This guy saved Latin. What did you ever do? Enter our First Annual Wes Anderson Inspired Halloween Costume Contest, featured at FoxSearchlight.com. We love you, too, Fox Searchlight.
Darjeeling a Global Hit, and The Strife Aquatic
Public Radio International’s The World has a great feature called “Global Hit.” The Darjeeling Limited was featured yesterday (link).
We stay on the Darjeeling railway — sort of — for today’s Global Hit. That’s a song from the soundtrack to the movie “The Darjeeling Limited.” The tune is the classic French pop song “Les Champs-Elysees” by Joe Dassin.
In the off-beat musical mind of filmmaker Wes Anderson, Les Champs-Elysees works just fine as an association with Darjeeling. The soundtrack also features songs by the Kinks and the Rolling Stones. But Anderson mostly keeps things regional.
He offers up the deep strings of the sarod, played by Indian classical composer Ali Akbar Khan. Ali Akbar Khan composed this work for another film. The song first appeared in a Bollywood movie called “The Householder.”
That came out in the mid-sixties. In fact the bulk of the tunes from “The Darjeeling Limited” come from other movies — mostly Bollywood flicks.
Wes Anderson was drawn in particular to the music of filmmaker Satyajit Ray. He’s well-known in both Bollywood AND Hollywood.
And Ray serves as the ideal bridge for American audiences dropped into Anderson’s odd tale of three brothers on a train voyage across India.
As in Wes Anderson’s past films, The Darjeeling Limited isn’t just about the story.
The movie serves as a quirky delivery system for delightful and unfamiliar music.
Last night on The Daily Show, the news bit on torture featured an image parodying The Life Aquatic:
There will be more late night tv coverage as Bill Murray appears on
Letterman this evening.
A great interview with Wes and Jason on
Cleveland public radio
Check out Rotten Tomatoes’ Total Recall: The Life Cinematic with Wes Anderson
“Well, I think there are enough filmmakers like Spike Lee and Wes Anderson who will know what kind of parts to write for me. I can wear the turban and have the beard in film after film and yet play different characters. The role Wes offered me in Life Aquatic didn’t call for an Indian-looking guy. It wasn’t a typecast role. I hope that 20 years from now, there are going to be more Sikhs in the movies.”
“We just wanted a studio on wheels.”
A strong, very academic defense of Wes on the racism charge:
“The notion that art has to do, be, or reflect any one thing should be rightly understood as the least sophisticated mode of criticism.
But he (Noah Weiner) reveals something when he, seemingly out of nowhere, praises Anderson-pal Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale, a film which, though I liked, I remember to be equally “privileged, bookish, prudish, woebegone, tennis-playing, Kinks-scored.” The difference with that film is that the characters were all white. Seemingly coded in this sort of racially-based critique is the paradox that, rather than a lack of plurality in the racial makeup of characters, it is actually the simultaneous coexistence of subject and other in the same frame that is unsettling.”
The Bygone Bureau also submits a defense – of The Wes Anderson Formula
Popmatters says
“The Darjeeling Limited is an Anderson epiphany . . . idiosyncratic filmmaking at its finest.”
TDL closed the London Film Festival – apparently Ray Davies of The Kinks was in attendance.
More Halloween costume contest entries…
Remember to submit your photos by November 5th. Read the directions/rules/stipulations before entering the contest! Remember that there is a special Darjeeling Limited prize category.
A very Darjeeling Halloween
More Halloween entries…
Some more entries… (be sure to see yesterday’s post for a contest update)
Halloween costume contest reminder
Happy Halloween!
Just a friendly reminder that costume contest submissions must be posted on Flickr, with the tag ‘rushmoreacademy.com,’ by November 5th. For prize details and rules, go to the official contest page. If you are having technical difficulties with Flickr, please contact edwardappleby @ yankeeracers.org (no spaces).
Wes & Jason at Borders; Yankee Racers co-founder in Paste; and, Halloween costume contest request
Wes Anderson and Jason Schwartzman made at appearance at Borders Store #01 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The last segment of Borders Live at 01 features Wes and Jason wandering around the music and DVD sections, picking up titles of interest. We really liked it, and decided to make an Amazon Widget out of it (which, coincidentally, supports the site if you buy from it):
The CD sampler included in the latest edition of Paste Magazine…
… features the song “Take Me Home” from Lauderdale, the band of Yankee Racers co-founder Corey.
