11 real places in Canada that are straight out of a Wes Anderson movie
The Rushmore director has thousands of unofficial location scouts, and they're all on Reddit
On screen, nothing looks quite like a Wes Anderson film. But if you're paying attention, real life can look a lot like Rushmore — or Moonrise Kingdom or the Darjeeling Limited — and you don't have to book a table at his cafe in Milan to see it.
The first step? Follow Accidental Wes Anderson on Reddit. Since the subreddit started two months ago, people have been sharing photos that could inspire a lifetime of movies. The guidelines are simple: post photos of real-life places that look like something out of The Life Aquatic or the Grand Budapest Hotel. The colour-palettes must be simple — and curiously retro. The (twee?) details in the foreground and background ought to appear in equal balance — and bonus points for getting a real life member of Team Zissou in the frame. (Architecture and landscapes definitely dominate the collection, but intriguing portraits of eccentrics are encouraged.) Most crucially, though, the shot should be conspicuously symmetrical, like you could slice it down the middle with Max Fischer's Swiss Army Knife.
Since U.S. photographer Simon Sarris started the thread, its community of unofficial location scouts has grown to more than 58,000 followers — and while Iceland, Germany and North Korea would seem to be the most Anderson-friendly destinations, there's ample cinematic whimsy to be found right here in Canada. Royal Canadian Mounted Tenenbaums? They'd be right at home in any one of these scenes. We've rounded up a few of the more notable Canadian locations on the thread. Queue up a British Invasion playlist and scroll through these pics.
