The Darjeeling Limited

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This film will be about an eccentric iconoclast who leads his friends and family on a series of oddball adventures, alienating them all but eventually bringing them back together through the force of his personality...just like all of Wes Anderson's films. I love Rushmore and am fond of Bottle Rocket, but think he's gotten too precious with his style on his last few films and it's becoming clear he can only tell one story. Every director has his obsessions, but Wes's are so particular that if you've seen one of his films you've pretty much seen them all. This looks like more of the same to me...I'll probably see it, though.
 
I'm looking forward to this. Wes Anderson's style and tone is so different from all the shite out there that I get excited when he comes out with something new. Definitely catching this.
 
I loved his first three films (especially bottle rocket). but life aquatic was a shallow, oddly mean-spirited mess. and now watching this I realized, I am no longer a fan.
 
I am thrilled. He will be using music from Satyajit Ray!
There is a great spirit to the trailer as well. I think that Anderson's films thrive more when they have more on-location shooting to balance out the overwhelming flourishes of style and kitsch to be found in the production design. India will give the film a weight and depth(I hope).

The cast also appears to have chemistry beneath the Wes humor (They felt like brothers to me in the trailer.)

Did I mention Satyajit Ray music!!! Beautiful.
 
Just got back from seeing this today. Man, it wasn't easy to find--it's not on many screens. I think by now everyone's made up their minds whether they love or hate Wes Anderson films, so you should know going in if you're going to like this film. Stylistically, TDL is fairly typical Wes Anderson--quirky characters, dysfunctional/disconnected family relationships, idiosyncratic music, and broad, lush theatricality. If you *are* on board with Anderson, TDL is enjoyable. In many ways, I think Anderson fully realizes his style in this film. The downside is that Anderson's annoyances and self-indulgences are also fully realized.

The script, co-written by Anderson, Roman Coppola, and Jason Schwartzman, is as thin and flat as the usual Anderson script but there's good chemistry between Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman as the three brothers on a "spiritual journey" through India on the eponymous train. The backdrop of India and the train are visually rich counterparts to the trivial self-absorbed buffoons of brothers. Amazingly they shot the film on an actual moving train for much of the film.

The issue that many viewers aren't going to be able to get past is the lack of a sympathetic primary character--fast becoming an Anderson trademark. TDL isn't going to change anyone's mind about Anderson, but it does reward the faithful. At this point, I think Anderson needs to reinvent himself because his highly stylized filmmaking has reached it's conclusion.

Note: The 13 minute short film Hotel Chevalier (free on iTunes) is a prologue to TDL. Hotel Chevalier is 12 minutes of boredom and irritating pop song punctuated by 60 seconds of Natalie Portman's tush.
 
im really not sure what to make of this. I think I'm looking forward to seeing it. I like Bottle Rocket, and absolutely LOVE Rushmore, but IMHO, RT and TLA both suck.

I saw the trailer for Darjeeling and was intrigued. And then downloaded the short, and REALLY liked it!

I dunno, hopefully this one will do it for me. It opens here on Friday.
 
I think he peaked with Rushmore, and his stuff has been sliding little by little ever since.

The Royal Tenenbaums wasn't bad, but it just didn't have what the first two films did, and neither did The Life Aquatic...

I want to see this film, and to like it, but my hopes aren't too high.
 
MOVIE STUNTS said:
How does a twit like Owen Wilson get top billing over Adrian Brody an academy award winner?
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Wes and Owen have been friends for a VERY long time. Owen has been in every Wes Anderson film, with the exception of Rushmore (which Owen co-wrote with Wes not to mention that Owens brothers (Luke and Andrew) were in the film).

It's who you know! :)

Owen has been in Bottle Rocket, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Life Aquatic, and The Darjeeling Limited. He co-wrote Rushmore.
 
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Hmm. I don't know if I really want to see Limited. I think Anderson's films are overrated. His best film is Rushmore, in my view. I'm not impressed with anything else he's done. The Royal Tennenbaums (sp?) and Life Aquatic were especially laborious. And what's up with all those wide, deep focus master shots?!? Royal was entirely shot this way. Isn't this LAZY filmmaking??
 
Saying deep focus is lazy is asinine. If anything, it demands more attention to detail and discipline for composition.

A more accurate (yet still somewhat gross) generalization would be that today's over-use of shallow DOF covers lazy art direction and deco slop.

e
 
overlandfilms said:
Saying deep focus is lazy is asinine. If anything, it demands more attention to detail and discipline for composition.

A more accurate (yet still somewhat gross) generalization would be that today's over-use of shallow DOF covers lazy art direction and deco slop.
Click to expand...

It's a favorite TV budget-covering trick.
 
overlandfilms said:
Saying deep focus is lazy is asinine. If anything, it demands more attention to detail and discipline for composition. e
Click to expand...

Please. There was very little "attention to detail and discipline for composition" in Royal. If there had been, the film would have been more memorable visually. Nearly every shot was a wide angle master. This is just the easiest way to shoot a movie. A monkey can shoot like this.
 
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