​Get to Know Wes Anderson’s Favorite Film: a Cult Coming-of-Age Gem From 70s Britain

This article originally appeared on i-D Magazine.

You probably haven't seen Melody, the British coming-of-age movie from 1971, but Wes Anderson has. He loves it. In a glowing endorsement, he labeled it "a forgotten, inspiring gem". In fact he loved it so much it apparently became the inspiration for Moonrise Kingdom, and was the film he showed to his two young, first-time actors.

Once you watch Melody—directed by Waris Hussein from a script penned by Alan Parker—it's not hard to see how its tale of boyhood and first love charmed Anderson. Despite its lack of symmetrical framing, despite its lack of the Futura font, despite its lack of Bill Murray, it's got Moonrise Kingdom written all over it.

Set in London, over one long summer, Melody's feel-good story follows the friendship between two London schoolboys. Daniel is the blonde sensitive one who looks like the lovelorn kid from Love Actually. Ornshaw is his cheeky, rough-around-the-edges friend who looks like a young Harry Styles doing his Mick Jagger impression. The boys' relationship is upended the moment Daniel spots the titular Melody in a dance lesson and falls head over heels. No longer does Daniel want to go to 'the pictures' with Ornshaw after school. No longer does Daniel want to blow up tin cans with his pals. All he wants to do is be with Melody. He's infatuated. He wants to get married. He's… 11 years old.

The film -- which was a box office flop in the UK and the US, but an enormous hit in Japan of all places -- is basically about 'puppy love', about those indescribable feelings that change you forever when your heart zeroes in on that one person at school. Who doesn't remember that feeling, during morning assembly, catching sight of your crush just rows in front? That feeling when she/he turns around and your eyes momentarily lock? Daniel doesn't know what to do because he's never felt this way before. He tries and fails to sit next to Melody in the lunch hall. He attempts to play the cello in harmony with her recorder as they wait outside their music class, practicing Frère Jacques. He's endearingly persistent though -- you've gotta hand it to the little guy -- and soon Melody falls for him.

Like Sam in Moonrise Kingdom, Daniel looks like he would get knocked down by a breeze. But also like Sam in Moonrise Kingdom, he, too, has balls of steel when he falls in love, as though his little body can and will do anything for the girl he loves. This means getting whacked with the headmaster's shoe for wandering around a cemetery with Melody instead of doing his homework. Not to mention getting the third degree for skipping school to go to the seaside fair with her. It's thrilling to watch how a smart, well-mannered 11-year-old kid can essentially say -- in so many words -- 'fuck it, I'm gonna dive into this thing with this girl; screw the rest of the world!'

Daniel and Melody's adolescent love is depicted as an uphill struggle. They know what they want. They want to be together, they want to get married. Melody's dad, however, doesn't understand. He points out how much she likes school, to which she retorts: "I like being with Daniel more than I like geography." Yeah, take that, dad.

Set against the backdrop of an early 70s London (mostly Lambeth and Hammersmith), Melody is a charming coming-of-ager drawn from the experiences of screenwriter Alan Parker and producer David Puttnam, both of whom grew up in the capital. It gives you an idea of what it was like to be on the cusp of adolescence in South London at that time, telling the story from the kids' point of view, and nailing those pangs of first love without being treacle-sweet.

Some 46 years later, the film still feels universal. Kids goofing around in cemeteries, smoking cigarettes in the schoolyard, getting busted watching a girls' dance class, desperately holding back laughter during an insanely boring RE lesson. This stuff still happens. What does place the film firmly in the 70s though is the decade-defining hair and a soundtrack that includes sad yet uplifting songs by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, and The Bee Gees's Melody Fair. That said, Wes Anderson would probably still include that stuff today. He loves sprinkling melancholy tunes from yesteryear over his movies. And he loves 70s hairdos.

When I first saw that the movie starred Oliver and Dodger from Oliver!, I'll admit, I was skeptical, expecting it to be all overstated cor blimey! accents and cheeky chappies. But I watched it. Because if Wes Anderson saw something in it, it must be worth a watch, right? And as the credits rolled, I thought to myself, Yep, Wes was spot on. "Forgotten?" Yes. "Inspiring?" Yes. "Gem?" Yes. With a paltry budget of $600,000, the film has gained cult status for good reason. Trust Anderson, and trust me: it's a lighthearted gem of a movie. And it'd make for the perfect double-bill with Moonrise Kingdom.