Category: Films

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The Dar-Juno Limited

Fox Searchlight, a division of 20th Century Fox that focuses on “Indie” films, had a good 2007. Three of the eleven films they produced last year have been nominated for Oscars: Juno, Once, and The Savages. Four of the Oscar nominations went to Juno (Best Film, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Screenplay). Fox Searchlight also produced The Darjeeling Limited, which has no Oscar nominations. I thought it would interesting to take moment and take a closer look at TDL and Juno in particular.

Many reviewers picked up similarities between Juno’s Director Jason Reitman’s style and Anderson’s. Some saw it as Reitman “channeling Bottlerocket/Rushmore era Anderson” or as employing Anderson’s “subtly Sardonic eye on American life”.

Others have seen Anderson’s influence on Reitman as a hindrance to overcome, most notably in the San Francisco Weekly. A December 18th 2007 review states that Juno only gets good “once you get past the early-going rough patches that are more Wes Anderson than even Wes Anderson could imagine. With the Kinks’ “Well-Respected Man” blaring on the soundtrack in the first 15 minutes, you’re likely to get the indie-film shakes.” TDL was criticized perhaps most heavily for Anderson’s “inability” to overcome his style.

Continue reading “The Dar-Juno Limited”

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The Antipodean Anderson

(ed’s note: Welcome to our newest contributor, South Paw!)

As “The Darjeeling Limited” is nearing the end of its Australia run, it’s time for us to take a look at how the film has fared. Jason Schwartzman took a promo trip down under a short while ago, and though we can’t take a trip ourselves, we’ll soar the internet skies instead. Below is a look at what the Aussies have been saying about Mr. Anderson’s latest. A couple of these links have been posted before, but have been included again here for your convenience. Enjoy!

The charmingly-named Wollondilly Advertiser (Wollondilly Shire is just south of Sydney in New South Wales and supplies the city with most of its waters) reviewed TDL in its January 22, 2008 Edition in “Oh Brothers, What an Amazing Journey”. The WA described TDL as “unpredictable and “impossible to categorize”, but also that it “has elements of a travel adventure, it is partly family drama, it is often funny and sometimes downright bizarre.” Overall a positive review, “breath of fresh air” for audiences and the good people of the Shire.
Continue reading “The Antipodean Anderson”

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“Darjeeling Limited gets a snake bite from the Censor Board” (Mumbai News)

(link)

Seems like our Censor Board has certainly gone green, if its latest action is anything to go by.  The release of critically acclaimed Hollywood flick The Darjeeling Limited has been prohibited by the Indian Censor Board, which claims that the filmmakers failed to get adequate clearance before shooting Indian flora and fauna.

“A stay has been put on the film’s release until the filmmakers get a clearance from the Animal Welfare Board. It is something that they still haven’t produced before us,” said a Censor Board member who did not wish to be named.

The film has some wildlife scenery, shot in Rajasthan. While this footage was okay with the Censor Board (animals in the wild), what was not okay with them was a snake in a cage. So they demanded that the producers present a clearance certificate from the Animal Welfare Board. And a venomous request it turned out to be, for the producers drew a blank. “It turns out that free wildlife is not offensive if shot on camera.

However, for something like snakes or other animals in cages, clearance from the Animal Welfare Board is crucial, since we need to know that no wildlife was harmed during the process of filming a product. We are awaiting what the Animal Welfare Board has to say on the footage of the same. Until then, the release of the film is stalled,” said the source.

The film was to release today in theatres across India. The Darjeeling Limited, produced by Fox Searchlight, is a comedy that traces the journey of three estranged brothers in India, after their father’s death. The journey proves to be therapeutic as they resolve the fault lines in their relationships. Starring Hollywood heavyweights Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody, the film also features Irrfan Khan and Jason Schwartzman.

What is going to truly bite the producers here is that the snake in the cage scene is a rather crucial one to the plot, from what viewers at preview screenings have noticed. A bad snakes-and-ladder move for studio execs; they just didn’t anticipate such a bad slide.

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The Darjeeling Limited script

In their campaign to push TDL (and their other films) for Academy Awards, Fox Searchlight has posted The Darjeeling Limited script on their website (link). Enjoy!

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Bottle Rocket on the big screen

The Fox Theatre in Toronto is currently screening Bottle Rocket (link).

Thanks to Nolan. Why is there tape on your nose?

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Hotel Chevalier in Zoetrope All-Story

Francis Ford Coppola’s magazine dedicated to short fiction and one-act plays, Zoetrope All-Story, has published the screenplay for Wes Anderson’s short film Hotel Chevalier in their Winter 2007 edition. You can purchase the issue for $8.00 on the Zoetrope website.

