The Royal Tenenbaums

Wes Anderson wrote Royal for Gene Hackman, who did not want it. By Anderson’s account it was written against his wishes; he kept bothering Hackman, wore him down, and Hackman caved. Nor does he hide how the shoot went: Hackman, he says, was not a relaxed, comfortable person in his company. The family house is a real building at 144th Street and Convent Avenue in Hamilton Heights, Harlem. Production designer David Wasco sums up the brief as a kind of New York that is not New York, so the film invents its own addresses, Archer Avenue and the Lindbergh Palace Hotel among them. The sorting reaches the lettering: Tenenbaum signs, books and titles are Futura, outsiders Helvetica. Alec Baldwin’s narration usually gives an outcome before the scene shows it, so the question is not what happens but how this family takes it. It was nominated for Anderson and Owen Wilson under the name the category then carried, Writing (Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen); Julian Fellowes won it for Gosford Park. A good fit if being told a scene’s outcome in advance suits you and you like noticing that a typeface decides who counts as family. Not for anyone waiting for Royal to pay for his lies, since the film ends by making room for him.