Jamie Stuart's NYFF451

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The first of two New York Film Festival shorts by the great Jamie Stuart appeared today on the Filmmaker website. The short is very "Stuart" (cryptic, sardonic, superb editing), but I can't figure what's being "said." The basic suggestion seems to be that Darjeeling Limited director and co-writer Wes Anderson is some kind of visitor from from another planet. Stuart seems to convey this, at least, by showing us a close-up of Anderson's face (wearing a pleasant, unguarded expression) while we hear some kind of variant of 1950s electronic space music.

Then the piece goes back to Stuart's Brooklyn pad (his roommates, telephone calls...whatever). The N.Y. Film Festival stuff doesn't begin until the one-third mark. We see the Darjeeling Limited cast sitting on the dais after the press screening (which happened, I believe, a good week ago), and notice that costar Jason Schwartzman no longer has a black caterpillar on his upper lip. But the '50s space music half-dominates -- no matter what's being said or narrated, we keep hearing this "eeeeOOWWWohhhhhhweeeeeee."

Cut to Anderson, wearing an elegant white suit (which probably cost at least $2500), talking at first about creating an animated film -- The Fantastic Mr. Fox, he means, which will be distributed by 20th Century Fox in November 2009. Then he starts talking about watching a DVD of a Louis Malle film called Le Feu Follet ('63), but without English subtitles. Anderson says he doesn't understand a word because doesn't speak French. He says he's been trying to learn French but he's found it difficult so far. And that's pretty much it.

comment #1

BurmaShave says ...

The great Jamie Stuart? No comment.

comment #2

BurmaShave says ...

I guess I should still hold a grudge about his retarded arrogance in that SOPRANOS debate, but I just can't.

comment #3

Craptastic says ...

Is that Tilda Swinton?

comment #4

jeffmcm says ...

Burma: double ditto.

comment #5

EDouglas says ...

Anderson has been living in France for HOW long and he still doesn't know how to speak French? And we wonder why the French hate us Americans.

Yeah, Jamie Stuart needs an ego boost like I need a couple more pounds of fat to keep me warm this winter.

comment #6

Nate West says ...

I'll wait for wait for Jamie Stuart's FINAL CUT, after he's taken out the annoying voice-over and the footage borrowed from Stanley Kubrick.

comment #7

pbjmahwah says ...

But I don't understand why there is a close-up of Meryl Streep, circa 1977. . . .

comment #8

gruver1 says ...

Full Disclosure from Wells to Ed Douglas: I've been going to France since the mid '80s (stayed in Paris for most of the summer of '03) and my French is still pretty pathetic. I can read a lot of it and express what I want, but I can't converse at all.

comment #9

MAGGA says ...

I lived in Paris for two years and my French is rubbish. Not something to be proud of, but there are so many nationalities coming together there that it is possible to lead a fulfilling life and only learn how to order and buy things. Also, the French are getting pretty good at speaking English, at least young people.

comment #10

MilkMan says ...

Who the fuck is Jamie Stuart? Is he the same guy who makes the films about the kids who backyard wrestle and sets it to The Melvins?

comment #11

nemo says ...

My job takes me to Paris about once a year, and like gruver1, I can ask directions, and sometimes I can even understand the answer. I've even successfully given directions several times, although twice the person asking directions switched to English to verify my answer.

At least twice per visit someone will stop me on the street, sheepishly ask if I speak English, and ask me directions. But these people are never Americans or Brits. They are always Brazilians, Koreans, Japanese, Chinese, Indians, Arabs from all over the Middle East.

The French are much more easy-going about speaking English now than they were 30 years ago, when I first visited. In part it's because the younger generation knows that English is becoming the common language of a more economically unified Europe. In part it's because they know that it's not just visiting Americans and Brits who are strong in English and weak in French, it's most everybody from most everywhere.

I'm an American working in the US for a Belgian company, and I spend a lot of time working with a French partner company. Both companies have people working all over the world, who stay in close contact by e-mail, phone, video-conferencing, visits, you name it. For both companies speaking English is a job requirement.

I work with Indians, Chinese, Romanians, Germans, Japanese, Brazilians -- only the Germans know much French, and none of them know Flemish. It's not just Anglo cultural hegemony -- it's the only way to make these enterprises work.

But if I lived in France for two solid years, I'd sure as hell be working to improve my French way beyond its current primitive state, no matter how busy I was with other work.

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