styles work wonderfully at keeping the viewer or reader interested. Even though both are taking the stories to the extreme, they are both relatable on some level.