Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Darjeeling Limited


I am a huge Wes Anderson fan. Although I truly enjoy his talents as a writer/director, it is him as a person that I admire most. He was best friends with Owen Wilson, growing up in Texas, which puts him up their in my ranks to begin with. Wes puts a lot of his friends in his movies and tends to keep a core group of people involved in his films. This is what I truly love about him. The one aspect of his movie making that I am always amazed by is his use of and taste of music. In the three semi-movies that my brother and I have made over the past four years, we have tried to integrate some of Wes's style and music.
I just watched The Darjeeling Limited, Wes's fifth feature film, and I was very pleased. It starred Owen, Adrian Brody, and Jason Schwartzman as three brothers on a trip across India to find their mother. I always say that it is hard to judge a movie after one viewing so all of this might be a little off, but I liked it more than The Royal Tennenbaums and Life Aquatic (Wes's previous two films). Either I'm more easily picking up on the dry, subtle humor or it was just flat out funnier because Owen was the main character. I really liked Adrian Brody's performance in this movie. The dynamic between Brody and Owen reminded me a bit of the interactions between Owen and Luke Wilson in Bottle Rocket (Wes's first movie). Brody was very straight and somber while not enjoying Owen's schemes until the end of the movie. Another plus to this film, in comparison to Tennenbaums and Aquatic, was that it was shorter and never dragged at 90 minutes. Tennenbaums and Aquatic both were a bit too long for my liking at 110 and 120 respectively.

Wes Anderson Movies

1. Bottle Rocket (below)
2. Rushmore
3. The Darjeeling Limited
4. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
5. The Royal Tennenbaums

Wes Anderson Movie Characters

1. Dignan- Bottle Rocket (above)
2. Herman Blume- Rushmore
3. Francis Whitman- Darjeeling
4. Steve Zissou- Aquatic
5. Max Fischer- Rushmore
6. Royal Tennenbaum- Tennenbaums
7. Bob Maplethorpe- Bottle Rocket
8. Anthony Adams- Bottle Rocket
9. Peter Whitman- Darjeeling
10. Future Man- Bottle Rocket

2 comments:

Andy McKenzie said...

Great post, and you should post the links to the you-tube videos of your short films, I'm sure your fans would go crazy (myself included, obviously)

Dan Forcella said...

i do have them posted, they are 'Ain't No Trip to Cleveland' 'Been Out to Sea For a Long Time' and 'Full Force Gale'