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Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou is heavily centred upon mise en scene, employing it to not only carry narrative action and the development of characters and motifs, but also, importantly, to create a particular aesthetic used to reflect and enhance these aspects and create specific emotive climates within the film. 

The film has a very specific colour palette, composed largely of blues, reds and yellows. Throughout the film the colour between scenes, and even between shots, switches from being predominantly yellow to blue, depending on the tone of the film. For example, whilst Zissou’s crew is under pirate attack, the film has an overall blue grade, with cool lighting and set dressing; however, this switches to yellow the moment Zissou decides to take back command of his ship, with the light shifting from a blue overcast to yellow sunlight in an instant to reflect Zissou’s newfound agency. Such colour shifts can be seen throughout the film, as yellow sets, grading and props are used to represent optimism, resolve, and joy, as seen in the motifs of the safe, submarine, and jaguar shark, whilst the blue often represents the opposite: infirmity, lack of agency, and dejection, exemplified by the team’s old uniform and ship which serve to reflect the public’s views, as the crew are no longer seen as authentic, talented filmmakers.

The mise en scene of the film’s final scene (particularly focusing on the second shot) is very telling in terms of where its narrative leads. Here, Zissou is staged with his back to the camera as it pans across him, settling on the young boy that exits through a set of blue doors. This signifies a shift in focus, as Zissou is no longer his own priority; his young fans have regained precedence. This is reinforced as Zissou also has his back turned to the paparazzi and crowd; he no longer panders to them as he was originally criticised for doing. To reinforce this, the crowd is dressed in dull clothing with muted colours; communicating that they are no longer Zissou’s prime concern.

The only sources of blue in this scene are the large doors through which the boy exits, the security that stand guard, and the bright flashes from the paparazzi’s cameras. These glimpses of blue reference not only the sea and the place they have come from, but further, the colour’s notable absence is symbolic of the emotional shift that has occurred in Zissou by the end of the film; he has newfound priorities and has regained confidence in himself, as signified by the large amounts of red and yellow which coat the set. The final scene shows a decided shift in the use of colour. It contrasts with much of the rest of the film, employing sombre lighting and tones, which work with Anderson’s heavy use of black to bring finality to the film; their time at sea has passed, and much of the emotional conflict presented has been resolved.