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.
More videos like this
- For another taste of what Little White Lies (and super-editor Luís Azevedo) has to offer, here’s a delightful fake trailer for a Quentin Tarantino-helmed Vega Brothers movie.
- For another look at Azevedo’s work with Little White Lies, here’s a video essay on the movie title design and opening title sequences of Pablo Ferro.
- Here is Little White Lies‘ look at how Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar uses sound design to construct vibrant, tactile worlds.
- And finally: here’s a video essay that unpacks the unsettling soundscapes of The Northman and The Lighthouse director Robert Eggers.