Did Scorsese Stimulate Anderson's Darjeeling Fetish?

The trailer for Wes Anderson’s “The Darjeeling Limited” has all the fairweather cineastes abuzz. Fans asked themselves, will this one be better than the poorly received, “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou“? Will Anderson continue to burrow down the wormhole of self-indulgence, ornate pageantry and wacky ensembles? And similar question of equal nerdiness.

All of it reminds us of an October 2002 article in Premiere magazine with Anderson and his directorial idol and pal Martin Scorsese. In the piece, the cinema scholarly Scorsese first screened French director Jean Renoir‘s first color film, “The River” – which was set in India – to the impressionable Anderson. The piece reads:

“Scorsese recently screened one of the more sumptuous of [Jean] Renoir’s English-language films -“The River,” a beautiful technicolor vision shot in India – for Anderson. “I thought he would respond to it. You know, who knows what that will set off in his mind, maybe he’ll make another three films from it.”

A big fan of Anderson’s debut, “Bottle Rocket,” Scorsese famously dubbed the Texan-born director “the next Scorsese” in an article he wrote for Esquire magazine in March of 2000. Could the seminal Italian director’s screening directly influenced Wes? Maybe something was set off his mind?

It’s interesting that Scorsese screened that particular film in 2002. In the same Esquire article two years earlier Marty wrote about what he felt were their similarities.

“Wes … has a very special kind of talent. This kind of sensibility is rare in movies. Jean Renoir. comes to mind. I remember seeing Renoir’s films as a child and immediately feeling connected to the characters through his love for them. It’s the same with Anderson.”

The original Premiere article can be read in two parts here and here. Or simply the cached google fan-typed version here.