Moonrise Kingdom

Wes Anderson, USA, 2012

Comment

The runaways shelter in very flimsy tent. This fragile shelter gives them the illusion of safety and protection from the insular society they flee. It’s the centre of the little world that they’ve created, a world that allows them to feel free and happy.

The tent, though, can’t keep the sounds of the outside world away, and they are awoken by the sound of a motorboat. The trackers have found them. Bill Murray lifts their tent up as it if were made of straw, and they are exposed to the gathered island folk, hostile to their amorous utopia. Their dream has been popped, liked the intimate bubble they made in the safety of their tent. In the tent, which symbolises a return to a more primitive, savage life, the boy carefully hung his glasses up for the night, as if on a bedside table. Meanwhile the girl modestly keeps her underwear on, as if they were still in their former, socialised, lives.

Keywords

shelter.