Though we’ve already seen “Hotel Chevalier” – the short film prequel to “The Darjeeling Limited” – and it’s supposed to be online today in the Itunes store (though they’re late and it’s still not up there yet), and we’re dead sick, we stupidly stood in a long line last night for director Wes Anderson and stars Natalie Portman and Jason Schwarztman to appear at the Soho Apple store for the New York public premiere of the aforementioned 13-minute short.
Update: Here’s the Itunes link. As we mentioned early, aside from the thematic Peter Sarstedt song, ‘Chevalier’ also feature the French piano impressionist Maurice Ravel song, “Reval: Pavane pour une infante defunte – for Piano” performed by Pascal Roge (which plays at the very beginning) and “Les Champs Elysees (aka Waterloo Road”) written by Mike Wilsh and Mike Deighan and performed by Joe Dassin (the track is also in ‘Darjeeling’ in the film’s closing credits, but damned if we can hear it here, and it’s briefly heard when Portman plays the music box).
The “money shot” bum shot that every slobbering dudeweb blog can’t help but mention is here (it’s not a lot to look at, hope you’re happy). There’s also hotelchevalier.com as a way to get to the Itunes store and watch the short.
We must say, having already seen it and having read all there is to read about it, the event was sort of uneventful for us, but for people who’ve never seen Wes and co. in person and those that hadn’t seen the delightful and sad, ‘Chevalier’ it seemed like a real treat.
There were no major revelations – Anderson and his actors basically repeated what we’d already read: It was shot in two days, it was shot a year before ‘Darjeeling’ was shot, it was self-financed by Anderson, and the short film is supposed to resemble a short story that accompanies a short-novel.
New Tidbits
However, there were a few tidbits of information. Natalie Portman said she was a major Wes Anderson fan that sought him out (Wes “has the finest taste possible” she said), Wes said none of the actors were paid for their work, and Anderson said the inspiration for the short specifically came from the Peter Sarstedt song, “Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)” which sort of becomes a musical motif for wooing in both ‘Chevalier’ and ‘Darjeeling.’
Schwartzman said when Anderson first read him the short script over the phone he even played Sartedt’s British ’60s folk hit in the background. About working with Anderson for the first time Natalie Portman said it was effortless because the director is so specific and detailed, it’s easy to step into a world “that’s already created for you.” When the actors were asked by the audience about directions Anderson gave them, Wes said he didn’t remember much, but Portman said, there was a lot of, “harsher, meaner, colder,” which Anderson laughed at and again said he couldn’t recall.
For nerdspotting reference geeks, the black and white 1953 war film “Stalag 17” plays on the TV when the short first begins and Jason Schwartzman’s character Jack Whitman is lying on the hotel bed ordering food and Anderson said the he Schwartzman and ‘Darjeeling’ co-writer Roman Coppola wrote the feature-length screenplay partly in an Rajastan location where novelist travel author Bruce Chatwin had previously written.
Oh and it was pretty funny watching Fischer Stevens push his way to the front of the Apple store event saying he was on Wes’ guest list. Waris Ahluwalia, who plays the ‘Darjeeling’ train chief steward in the film was also onhand.
For more Anderson and all things ‘Darjeeling,’ there is a New York Observer piece on Marc Jacobs’ involvement with creating candy-colored Louis Vuitton luggage for the Whitman brothers in the full-length film. Thanks to Joshua Kurp for the outside photos of Schwarztman and Anderson.
Owen Wilson and Anderson To Co-Write Again?
Lastly, Wes Anderson actually dignified reporter’s stupid quesstion and denied the similarities of Owen Wilson’s alleged suicide attempt and his melancholy character in the film (who may or may not have tried to committ suicide). Anderson also recently told Men’s Vogue that he and Wilson will try and write a script again and they’ve been discussing future ideas (though he himself doesn’t seem utterly convinced).
The Men’s Vogue piece also restates some information that a lot of people seem to have forgotten. Despite “The Royal Tenenbaums” script credits as written by Wilson and Anderson, the two were living in separate cities and Anderson did most of the writing on his own (something he didn’t really enjoy). Wilson said a lot of people project their own assumptions onto how their collaboration works.
“People say that I am the one with the heart or something, and Wes is the intellectual. But I think that’s all pretty much bullshit. Everything we did, we did together. Of course, Wes was the only one who could type, so he always got to put a kind of final edit on it. But, like, a writer said that the glib stuff was more me and the soulful stuff was Wes, and that wasn’t accurate. Wes is capable of coming up with silly stuff just as I was. The main thing was finding the same thing funny and getting it on the page,” Wilson told the style magazine.
Download: Peter Sarstedt – Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)”
Download: Joe Dassin –“Les Champs-Élysées”
Download: Pascal Roge – “Reval: Pavane pour une infante defunte – for Piano”
“Hotel Chevalier” in its entirety (ok, most of the online clips are dead, but if you haven’t seen it a permanent link for your Itunes/Ipod lies here)