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I got a chance to see Darjeeling Limited and caught a short Q&A with Wes, Jason Schwartzman and Waris Ahluwalia afterwards. I'll get into the second bit a little later.
I'm in agreement with the sentiments posted about the film and Wes' work in general. I like his movies... they're full of beautiful moments, characters driving the big picture and they're heartwarming. Wes is certainly an eccentric (thanks Captain Obvious) and I like how everything we seen through the lens is what he intended. Much like Kubrick in that aspect.
It's just after seeing all of it, I also can't help but find that he sticks too strongly to his own conventions. I'd like to see a different development from him, something more. The river scene with the boys did diverge from his norm (as mentioned above), but there wasn't too much else that broke the mold. Most everything else was his compartmentalization of the moment. Of course they were on a train and all.
All that said, I still liked the film. It's hard not to enjoy his work. Certainly wasn't Rushmore or Royal Tenenbaum's though.
The Q&A was a treat though it didn't last nearly as long as I would have liked. Wes seemed a bit more self-concious than the other two (understandably so, after sitting in front of a crowd that just got done watching your new film) and they all talked a bit about the process and decisions they made over the course of the shoot. We didn't get a chance to talk about his upcoming stop-motion film, Fantastic Mr. Fox, unfortunately.
During the 4 months of the shoot (if memory serves), all of the actors and crew stayed on the train, allowing it to seep into the experience and their day to day activities. They had to deal with the train as its own entity... making everyone adjust to the stops, starts and movement of the vehicle and the people on board.
Another factor that played into the general experience was simply being in a different country and working within the confines of the local customs. Though the production team went out of their way keeping themes and color consistent throughout the film, it sounded like there was quite a bit of adjustment they had to perform on the fly.
Jason and Wes talked a bit about their decision to have Schwartzman's character barefoot the whole time, an element that they continued from the prequel Hotel Chavlier. When you consider all of the running after trains and such that happened in the film, it couldn't have been that much fun.
There was one anecdote to the whole talk... Jason shared a quirky behavior he had as a kid. When he was younger, he got the idea in his head that he really like having tightly slicked back hair. Unfortunately it didn't last after he woke up from his sleep the night before. To make the experience last, he would arrange pillows around him so he could sleep propped up without his head touching anything. Apparently this went on for a bit until he grew out of it (or woke up with a stiff neck too many times). |
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)...but i'm a filmmaker, and one of the reasons for this is because i never fucking see a movie nowadays that i feel is up to my standards of storytelling, directing etc. tenenbaums & rushmore feel like i could have made them, right down to the use of bill murray (who is not as loved as he should be). they're good, satisfying movies that are done to a medium degree of doneness. no cheesy camera, no "extreme" editing(though richie's attempted suicide was brilliantly done). they're just right for the story that's being told. 