Wes Anderson’s ‘Darjeeling Limited’ debuted at the Venice Film Festival yesterday and its long weekend sort of went like this:
First off at the press conference, Anderson spoke about the film’s star Owen Wilson and his recent problems. “Obviously he has been through quite a lot this week,” reported the London Times. I can tell you he has been doing very well, he has been making us laugh. When he’s ready he’s going to speak for himself much better than any of us could. He has got a very good way with words.”
Bill Murray was onhand as well and he explained his recent golf cart incident to the Italian press. “The police asked me to come over and they assumed that I was drunk and I explained to them that I was a golfer,” he said of dropping off drunk drivers in a golf car.
But that’s about as light-hearted as the weekend got. When the film screened on Monday (September 3) the film was hammered with some brutal criticism. Reuters called the film a “tortuous train ride,” while Time magazine said, “Anderson has the attitude for comedy, but not the aptitude. His films are museum artifacts of what someone thought could be funny. They’re airless. Movies under glass.” Variety called the film, “a train ride without laughs or charms,” ouch.
Now we have less faith in Peter Travers’ optimistic review. The most semi-positive news about all the “Darjeeling’ weekend talk was the word that while the 13-minute prequel, “Hotel Chevalier” would not be shown in theaters, it would find a spot on the ‘Darjeeling’ DVD which is already slated to be a Criterion Collection release (Times’ Richard Corliss said the prequel was a “beguiling vignette…I wish that she, and some of the feeling and wit of the short film, had been in [‘Darjeeling].” Similarly, Time Out New York praised ‘Chevalier’ as “classic Anderson,” but said ‘Darjeeling’ fails to match the short’s emotional depth.
Film critic Emmanuel Levy seems to be the only person who scored an interview with Owen Wilson about the film before his personal mishap. “The story reminded me of one of those family vacations you had growing up where everything would end in disaster,” Wilson said. “Even though we’re supposed to be having this blessed spiritual experience, we can’t quite get past the bickering that kept us away from each other for so long in the first place.”
We Have Bush
Slobbering teens and undersexed horny internet moviefanboy sites will want to note that Portman apparently gets fully nude in Chevalier.
If there’s one element of ‘Hotel Chevalier’ that’s surprising for Anderson, it’s a strong sense of romance and sexuality: in one shot, Schwartzmann gently pulls off Portman’s clothes to reveal her naked body from behind, and a later shot has Portman, nude, standing still in a doorway, one foot up against the frame. It’s a beautiful shot, and one that’s made even more pertinent by Sarstedt’s melancholic lyrics on the soundtrack. It’s the sexiest thing that Anderson has ever done.