Center-Framed Cannoli: Imagining Wes Anderson’s ‘The Sopranos’

I went ahead and ordered some for the table.
Wes Anderson The Sopranos

Welcome to The Queue — your daily distraction of curated video content sourced from across the web. Today, we’re watching a video that imagines what it would look like if Wes Anderson directed the HBO series ‘The Sopranos.’


When you think of directors known for helming “mob movies” who do you think of? Martin Scorsese, surely. Brian De Palma is up there. The Coen Brothers arguably fit the bill. But what about Wes Anderson? Sure, there have been some unsavory guns for hire here and there throughout his filmography (almost assuredly portrayed by a toothy-grinned Willem Dafoe), but the Texan King of Twee has yet to make a film expressly about organized crime.

Though, while all genres have their defining superficial traits, thematically mob movies are interested in far more broad-stroke themes. Family. Succession. Trauma. All topics that Anderson has tackled in one way or another. Indeed, the question is less “would or could Wes Anderson direct a mob movie” than “what would his mob movie look like”?

And given Anderson’s distinctive visual style — a meticulously blocked, center framed, and intentionally “stagey” look — it’s intriguing to imagine what the macho world of mob violence would look like through his lens. Luckily, thanks to the video essay below, we need wonder no more. The video assembles especially Wes Anderson-y shots from the HBO series The Sopranos, which centers on the anxious patriarch whose obligations to the mob often conflict with his desires to keep his crumbling family in one piece. As the edit shows, the series contains a surprising number of shots that aesthetically gel with much of Anderson’s work. So join us, suspend your disbelief, and imagine that we’ve been gifted an unexpected genre treat.

Be warned: the following contains visual spoilers for The Sopranos. 

Watch “What If Wes Anderson Directed ‘The Sopranos?”:


Who made this?

This imagined take on what HBO’s The Sopranos would look like if it was directed by the master of twee Wes Anderson comes courtesy of the fine folks at Little White Lies, a film-obsessed magazine based in the United Kingdom. Luís Azevedo is the editor behind this video. You can follow Little White Lies on Twitter here. And you can check out their official website here. You can subscribe to their YouTube account here.

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    Meg Shields: Meg has been writing professionally about all things film-related since 2016. She is a Senior Contributor at Film School Rejects as well as a Curator for One Perfect Shot. She has attended international film festivals such as TIFF, Hot Docs, and the Nitrate Picture Show as a member of the press. In her day job as an archivist and records manager, she regularly works with physical media and is committed to ensuring ongoing physical media accessibility in the digital age. You can find more of Meg's work at Cinema Scope, Dead Central, and Nonfics. She has also appeared on a number of film-related podcasts, including All the President's Minutes, Zodiac: Chronicle, Cannes I Kick It?, and Junk Filter. Her work has been shared on NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour, Business Insider, and CherryPicks. Meg has a B.A. from the University of King's College and a Master of Information degree from the University of Toronto.