comment #1

jeffmcm says ...

Hooray! I no longer have to track down a computer with iTunes on it before heading down to see the movie.

comment #2

silver says ...

from the article:
"The short also stars Natalie Portman ... And just as important for publicity, the short features Ms. Portman’s first nude scene.)"

8-o Now they tell me.

Well, I know this moviegoer wouldn't be too challenged to be exposed to the short in theaters at the beginning...

comment #3

silver says ...

A thought: now with the Hotel Chevalier short added to the Darjeeling Limited run, here's the next step.

Drop the usual ads that many theaters screen beforehand.
Replace them with the wonderful two minute long American Express ad by Wes Anderson (done as if one long take).
http://youtube.com/watch?v=spCknVcaSHg

That would make it a triple feature Wes Anderson event.

comment #4

Monty says ...

I still haven't been able to see Hotel Chevalier. I refuse to watch a low-quality version of it on Youtube when it's available through iTunes... except from the fact that it's not available through iTunes in the UK, which is incredibly annoying. Do we know if it will be attached to prints of the movie over here as well?

comment #5

JD says ...

I loved both Chevalier and Darjeeling, but doesn't playing Chevalier before the film kind of skew the film in favour of Schwartzman's character? If anything, I think they should remove the funeral flashback sequence and move that over to iTunes...

comment #6

berg says ...

what if the theater is playing commercials and one of them is the wes anderson directed AT&T commercial, then that would be a triple feature

comment #7

D.Z. says ...

"we thought it would be too challenging to moviegoers to be exposed to the short in theaters right at the beginning of the run...we wanted to make sure The Darjeeling Limited got established first as a movie."

This is the same corporate group-think that believes that we're too stupid to appreciate a Russian tv show in a Russian movie, thus replacing it with Buffy.

comment #8

gatsby1040 says ...

Jeff:
You really didn't like Darjeeling? What about Chevalier? I think if this two-fer had come out after Rushmore it would have been loved as much as Tenenbaums. In other words, the backlash against the film has far less to do with what's on screen than a general sense that Wes needs to be bitch-slapped (for um, being Wes). Darjeeling is a strong, if somewhat scattershot, film -- and Chevalier is a focused, perfect 13-minute distillation of Anderson's strengths, as A.O. Scott says, "a gem".

comment #9

erniesouchak says ...

I think Utley's remark is studiospeak for "we were dumbass cowards."

Still, I don't get the praise for the short and am beginning to suspect its fans are just people who've been dying to see Natalie Portman naked. To me, it seemed as deadly boring as all that followed it.

comment #10

Mistress Malevolent says ...

I have seen Ms. Portman naked. She resembles a small, alabaster tower with insufficient flying buttresses.

comment #11

JD says ...

ernie, Portman is barely even naked in the short... or at least it's very tasteful and restrained. Clearly, some people take more pleasure in reading between the lines and connecting with a certain kind of restraint than others. But even if you got nothing out of Chevalier/Darjeeling, you have to be subhuman or self-destructively cynical to reject their warmth and humanity. Some people even have the audacity to call them cold (presumably, the same people who think Brief Encounter and Brokeback Mountain are cold). Personally, this is the aspect of Anderson's work that I find most appealing: his humanity. And the stylization only enhances this by adding the kind of specificity that makes personal experience feel universal. The idea that Anderson is on the decline is a truly preposterous thought. If you ask me, he's simply evolved more than some of his early fans in the last ten years.

comment #12

Gabriel says ...

I agree with JD 100% on this.

Also, I'm glad that Fox Searchlight finally decided that Wes Anderson fans are as capable of grasping a short/feature double bill as all the kids who see Pixar films (which, at least in the old days, used to be preceded by a short).

comment #13

MilkMan says ...

The movie is perfect the way it is. By far the best Wes Anderson movie. My only question is: How come I've never read a review that points out Anderson's debt to Godard? It's obvious that Wes has seen Tout Va Bien and stolen accordingly. Are film reviewers really that cinematically illiterate?

comment #14

MickTravis says ...

re: "Due respect, but I've no clear idea what Fox Searchlight marketing chief Nancy Utley means when she says 'we thought it would be too challenging to moviegoers to be exposed to the short in theaters right at the beginning of the run...we wanted to make sure The Darjeeling Limited got established first as a movie.' "

With the number of commercials, trailers, promos PSA's, production company graphics and the fact that not everybody pays complete attention to movie news, it's conceivable that less informed people might be confused or even think they're in the wrong movie.

