My favourite house is both fictional and real. 111 Archer Avenue is how it's known in Wes Anderson's "The Royal Tenenbaums", but the house where the film was shot really exists on the corner of Convent Avenue & 144th Street in Harlem.
The simple answer to what I love about the Royal Tenenbaum house would be everything, but its all about the details.
One thing I quite like about The Tenenbaum house is that almost everyone in the family has an "office" or in Chazzie's case his room is an office.
Chaz's Office
Now I don't particularly like the "70's" office feel of Chaz's room, but I do like where he positioned his desk. I love the nooks and crannies of the Tenenbaum house. In terms of location though, Etheline (who shares her office with Henry) has what would be my ideal spot for an office and if there was a way to enter the house's courtyard it'd be even more perfect.
But the best room in the house is Margot's.
In the film Margot likes her secrets. She also apparently likes her privacy.
I love the wallpaper.
Have I mentioned I love the wallpaper?
I wouldn't transform my bathroom into a darkroom, but it's a cute idea.
Margot's "Library of Plays". Also she's the only Tenenbaum with a working fireplace.
Richie also has great wallpaper, which he paints himself.
In fact Richie is the "artist" of the Tenenbaum family. He has an art gallery in the ballroom.
There are other great rooms in the house with little details I'd love to find in my own dream house. Lots of beautiful wood, swinging doors, a phone cubby, and a closet full of old board games.
Game closet. With two sets of Operation.
The library.
The phone cubby (doors open).
The phone cubby (with doors closed for privacy).
Smaller kitchen or breakfast nook.
The stairway before Javelina (the boar's head) is stashed in the game closet.
Obviously my dream house would need its own flag. Aa "A" for Ama!
But what I love about the Tenenbaum house, aside from what I've posted above has always escaped me. Now that I'm house hunting for a move to Amsterdam I need to be able to tell someone what I'm looking for - and that hasn't been easy.
I can say I want this and this and that - I want more than one bathroom; a library; two offices; an extra bedroom for guests; a massive dining room for dinner parties. I can specify the neighbourhood or that there's a garden of some kind, but it doesn't mean I'm going to get it.
I found this great interview of Wes Anderson talking about the Tenenbaum house where he specifies the things I haven't been able to quite put my thumb on. I want my own little world. A sort of castle. Surroundings that are "dated and dusty". Bohemian. I want a house where each room seems to have its own identity.
Then I remember a house I lived in once. It was massive. Most of the walls were paneled with mahogany. There was a similar sort of staircase and a quirky bathroom with a claw footed tub and a window I always forget to pull the blind on (thankfully there were lots of trees). I like Richie had the attic bedroom.
But I'm being sentimental. Despite what I can call to memory like the porch that ran along the front of the house where I hung a porch swing (that I bought at a junkyard for $5), it was a boring house. I was a poor student. I didn't care very much about the ambiance of where I lived so much as comfort and that I could get 200 people inside it on a Friday night.
Still, looking at the last picture of the Tenenbaum flag flying over the neighbourhood I see houses with fascades like those found in Amsterdam. Haarlem was originally a city in Holland (and New York once owned by the Dutch was called New Amsterdam). It keeps me hopeful that eventually I'll see a place and I'll have that moment when I think to myself - 'this is my Tenenbaum house'.
Now all I need is a Chazz to help me close the deal when that day comes. I've already tracked down Margot's wallpaper.
Whenever Monsieur Redacteur, Donald, and I get together we always have interesting conversations. Usually about good writers and good books. When I mention that my celebrity husband and musical soulmate John Cusack is going to be playing Edgar Allen Poe, the conversation gets a little nuts and because I'm a very fast typer, I start typing notes.
John Cusack as Edgar Allen Poe? Donald isn't impressed with the casting choice. He thinks a young Alec Guiness would have been a suitable choice to play Poe in James McTeigue's The Raven, but Cusack not so much. I disagree. I think Cusack gives good Poe and he's literary enough to lead me to believe he has actually read some Poe.
There's no trailer yet for the Poe movie, but here are some other movies with a literary theme we came up with and some of our wine addled discussion.
Adaptation - We all agreed that Charlie Kaufman is a genius and that this movie in particular proves it. Plus it has an amazing cast. Even Nicolas Cage is pretty good.
Providence - The film I've been asked most often if I've seen it and have since missed every subsequent showing of this film whenever its been playing in some of the smaller movie theaters here in Paris. Next time though, I'm gonna make it. I can't find a trailer online, but here's the IMDB page.
Total Eclipse - David Thwelis plays Veraline to Leo's Rimbaud. It's a pretty intense film about the duo about their love that ended when Verlaine shot Rimbaud (who survived but the relationship did not).
Capote - The best according to Donald, mostly because of Philip Seymour Hoffman's brilliance. I agree that PSH is a genius, but haven't see the other movie.
Infamous - Haven't seen it. He thinks Sandra Bullock was in it. That doesn't actually dissuade me because I don't mind Sandra Bullock. I think she has a sense of humour. Turns out to be a film about Capote. The dialogue is also apparently "quite snappy" and the movie has a more "flamboyant" Truman.
That one with Michael Douglas - The Wonder Boys by Michael Chabon.
The Squid and the Whale
Decontructing Harry. One of the few Woody films I haven't seen. Defintely putting it on the list.
Factotum - Bukowski. "He writes about writing."
The Shining.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
We all say in unison.
Howl
Sense and Sensibility. Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Kate Winslet, and Alan Rickman.
The Producers (The one with Gene Wilder.)
Naked Lunch. Is it about writing? "There's a typewriter on the poster." "I have trouble with Naked Lunch." (C'mon boys. Its Burroughs directed by Cronenberg. And yes it's about writing.)
Barton Fink. "Oh yeah nice one. Nice one," Donald says.
Permanent Midnight. Ben Stiller plays a crack addict. And apparently a writer. Yeah, Ben Stiller. By the guy who wrote Alf. Monsieur Redacteur and Donald find that really disturbing. We have to see it.
I want to see I Capture the Castle based on Dodie Smith's novel.
On the Road comes out this year. "At least it's not Franco again," Donald says. The guy from Tron is playing Cassidy.
American Splendor.
"Yeah, I suppose Fear and Loathing is about a writer, but not exactly about the craft," says Monsieur Redacteur.
Storytelling according to Monsieur Redacteur says is a weird movie but it's also good.
Now this might seem like a short list, but we stayed up pretty late talking. Not too late because we need to go to do stuff today (even though it's raining cats and dogs) and Donald is off on the next leg of his adventure (the last time he was off on a similar adventure he hitchhiked to Dover, took a ferry to Calais, slept in a French tavern, took a train to Paris, took a train to Zurich, flew from Zurich to Istanbul, and finally arrived in Shanghai. This time he's come from England again, will go to Normandie, and then fly to Shanghai before he sets out to wander around China for a month.
Donald calls chez Ama one of his many homes and everyone needs a home away from home. Hopefully one day I'll find a home of my own.
