American filmmaker Wes Anderson is one of my cinematic heroes. If you like his previous films, then you'll probably like his latest, if you don't, then you probably won't. I opined after The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou that Anderson had reached an artistic cul-de-sac and that opinion hasn't changed after seeing The Darjeeling Limited, but when you do something so well maybe it doesn't make sense to stop drawing from the same well of inspiration. Like his characters, Anderson's films inhabit a remarkably self-contained world, and that's part of their magic for his fans. Contributing to this is his repeated use of the same collaborators to create something of an Anderson stock company.
The Darjeeling Limited reminded me most of The Royal Tenenbaums. There you had three self-obsessed, angst-ridden siblings trying to come to terms with parental abandonment and broken relationships, here we have three self-obsessed, angst-ridden siblings trying to come to terms with parental abandonment and broken relationships. In Darjeeling, brothers Francis, Peter and Jack (Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman) set out on a "spiritual journey" across India after the death of their father. Much of the fun comes in seeing their hapless attempts to find meaning in a culture so alien from the self-obsessed West. A visit to a temple turns into farce and they eventually get kicked off the brightly-colored train that gives the movie it's title.
Emotions are finely pitched in Anderson's cinema, the line between tragedy and satire is never quite clear and isn't meant to be. Music is huge for Anderson and is always used in a masterful way. There are always several songs that you're never quite sure if you've heard before that create the perfect mood for the scene. If I could describe Anderson's cinema in two words they would be nostalgia and pastiche -- favorite post-modern concepts. Nothing much gets resolved and the significance is found in the journey not the destination. Again...favorite post-modern concepts. Sounds kind of like the emergent church. It's a cinema of painstaking detail too. Anderson is the sort who will obsess over finding the exact shade of wallpaper for a set that appears for 30 seconds, a characteristic that was brilliantly spoofed in an American Express ad.
Nostalgist that he is, Anderson created a 13-minute film to be shown before the feature. It used to be standard practice to show short films before the main attraction. Hotel Chevalier stars Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman and serves as a stylish prologue to The Darjeeling Limited. It introduces the character of Jack, but perhaps more importantly in a Wes Anderson film, acquaints us with one of those lovely, obscure pop songs that reappears later on.
STEPHEN'S GRADE A-
The Darjeeling Limited reminded me most of The Royal Tenenbaums. There you had three self-obsessed, angst-ridden siblings trying to come to terms with parental abandonment and broken relationships, here we have three self-obsessed, angst-ridden siblings trying to come to terms with parental abandonment and broken relationships. In Darjeeling, brothers Francis, Peter and Jack (Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman) set out on a "spiritual journey" across India after the death of their father. Much of the fun comes in seeing their hapless attempts to find meaning in a culture so alien from the self-obsessed West. A visit to a temple turns into farce and they eventually get kicked off the brightly-colored train that gives the movie it's title.
Emotions are finely pitched in Anderson's cinema, the line between tragedy and satire is never quite clear and isn't meant to be. Music is huge for Anderson and is always used in a masterful way. There are always several songs that you're never quite sure if you've heard before that create the perfect mood for the scene. If I could describe Anderson's cinema in two words they would be nostalgia and pastiche -- favorite post-modern concepts. Nothing much gets resolved and the significance is found in the journey not the destination. Again...favorite post-modern concepts. Sounds kind of like the emergent church. It's a cinema of painstaking detail too. Anderson is the sort who will obsess over finding the exact shade of wallpaper for a set that appears for 30 seconds, a characteristic that was brilliantly spoofed in an American Express ad.
Nostalgist that he is, Anderson created a 13-minute film to be shown before the feature. It used to be standard practice to show short films before the main attraction. Hotel Chevalier stars Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman and serves as a stylish prologue to The Darjeeling Limited. It introduces the character of Jack, but perhaps more importantly in a Wes Anderson film, acquaints us with one of those lovely, obscure pop songs that reappears later on.
STEPHEN'S GRADE A-
I was not a huge admirer of Zissou, but Anderson's eccentricities and the rich characterizations he inspires from actors always make his films a bit of off-kilter pleasure.
ReplyDelete"off-kilter pleasure"...I love that!
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