Hell, every single time I take my ma to a movie (and she's a doctor, not a space cadet) we'll be halfway through the credits and she'll ask, "Is this the movie?"

comment #15

JD says ...

Actually, MilkMan, there were lots of Godard comparisons back in the Rushmore days, but I think journalists have backed-off of a specific analysis of Anderson's style, in favour of a more general analysis that tends to be lazy and simplistic.

comment #16

Ian Sinclair says ...

Has anyone seen Godard's KING LEAR? It is the worst picture ever made.

comment #17

WinslowLeachtheComposer says ...

1. Why did they wait? and 2. Wasn't this what they were planing all along? and 3. They screened it this way at a test-screening according to one review I read and 4. Schwartzman's Jack has a big piece of pay-off dialogue that directly refers to the short, but by the time I watched Chevalier when I got home I couldn't remember exactly what he'd said so it was lost on me. Good work all around.

comment #18

thorsen1nk says ...

Just retarded it wasn't included all along. I mean if kids can handle seeing shorts in front of the latest movie from Pixar (which are great for adults too, don't get me wrong) then grown ups can handle a charming 10 minute short which culminates with Portman's sweet cheeks.

comment #19

christian says ...

"we thought it would be too challenging to moviegoers to be exposed to the short in theaters right at the beginning of the run..."

Translation: We think you're stupid.

And sorry, I don't want to see any fucking commercials before a movie. Go watch TV.

comment #20

Craig Kennedy says ...

I don't know MilkMan, isn't tossing out Godard references almost as pretentious as saying what college you went to on a message board?

I guess I understand many criticisms of Darjeeling, but 'deadly boring' isn't one of them. Slight? ok. Episodic? yes. Familiar? true. Boring? never. It went down too easy to be boring.

Assuming an audience would be confused by Chevalier is the most retarded justification for not showing it I've heard. It's only confusing when it's separated. When shown together, they're joined with goofy little intertitles that only a bean counting studio stooge wouldn't understand.

comment #21

gatsby1040 says ...

this should be a lock for the live-action short film oscar. It's a perfect short story.

comment #22

dre says ...

What an idiotic comment Utley made. Obviously it is cowardly studio speak as remarked above but how do these people spout this shit with a straight face? Darjeeling wasn't established as a movie before this? Really? What was it? A cat?

comment #23

christian says ...

I was going to see THE DARJEELING LIMITED but I didn't know what it was, so presenting a short in front of it would have thrown me off. I'm glad they waited. Now it all makes sense. I was just waiting for the marketing folk to properly brand the product to achieve maximum vertical integration.

comment #24

Craig Kennedy says ...

Don't you hate it when you're sitting in a movie theater and you have no idea why you're there? And then it gets dark and there are all these sounds and pictures and stuff and no one tells you you're at a movie?

comment #25

MilkMan says ...

Yes, cj, mentioning that you never noticed how much Godard inspired Wes Anderson, especially after seeing The Darjeeling LTD and Tout va Bien on the same day, is as pretentious as telling people that you went to an Ivy League school as a means of giving credibility to your opinions. They are the exact same thing. Of course, it would have been less pretentious had I mentioned how much Wes Anderson's movies remind me of Chuck Jones' cartoons, but I tend not to compartmentalize what most people consider high and low art, a tendency which you seem to have, as your reaction to the name of Godard would seem to indicate.

comment #26

Mistress Malevolent says ...

Cj appears to have been guilty of taking the name of Godard in vain.

comment #27

JD says ...

It sounds like someobody needs to get off his ass the new Breathless DVD, cj... or would that be pretentious?

comment #28

JD says ...

CORRECTION:

It sounds like someobody needs to get off his ass and buy the new Breathless DVD, cj... or would that be pretentious?

comment #29

christian says ...

"Cj appears to have been guilty of taking the name of Godard in vain."

So I laughed.

But since CJ is the least pretentious person on HE, let me say that I never noted a huge Godard influence on Anderson's films either. For one thing, they're apolitical.

comment #30

MilkMan says ...

Wes Anderson's movies are severely apolitical, Christian, I agree. But his sense of composition, his framing, the way he moves his camera's through sets, I see nothing but Godard. I'm sorry if that sounds obvious or pretentious. I just never noticed it until I saw Tout va Bien. I mean, I've seen almost all of Godard's movies from the 60's, so I decided to look at some of his movies from the 70's and the first one I rented was Tout va Bien, and that's when I saw it. I never made the connection that Anderson's aesthetic had been inspired by Godard's. The subject matter no. The look yes.

comment #31

Walter Sobchak says ...