(thanks to Brian)

But where do you go to my lovely
When you’re alone in your bed
Tell me the thoughts that surround you
I want to look inside your head, yes I do

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Wes Retrospective at AFI Silver Theater and Amara Karan a Femme Fatale

The AFI Silver Theatre in Silver Spring, MD (suburban Washington, DC) is screening four of Wes Anderson’s films over the next two weeks! The Wes Anderson Retrospective is a really exciting series — an opportunity to see the films of Wes Anderson on the big screen.

Bottle Rocket
Sunday, Dec. 30, 3:00; Monday, Dec. 31, 2:45; Tuesday, Jan. 1, 12:45, Wednesday, Jan. 2, 7:00

Rushmore
Friday, Dec. 28, 7:30; Saturday, Dec. 29, 7:45; Tuesday, Jan. 1, 9:45, Thursday, Jan. 3, 7:00

The Royal Tenenbaums
Friday, Jan. 4, 7:00; Saturday, Jan. 5, 7:00; Thursday, Jan. 10, 7:00

The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
Sunday, Jan. 6, 12:45; Tuesday, Jan. 8, 9:20; Wednesday, Jan. 9, 9:20

In other news, ION Cinema has chosen Amara Karan (Rita, The Darjeeling Limited) as one of their Top Ten “Foreign Femme Fatales of 2007.” 

2007: She played lovely Rita – the damn cute Indian girl poking her head in and outside of the train in Wes Anderson’s The Darjeeling Limited.

2008: It was just released in the U.K and I’ve got no clue if it will make its way here, but she has a role in Barnaby Thompson and Oliver Parker school girls rule/remake called St. Trinian’s.  (link)

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Merry Christmas from the Rushmore Academy

Merry Christmas to you and yours from the Rushmore Academy. Please leave your holiday wishes — for our community or even for Wes* — at the Yankee Racers forum (‘Holiday wishes’ thread).

* RA.com is not an officially sanctioned site, and Wes probably won’t read your wish.

—

Some links:

I hesitate to use the word real, because this is India as seen by a director who likes to put his stamp on reality…. That has given the film its heart and a strikingly rich colour design – purple, turquoise, ruby, at least inside the train. This is India as in one of those highly coloured paintings of a Hindu god. It’s absolutely gorgeous but every so often the train stops and we go outside, into the dusty yellow plains of Rajasthan, where reality is more present.

Happy holidays, everyone!

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Halloween Costume Contest Winners

Happy Holidays. Halloween, that is. So, after many false starts and delays, we have winners. These three lucky entrants will receive a Darjeeling Limited prize package thanks to our friends at Fox Searchlight Pictures. I will be in touch with the winners soon, and the prizes will be mailed out early in 2008.

Best Costume, Darjeeling Limited Category

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There were many great Darjeeling costumes, but we liked these — because they’re a bit unconventional. After all, they’re dressed as luggage… Louis Vuitton luggage. Very cool.

Best Costume, Non-Darjeeling

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We really like this one. The Max Fischer vibe, with a twist. Bravo, Max.

Second Best Costume, Non-Darjeeling

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Richie and Margot — a popular costume in our contest. But, this one… it has a bit more spark and vitality than we expected. Even if Margot is adopted.

Congratulations to all of the winners!

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indieWIRE: “Mr. Anderson, welcome back, we missed you”

From IndieWIRE’s 2007 critics’ poll:

“The idea that ‘The Darjeeling Limited’ is somehow lazy Anderson redux amazes me. It’s a huge leap forward — the first movie to feature characters that aren’t emotionally constipated, and the suffocating over-designed tableaux are taken in an unexpected direction: there’s too much stuff to take in, so you don’t bother. As opposed to that awful games closet in ‘The Royal Tenenbaums.'” – Vadim Rizov

“Wes Anderson’s “The Darjeeling Limited” marked the greatest evolutionary leap forward by a major American filmmaker this year. He was so far ahead of everybody this year that almost nobody recognized what, exactly, he was doing. There are no epiphanies in the movie, only thwarted potential epiphanies and almost-epiphanies, experienced by brothers who narrate every feeling they have, add soundtrack music to their real world experiences and generally seem hell-bent on narrating their own autobiographies in real time…. They plan and execute their spiritual odyssey as if it were a shopping spree. They’re metaphysical consumerists. That’s America circa 2007. Anderson has evolved, yet his critics — lovers and haters alike — are still reviewing ‘The Royal Tenenbaums.'” – Matt Zoller Seitz