Accidentally Wes Anderson – 24/02/24

It was my birthday this week and, as a serial complainer about birthdays, I decided to organise a few things to try and make this one go well. But seeing as my birthdays have been serially bad, I didn’t want to book anything until the last minute in case of illness or natural disaster. Which is why we ended up with a 17:00 entry ticket to “Accidentally Wes Anderson”. Luckily tho, it wasn’t too late in the day for a visit to the Petit Pret inside South Kensington station.

I’d been wanting to go to this for ages, as I am a fan of Wes Anderson films, but it’s not something the kids are into so that’s why it had to wait until my birthday, which is when I get to call at least some of the shots. I tried to explain the concept to the kids but it’s a hard one to describe….if you’ve watched a lot of the films, you instinctively know what a Wes Anderson shot looks like but how to pin that down? Stylised? Retro? Colourful but maybe pastel or monochrome? Manmade but also nature? You see, it’s a toughie. In the end, I told them to enjoy it at face value and not worry too much about the concept.

Luckily, one of the first pictures was of a dog, so it got their buy-in straight away:

In case you’re wondering, yes  – it was very much OK to take photos of the photos:

The rooms are all themed – so the entrance was, appropriately enough, around “doors”. You wouldn’t think there would be too much to look at with doors but you’d be wrong.

The next room was something like “Facades” and was filled with pictures of buildings that were all different but equally Andersonian. Again, I tried to define to the kids what we were looking at. It’s tricky but there’s something around faded grandeur a la “The Grand Budapest Hotel.” The buildings were all splendid but had peeling paint here and there or just had a look of places that had once had glory days:

Eva identified the building she’d most like to live in  – the Hungarian Parliament:

Although this one came a close second, as she deemed it just elaborate enough and not too tall:

My favourite was probably this branch of BNP Paribas:

The next room was themed around “Maritime”, which all felt very “Life Aquatic”. I don’t remember whether this one was maritime or “Transport” but I liked it:

I also like this bus, which I thought looked a lot like the one from the Sound of Music, where Maria is singing “I Have Confidence”.

And I was right! It was a 1930s bus from Salzburg:

Eva pointed out this plane, which she described as “very colourful”:

And she also enjoyed this “very fancy swimming pool”:

The exhibition space is the same one that Roo and Nathan had visited for a Star Wars pop up last year. Apparently there was a point at which they weren’t sure which direction they should go in. But not at AWA – that same point was quite clearly signposted:

And in “Nature” we found the first interactive photo opportunity:

They haven’t quite mastered the look of indifference that Wes Anderson characters normally have. Eva unknowingly does a very good impression of Margot Tenenbaum tho. It’s when she is mooching around looking for a bedtime snack before choosing something delicious with a sigh of resignation….it drove me crazy for ages trying to think who she reminded me of before recalling this line:

This photo is definitely moving towards that look:

But I’ve skipped over a lovely little room, which was themed around “Hotels”. Hotels seem to feature in a few different Wes Anderson films – not just the Budapest but also heavily in the Tenenbaums. This room had a selection of keys and a curtain to walk through:

The curtain led to the last main room, which was dedicated to Wes Anderson sites around London. There is a map of how to find them all but do read this disclaimer first:

I mean, you don’t need to be a Metro Memory 100%er to know that this map is nonsense but it helps…

It doesn’t detract from the gorgeousness of the photos in that room though, some of which were very familiar. Like this one, which we always walked past on our way to Trash:

And some of our favourite toddler-era hangouts, like the Transport Museum:

And the conservatory at the Horniman:

We also visited the Aquatic Centre once but I don’t remember it looking like this:

There was also a second photo opportunity in this room:

After that, we went to the cinema room and watched two short films about the AWA team’s excursions to Switzerland and Antarctica. Both locations had lots of opportunity for Andersonesque shots and the team clearly had a feel for how to narrate in the Anderson style.

The films don’t take long to watch but it was nice to sit down for 10 minutes or so:

After that, there was a photobooth and postbox-shaped consoles where you could send yourself an e-postcard:

You can guess what Reuben wrote. No? Well, don’t blame me for telling you:

We skipped the photobooth as there was a bit of a queue so had a quick browse around the gift shop and then headed back towards the tube. Once you’ve spent a while looking at these photos, you start to think that everything looks a bit like a Wes Anderson movie:

Even Eva’s choice of dinner place:

I tell ya, it’s all in the framing.

So, a fun afternoon out in South Ken. We were only in the exhibition for under an hour so it might seem pricey for that…but the kids do tend to speed through things a but so you may well find you spend longer. They enjoyed it though, so I would recommend for the tween/teen age. Just maybe make them do a bit of Anderson-homework first as mine had only seen “Isle of Dogs” and “Fantastic Mr Fox”. Some of the films probably have moments that are a bit too dark for 12-year-olds – like the suicide attempt in Tenenbaums – but Netflix have some Anderson/Dahl shorts which Nathan and I are watching tonight and the “Henry Sugar” one seems like it’d be alright for that age. “The Swan” was a bit disturbing tho…! So tread carefully…

“Actually Wes Anderson” is on until 14th April. For tickets and more info, click here.