[Creates] a new perspective on how we could look at [Anderson's] films.

Film Matters

Wes Anderson's Symbolic Storyworld marries the much-loved quirkiness of the characters in Anderson's films to the beauty and intricacy of their design. Buckland captures succinctly the magic of this unique filmic universe, while illuminating the director's obsessive attention to the recurring constellations that structure his films. The book's virtues are those of its subject: formal simplicity, richly detailed.

Thomas Elsaesser, Professor of Film and Television Studies, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands

Warren Buckland's latest book is a significant advance in auteur studies marked by all the exquisite rigor of such past works as Film Theory: Rational Reconstructions. Buckland reconstructs with verve and originality eight of Wes Anderson's films to extract a set of overlapping deep structures addressing the perils and perquisites of the sort of kinship that has created an enduring fascination with Anderson's oeuvre. The book merges the Golden age of structuralism, including some of its less explored techniques, with postclassical narratology's concept of storyworld, contemporary film theory, and a sharp attention to distinctive style. The result is a marvel of insight.

Edward Branigan, Professor Emeritus of Film and Media, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

The intricate DNA of Wes Anderson's filmmaking is brilliantly illuminated in this book. Warren Buckland exposes the hidden networks and deep narrative patterns that distinguish the story world of this celebrated filmmaker. An essential book.

Robert Burgoyne, author of Film Nation: Hollywood Looks at US History (revised edition, 2010)