Giving chase to young love on the run

Moonrise Kingdom,Wes Andersons feature concerns a group of adults searching for fugitive teenage lovebirds on a New England island in 1965

Recounting the genesis of his new feature,Moonrise Kingdom ,Wes Anderson sounded like he could be talking about any of his other movies. The desire for fantasy to be real is part of the inspiration, he said. From his 1996 debut,Bottle Rocket,to the animated Roald Dahl adaptation Fantastic Mr Fox (2009),loss and longing have been the cornerstones of his films.

But Anderson would argue that there is at least one important difference with Moonrise Kingdom ,which opened the Cannes Film Festival last week. This is the only time Ive been consciously trying to capture a sensation,that emotion of when youre a 12-year-old and you fall in love, he said. I remember that being such a powerful feeling,it was almost like going into a fantasy world.

Set in the summer of 1965 on a remote New England island,Moonrise Kingdom is the story of two alienated youngsters,Sam (Jared Gilman) and Suzy (Kara Hayward),who run away together. As the kids make their way through the wilderness and a hurricane bears down,a search party,including Suzys morose parents (Bill Murray and Frances McDormand),Sams scout troop leader (Edward Norton) and the local sheriff (Bruce Willis),heads out after them.

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Anderson wrote the film with one of his occasional collaborators,director Roman Coppola. They had worked together on The Darjeeling Limited (2007). For Moonrise Kingdom,Coppolas contribution took a different form. My role was to help him find the story he had in his mind. Anderson wears his inspirations on his sleeve. For him and his characters alike the objects and objets dart they love are not merely decorative references but also incarnations of passion,markers of identity. Suzys suitcase contains library books modelled on the work of popular childrens authors. Each jacket was assigned to a different artist,and Anderson wrote a brief excerpt for each book.

I feel like most peoples experience of childhood has some darkness in it, Anderson said. At one point Suzy shows Sam a pamphlet,Coping With the Very Troubled Child, she found on top of the refrigerator; the very same thing happened with Anderson. I wasnt the only child in the household,but I knew I was the one, he said. Now it makes me laugh,because its a funny thing to find,especially on top of the refrigerator. But it was a horrible feeling. Coppola said. The heart of Moonrise are these scenes of the children off on adventure,the feeling of them exploring nature.

At 43,with seven features to his name,Anderson has now endured several cycles of hype and backlash,by turns celebrated as a true original and dismissed as a one-note artist. Anderson says that this is one of his more romantic works. As for the crush some 30 years ago that started it all,he said: Theres nothing more to say about it,because nothing happened. It was completely my fantasy. She never even knew.