The Royal Tenenbaums Ben Stiller

Directed by Wes Anderson

USA 2001

An excessively stylized yet unusually poignant fable about failure and family, The Royal Tenenbaums clinches Wes Anderson's status as American film's most peculiar and particular new auteur. Anderson is so finicky about visual and structural style that Tenebaums -- his third comedy and the follow-up to the glorious Rushmore -- often feels hermetically sealed. This is a New York where every car is a dilapidated gypsy cab, where every building looks like the Waldorf Astoria and every person is a hurt little kid in a grown-up's body.

Sharing a close kinship with the Glass family of J.D. Salinger's Franny and Zooey and Nine Stories, Anderson's Tenenbaum clan is appropriately self-sufficient. When the three children of the dignified Etheline (Anjelica Huston) and the unscrupulous Royal (Gene Hackman) were young, they each had the chance to spread their wings and fly far away. But two decades later, their early promise is no more, and the playwright Margot (Gwyneth Paltrow), the cracked-up tennis star Richie (Luke Wilson) and the bereaved financial whiz Chas (Ben Stiller) have headed home to confront the long-exiled and allegedly ailing Royal. Margot's Oliver Sacks-like husband Raleigh (Bill Murray), Etheline's potential fiancé Henry (Danny Glover) and the Tenenbaum wannabe Eli (Owen Wilson) also get enmeshed in the family meltdown with hilarious results.

Excerpt from Jason Anderson's review on the eye WEEKLY located HERE

Posters

Theatrical Release: October 5th, 2000 - New York Film Festival

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DVD Comparison:

Buena Vista (Germany) - Region 2 - PAL vs. Criterion Collection Region 1- NTSC

DVD Box Covers

Distribution

Buena Vista (Germany)

Region 2 - PAL

Criterion Collection - Spine # 157

Region 1 - NTSC

Both transfers were mastered from clean source material and are nearly identical. The German may be very minutely sharper and the Criterion slightly brighter - nothing you would notice without a magnifying glass. Only the Criterion is a 2-disc and the Criterion has the commentary by Anderson where the German version does not.

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These captures are courtesy of DVD-Compare, now hosted by DVDBeaver, and very special thanks to Thomas Koeberl (version captures appreciation noted at bottom). They are captured using the "Forced Weave" method with a set resolution (1024 wide), no bi-cubic filtering and jpeg compression of 90%.

The Royal Tenenbaums - Buena Vista Special Edition Germany - Region 2- PAL