The Darjeeling Limited

[Pozer]

yeah... that looks about right.

[polkablues]

First picture from the set!

Let's not let this get lost to the previous page, 'cause it's fucking awesome...

EDIT: Is Schwartzman holding a fish finder?  What the hell is that thing?

DOUBLE EDIT: On second thought, I'm pretty sure it's a portable monitor.

[last days of gerry the elephant]

I'm I ever glad you re-posted this.

[for petes sake]

they really look like brothers.

[A Matter Of Chance]

no, no, that's their day job

[Pubrick]

that's a tenenbaum in the background.

[modage]

Darjeeling screens (already).  First test review here...

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/32130

[picolas]

could you copy and paste please? it says i must register.

[modage]

they must have taken down the entire review.  i found it elsewhere...

    Hi Harry,

    Long-time reader. I wanted to be the first to post a review of Wes Anderson's new film, "The Darjeeling Limited." Now, I am a big fan of Anderson's films - The Royal Tenenbaums is one of my favorites, with my favorite Hackman performance to date, which is saying something. I did not like The life Aquatic, I thought it was too dry and cutesy for its own good and I'm suspect of anything that Anderson does not write with Owen Wilson, which is the case with The Darjeeling Limited.

    I saw the film last week at its first test-screening and the whole scenerio felt like a focus group, with the filmmakers really looking for some feedback. Anderson was present.

    The film itself really starts out fantastic - all of Anderson's signature quirks are recognizeable from the start. The movie is split into two parts; The first is a short with Jason Schwartzman sitting in a hotel room, feeling sorry for himself, and ordering a grilled cheese. Natalie Portman shows up, hot as ever, and the two speak in very stilted dialoge. It is really a very weird short that does connect to the main storyline, but without much consequence - there is no big revelation.

    The main film begins in India, with a cool Bill Murray cameo reminescent of Jason Strathem's cameo in Collateral - sort of hints at something that never comes to fruition; another story, another place. Murray is racing for a train and finds himself running next to Adrian Brody, who is running for the very same train.

    Brody turns out to be one of three brothers. The other two are played by Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman. The three interact on a cross-country train ride, as Wilson's character attempts to manufacture some kind of profound, spiritual awakening between the brothers. Their father has recently died and their mother has split.

    That is basically the film and I don't want to ruin the few surprises that are littered throughout. The main problem with the movie is that it really goes nowhere. The ending leaves a lot to be desired and the film plays like its 2 and a half hours long, when in reality, its only an hour and a half. It was truly very slow, much like The Life Aquatic.

    The first hour, though, is quite funny, with all the dry humor that Anderson is famous for. All of the essentials are there too; the slow-mo, the British hits from the 60's, and a pretty good comedic performance from Owen Wilson. Brody and Schwartzman aren't particularly great, but wilson's timing saves the day.

    I think that Anderson needs to find an ending and possibly figure out a way to save the last half-hour of the film because it drags, but there is something there and occasionally, Anderson mines some of his best material out of it. Hmm, I guess I don't really know how I felt about the film because some people I was with thought it was a bomb, others saw something they liked, but they didn't know what. I think I saw a grab-bag of ideas; some that worked and some that didn't. A true work in progress.

    J.M. McClane

and for those who really like spoilers, the script is online.

[Pozer]

when was that review sent, April 1st?  prolly not legit.  prolly why they took it down.  yes i stole p's prollies. 

[modage]

thats possible.  it went up on April 2nd but that could mean it was sent on April 1st and that would explain them taking it down to save the embarrassment of posting a fake instead of the usual "REMOVED AT REQUEST OF FOX" type notices.  i guess we'll know for sure the next/first time this thing screens and they can confirm or deny some of the details.  but in all reality if it had actually screened you would have been there to see it.

some interesting speculation (from the script)...


The Darjeeling Regression
Source: The Hot Blog

I almost never do this, but I danced through the screenplay for The Darjeeling Limited this weekend, comfortable that whatever is on the page of a Wes Anderson movie will be something altogether when I see it on a screen. Story movies, he does not make.

What first caught my eye were his co-writers - Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman – and the retro tone of the whole enterprise. Then, it smacked me in the face was that this trio of characters was oddly familiar. The three brothers...

Francis... Ford Coppola
Peter... Bogdanovich
Jack... Nicholson

The trio all worked for Roger Corman in the early 60s.

Francis Coppola is, obviously, a relative to two of the screenwriters and his distinctly verbose and controlling lead role in the movie makes sense. The character is loaded with quirky, detail oriented quirks. One wonders whether anyone in the family actually ever called him "Frannie."

Peter Bogdanovich is the fussy one, as he is in the script. And as in the script, got pregnant with his girl, then Polly Platt, early on... and went on to divorce her before their firstborn daughter was 3. (The relationship is not part of the movie, thus, not a spoiler. But the discussion is in there.)

I considered whether Jack was Jack Hill, but he isn't the legendary character and girl chaser that Nicholson is. In the script, the character is always on the make and somehow, still, a good guy, and pretty much willing to indulge his "brothers," so long as he can keep his game going.

The script reads like either a story about a trip the Coppola boys heard as kids and are fictionalizing in their heads or just a pure fiction developed after a late night of binging on whatever, when someone said, "You know what would be really cool? Can you imagine is Francis and his appetites and Bogdanovich, before the cravats, and Nicholson were actually brothers? They'd be cooler than the Marxes, the Howards, and the Ritzes combined. So we put them on a train all together, forced to be together." "Cool." "Cool."

Of course, we know from Roman's first film that he is interested in that 60s period. Anderson too. And they grew up around these men, all of whom went on to legendary status in the industry.

Interesting, huh?

Well... maybe... to some of you...

http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2006/08/the_darjeeling.html

[polkablues]

So I'm guessing that Schwartzman is the Coppola character, Brody is Bogdanovich, and Wilson is Nicholson?

[Ghostboy]

[A Matter Of Chance]

is that the poster? if so yes please.

[tpfkabi]

is that the poster? if so yes please.

i think i found that through the IMDB board and the blog i saw it on said it was an April Fool's joke done by Portman's website.