10 Life on Mars or Life on the Sea: Seu Jorge, David Bowie, and the Musical World in Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou Lara Hrycaj A merican flm director Wes Anderson conveys a distinctive visual and aural style in his flms. Te importance Anderson places on the music is indicative of what Claudia Gorbman describes as an auteur mélomane—a director with a passion for music (“Auteur Music” 149). Anderson’s flms feature a variety of music, highlighting songs of the Rolling Stones and other British Invasion artists, an original score by Mark Mothersbaugh, and music from flm and television, along with jazz, classical, and Christmas music. Anderson uses music in his flms in a variety of ways, but the three specifc uses that contribute to his overall authorial signature are songs associated with montage, songs associated with slow-motion sequences, and songs that emanate from musical devices. Anderson’s musical signatures begin to change and expand with his fourth flm, Te Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou (2004). 1 Te Life Aquatic centers on oceanographer and documentary flmmaker, Steve Zissou (Bill Murray), in the grip of a crisis, though his problems extend far beyond a mere midlife crisis. Steve just lost Esteban (Seymour Cassel), his best friend and fellow Team Zissou crew member, to a jaguar shark. He soon meets Ned (Owen Wilson), the son he did not know he had nor even wanted to know he had, and his career as a flmmaker is on the 9781137403117_txt.indd 139 12/02/14 7:27 PM