The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004)

In recognition to the greatest ARTIST of all time, David Robert Jones AKA David Bowie’s birthday, I’m going to highlight the unusual arrangement to feature many Bowie’s songs in a film but played acoustically and sung in Portuguese. Brazilian singer-songwriter Seu Jorge plays Pelé dos Santos, who more or less acts like a troubadour for the audience and members of Team Zissou in the film. It’s been a long time since I saw the film but I don’t recall him doing anything other than play the guitar. Wes Anderson movies are charming, quirky and witty and he’s truly a unique filmmaker. I like how he’s so revered that every movie of his immediately gets a Criterion Collection when it’s released on home video. He’s a young filmmaker still and usually a Criterion is for classic movies that deserve utmost recognition in the medium of film. Names like Truffaut, Hitchcock, Renoir, Kurosawa, and Fellini come to mind when you browse the list of titles released. I’m not saying Anderson doesn’t belong with those filmmakers, it’s just that he’s one of the few young career-wise directors that has all his movies released on Criterion. 

Anyway, along with his unconventional style to filmmaking, Anderson also has a keen ear for music in his films. His soundtracks are some of the greatest collections of both new and old music. He introduced me to so many great songs since Rushmore it only adds to the pleasure of watching and experiencing every new Anderson picture. In The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, Anderson went heavy on the Bowie and it worked out perfectly. And hearing Bowie’s great tunes sung in Portuguese is even more awesome. 

Here’s the finale of the film with the super awesome Bowie song “Queen Bitch” which after you take a listen, this will be your anthem for the rest of the weekend. I guarantee it. After all “My heart’s in the basement, my weekend’s at an all-time low.”