by Maggie Klingner
Award-winning filmmaker Wes Anderson brought The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar by Roald Dahl to life in a short film released on Netflix in 2023. The 2024 Academy Award winner for best short film had me captivated and engaged for every second of its 40 minutes. The distinctive visual style, the simple use of dialogue and music, and the simple yet complicated storyline made The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar a film to remember.
Wes Anderson has a distinctive visual style in terms of color choice and symmetry. Anderson is known for his muted color pallet, and through the colors, he can associate certain shades and intensities of colors with certain characters. The first character we meet in Henry Sugar is associated with saturated yellows and oranges. As we further explore the plot, we meet more characters through colors. The doctors are in white lab coats in white rooms, and even when the doctor isn’t in the hospital, he’s still dressed in white.
Along with color associations with characters, Anderson uses symmetry to enhance the cinematography. Typically, the set symmetrical in chairs and tables and props, and characters and extras are all symmetrical. However, in Henry Sugar, Anderson breaks his style in ways that push the story forward and keep the audience attentive to the set. In the film, Anderson has extra characters purposely changing the scenery right before a scene change or plot change. The symmetrical changes drive the story forward and give the scenery direction along with the plot.
Anderson uses tasteful music and distinctive panning of dialogue to immerse the audience in the story. The music in this short film is sparse but meaningful, using it to add mood to the characters and put perspective on the period in which the story was taking place. The use of panning dialogue also goes a long way to immersing the audience into a scene. As a character moves off screen, the audio pans, moving with them, giving the audience the sense they’re fully inside the scene with the characters. A simple detail like this can add so much depth and draw the audience closer to the scene.
Wes Anderson is known for his complicated storylines with multiple layers, and The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is no exception. Even though this short film is only 40 minutes, Anderson uses every second to create a beautiful and complex storyline. The use of narrators, color, and scenery help the audience differentiate the stories through time. Although the story can be told through a simple timeline, Anderson builds from the big picture. He starts with the outermost storyline and narrator and then moves from the center back out to connect the seemingly different stories into one.
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is available on Netflix as either a stand-alone short film or in a collection of short films directed by Wes Anderson also based off of Roald Dahl stories.