Finally, if you posted a Halloween contest entry (last day of entry is November 5th) and it doesn’t appear here, e-mail edwardappleby @ yankeeracers.org (no spaces).
Great interviews
MySpaceTV’s “Artist on Artist” with Wes Anderson and Owen Wilson
Wes’ interview with Charlie Rose from Friday (link):
Wes Anderson on Charlie Rose, this Friday; Wes interviews Owen?
Wes Anderson will be on Charlie Rose (PBS) this Friday, October 26th (link).
USA Today is reporting that Wes Anderson has interviewed Owen Wilson and that the video will be released tomorrow (Friday) at midnight on MySpace. Thanks to SugarMagnolia for the information. (link) (thread)
The interview will be posted online at midnight Friday as part of MySpace.com’s Artist on Artist series, according to Fox Searchlight, the studio that released the pair’s most recent film, The Darjeeling Limited. Anderson and Wilson have worked together on all of Anderson’s movies — Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. It’s unclear how far the interview, recorded today, will delve into Wilson’s recent personal struggles –- if at all.
Wes and Jason were interviewed at Borders store #01 in Ann Arbor, Michigan (video) Watch, if nothing else, the last video of Wes and Jason wandering the aisles of Borders. “How long is it?”
Wes’ previous appearances on Charlie Rose:
Bravo, everyone.
Good morning, Wes world. Some links and news…
Wes Anderson will be awarded the Stockholm Film Festival’s Visionary Award next month.
He has made lasting impressions through his unique ways of using scenography and subtle humour in film successes such as “The Royal Tenenbaums” and “Rushmore.” (link)
Bravo, Swedes!
Be sure to check out The Onion’s A/V Club “Random Rules” feature with Jason Schwartzman and Randall Poster. Yankee Racer Loraxaeon explains the concept:
It’s a feature where they have people just hit random on their iPods and tell them what song comes up and explain why they like it, etc. (thread)
Be sure to enter our First Annual Wes Anderson Inspired Halloween Costume Contest… you could win a Darjeeling Limited prize package!
Finally, The Darjeeling Limited opens nationwide this weekend. Hotel Chevalier will be playing as well. I leave you with the words of fellow Yankee Racer slint:
I just got back from seeing it, finally. Interestingly, Hotel Chevalier did play beforehand, and I’m glad it did. Frankly, having seen the film, I can’t imagine why the studio had pulled it originally.
So…I loved the film. It was such a relief, after my experience with TLA. It flowed so much more naturally, and just carried me along, rather than dragging me. I agree with the Bottle Rocket comparisons; it did feel like Francis is a logical extension of Dignan. His laminated itinerary reminded me of Dignan’s spiral notebook with plans for 6 months, 1 year, 10 years, etc. Overall, this film was just a joy to experience. I had a permasmile, and seriously felt giddy a few times. This totally reaffirmed my love of Sir Anderson’s films…. This was a confident and graceful return to the saddle. Bravo. (thread)
Conclusion: Bravo Swedes, Wes Anderson, and slint.
Updates:
Jason Schwartzman appeared on Live 105.3’s “Wild Ass Circus Show,” Houston/Ft Worth (videos).
IMDB has rescinded an earlier report that Natalie Portman was unhappy with her nude scene in Hotel Chevalier:
UPDATE: A U.S. magazine has been forced to apologize to actress Natalie Portman after suggesting she’s far from happy with her performance in short film Hotel Chevalier. Sunday supplement Parade stated Portman was talking about the movie, in which she appears nude, when she commented about an “uncomfortable” scene she shot in a forthcoming essay she wrote for the publication. But the actress’ publicist, Kelly Bush, has pounced on Parade, insisting her client was actually talking about a torture scene in new film Goya’s Ghosts. A statement from the magazine’s publicist reads, “We say that Portman regrets doing a nude scene in the movie Hotel Chevalier. This is wrong. When Portman writes about this in Parade, she does not mention a specific movie title. She tells us she was referring to a torture scene with a body double in Goya’s Ghosts, which was taken out of context and leaked onto the Internet. Portman is very happy with Hotel Chevalier and proud of her work in the film.” In her essay, Portman admits she is still rather upset about agreeing to do something she felt awkward about, writing, “I’m really sorry I didn’t listen to my intuition. From now on, I’m going to trust my gut more.” (link) (thread)