The Darjeeling Limited

[last days of gerry the elephant]

Wow that is lame...

At least Hotel Chevalier is on it. Life Aquatic makes it to Criterion but not the Darjeeling? This puzzles me.

[Gold Trumpet]

At least Hotel Chevalier is on it. Life Aquatic makes it to Criterion but not the Darjeeling? This puzzles me.

Criterion always made it known they were not working on the DVD for this film. I don't know the reason why, but I have to assume a smaller company like Fox Searchlight is protecting its own. It isn't a simple matter of large companies allowing Criterion to release smaller films. I think Darjeeling Limited is more valuable to Fox Searchlight. And considering the price, I'm not sure if we'll ever see a Criterion release.

Considering the Fantastic Mr. Fox is being done by Sony, don't expect a Criterion release there either.

[john]

Whatever.

More time to focus on making a great Bottle Rocket Criterion.

I'll get Darjeeling at Target for $15, then watch the two scenes in the film that make it excusable.

[SiliasRuby]

At least Hotel Chevalier is on it. Life Aquatic makes it to Criterion but not the Darjeeling? This puzzles me.

Criterion always made it known they were not working on the DVD for this film. I don't know the reason why, but I have to assume a smaller company like Fox Searchlight is protecting its own. It isn't a simple matter of large companies allowing Criterion to release smaller films. I think Darjeeling Limited is more valuable to Fox Searchlight. And considering the price, I'm not sure if we'll ever see a Criterion release.

Considering the Fantastic Mr. Fox is being done by Sony, don't expect a Criterion release there either.

Plus didn't disney and beauna vista have a deal with criterion about wes anderson's films? Or was that just regular hollywood bullshit I heard?

[Gold Trumpet]

At least Hotel Chevalier is on it. Life Aquatic makes it to Criterion but not the Darjeeling? This puzzles me.

Criterion always made it known they were not working on the DVD for this film. I don't know the reason why, but I have to assume a smaller company like Fox Searchlight is protecting its own. It isn't a simple matter of large companies allowing Criterion to release smaller films. I think Darjeeling Limited is more valuable to Fox Searchlight. And considering the price, I'm not sure if we'll ever see a Criterion release.

Considering the Fantastic Mr. Fox is being done by Sony, don't expect a Criterion release there either.

Plus didn't disney and beauna vista have a deal with criterion about wes anderson's films? Or was that just regular hollywood bullshit I heard?

I imagine they did. Wes Anderson pushed for his films to be released by Criterion but he can't work miracles. Fox Searchlight was likely wanting a large percentage of sales and Criterion couldn't allow for it. The company does wonderful things, but they are also notoriously cheap and very obnoxious. They've shown an attitude before that they are the greatest and studios should be grateful to allow them to release a film or just hand over extras free of charge. Fans may think that, but it's a different situation for companies trying to make money. You might get a release of Darjeeling Limitied down the road, but it has potential to make the best money now. I just don't think Fox Searchlight could have passed up on the financial opportunities the way other companies were willing to.

[Mesh]

I liked this movie more than anyone here, it seems.

[Sleepless]

I really liked it too. At the moment it's in my number 3 spot for 2007.

[pete]

while there is no way really to measure one's admiration and appreciation to another's, I seriously doubt Mesh's claims.  Just becase you're a cunting snob don't mean you've got more love.  Stop hipster-ruining something that's already been so davastated. 

[Sleepless]

while there is no way really to measure one's admiration and appreciation to another's, I seriously doubt Mesh's claims.  Just becase you're a cunting snob don't mean you've got more love.  Stop hipster-ruining something that's already been so davastated. 

I've got plenty of love to give. I just don't know where to put it.

[Alexandro]

well i went into this with low expectations and it still managed to be underwhelming. im sorry, but everything about this movie was "off" to me. the attemps at humor felt flat, already done in other movies from the same guy; the "emotional" aspect, ditto; the "tragic" event in the middle of the film, now a trademark, has none of the impact that, for example, luke wilson's suicide attemp has in royal t...

you can see there's a probable genius behind this, but everything feels tired. every character feels like a rehash of past wes's movies. at some point it was just painful to watch so much potentially good stuff miss the mark. the consensus around here seems to be positive, so I'll give this another chance someday. My personal view on this whole thing is that Wes Anderson really needs to go against himself, the way that PTA decided to kick it up a notch after PDL. He nees to make a list of things to not do, which could include slo-mo takes, left and right pans, overhead shots and not writing with Owen Wilson.

When the guys drop the baggage at the end I smiled. Could this mean tht Wes Anderson will finnally attempt something RADICALLY different, as we all know he can?

I liked The Life Aquatic, and I think it will age pretty well. Not this one.

[tpfkabi]

i've loved all his films, including the much maligned Life Aquatic, but i felt pretty similiar to what you said about Darjeeling. i have a small hope that when the dvd comes out and i watch it again that i 'see' something i did not see on the first viewing.

i don't even care much about using the same cinematic techniques, but something about the characters and story did not connect with me like his other films.

[md]

dude should make a dogma film...probably scare the crap out of him. (wow I sound like Jim Rome)

[ElPandaRoyal]

Saw this today, and liked it a lot. I'm not the world's biggest "Life Aquatic" fan, and expectations weren't really high on this one, unlike with "Life Aquatic", so it may have helped. But I really did feel the vibe again, and it was great. Emotionally, this may have been the one that attracted me the most - I have two brothers, and even though we get along pretty well, I guess that's what connects me in such a big way to movies about brothers (like "Cassandra's Dream"). There were great moments, great music and visuals, and the only slight beef I have with it (SPOILER) is the parts with Anjelica Huston, which seem to me that kind of don't belong there. Maybe the characters needes to be abandoned by their mother again, but it just wasn't handled pretty well (END SPOILER). Oh, and watching Kumar in the bg is always the greatest thing in the world.

[MacGuffin]

i've loved all his films, including the much maligned Life Aquatic, but i felt pretty similiar to what you said about Darjeeling. i have a small hope that when the dvd comes out and i watch it again that i 'see' something i did not see on the first viewing.

i don't even care much about using the same cinematic techniques, but something about the characters and story did not connect with me like his other films.

You know, a second viewing really helped. I felt I knew and understood the characters better this next go 'round. It also confirmed for me that, starting with the river scene, the village sequence is some of the best work Anderson has done.


I dunno if this also played a part, but I think it helped not watching Hotel Chevalier right before viewing the film.

[modage]

Wes and Jason Schwartzman shop for CDs and DVDs at Borders in 2008...



DVDBeaver review of The Darjeeling Limited: Criterion Collection Blu-Ray:

http://www.dvdbeaver.com/film2/DVDReviews35/darjeeling_limited.htm