I liked parts of "Darjeeling" better than the whole... (to quote Peggy Lee, "is that all there is?")

I suppose it's quite pedestrian of me to admit that I thought "Hotel Chevaliat" was kind of "eh". It seemed to be all about the Peter Sarstedt song, as in, without that song, how dull would it have been....

....and I wish it had been Amara Karan's ass instead.

comment #32

JD says ...

Just for the record, if you go back and watch some old films by Vincente Minnelli, Anthony Mann, Stanley Donen, and Nicholas Ray, you'll notice many of the stylistic tendencies being attributed to Godard. What people think of as archly stylized today in WA's work was the norm for Hollywood's best filmmakers fifty years ago.

comment #33

MilkMan says ...

Thanks, JD. I've always wanted to check out some Nicholas Ray. Other than Rebel without a Cause, any suggestions are where I should start?

comment #34

christian says ...

And Godard used Preminger's famous long objective composed takes as part of his style too.

comment #35

Craig Kennedy says ...

Jesus, I make a simple snarky comment in reference to a previous funny argument, meant with as much affection as I can muster towards internet strangers, and suddenly I'm the jerkoff.

But it's true, Godard's post 60s filmography is one of many large blind spots in my movie experience that I hope to fill before I die.

comment #36

Mistress Malevolent says ...

I am reminded of the French joke about the woman who walks into a room filled up with movie directors telling dirty jokes. She immediately slaps Godard on the grounds that "Godard always does it first."

comment #37

DarthCorleone says ...

I agree that Chevalier puts the story out of balance. With the exception of Schwartzman's character's affair with the train lady, every single scene is about the relationship between the three brothers - except for that scrolling montage of the passengers, Portman, etc. I think Chevalier is a cool little short, but it does put too much emphasis on Schwartzman's character when viewing the two as a whole.

comment #38

jeffmcm says ...

DZ: What are you talking about?

Milkman: I haven't seen Tout Va Bien, but I don't know any Godard film that's as obsessed with visual composition and centerpunching and production design as Anderson's films. Can you cite any other examples?

comment #39

MilkMan says ...

Jeffmcm: I can't cite any other example (maybe some of Weekend, a little bit of Contempt) because I haven't seen all of Godard's films, but the way Godard shoots the Factory Strike is almost identical to the way Anderson shoots the Zissou. Rent Tout va Bien (as long as you're inured to Marxist ranting) and tell me that Godard hasn't been the primary influence on the way Anderson's films look.

comment #40

christian says ...

Hal Ashby is clearly Anerson's primary influence.

End of debate.

comment #41

christian says ...

Not to mention Anderson's.

comment #42

MilkMan says ...

You're right, Christian. Rushmore was clearly influenced by Harold and Maude, The Royal Tenenbaums is actually a remake of The Slugger's Wife, while The Life Aquatic was inspired by 8 Million Ways to Die.

comment #43

MilkMan says ...

The homage to Buckaroo Banzai at the end of Life Aquatic was pretty nifty.

comment #44

frankbooth says ...

Milkman,

In a Lonely Place is great, especially if you want to see Bogie play a real prick. And On Dangerous Ground is worth seeing for Robert Ryan's tortured, intense performance.

comment #45

frankbooth says ...

Milkman,

In a Lonely Place is great, especially if you want to see Bogie play a real prick. And On Dangerous Ground is worth seeing for Robert Ryan's tortured, intense performance.

comment #46

frankbooth says ...

Milkman,

Read the first sentence of my first post, and the second sentence of my second.

No, wait -- other way around!

comment #47

jeffmcm says ...

Milkman, it's certainly possible that the Godard of Tout Va Bien is a huge influence on Anderson, maybe also the Godard of Band of Outsiders. But I can tell you that the Godard of Breathless, Contempt, Alphaville, 2 or 3 Things I Know About Her, One Plus One, Passion, In Praise of Love, and Notre Musique is not.

comment #48

christian says ...

"Rushmore was clearly influenced by Harold and Maude, The Royal Tenenbaums is actually a remake of The Slugger's Wife, while The Life Aquatic was inspired by 8 Million Ways to Die."

Cat Stevens was certainly on the soundtrack to RUSHMORE and all of Anderson's films share composed long shots with tight editing and music montage that are reflective of H&M as well as Ashby's more obscure films that you left off your smartass list.

I said...good day sir.

comment #49

MilkMan says ...

Why don't I just ask Wes. He's a good friend of mind and he happens to be sitting right next to me.

Me: Who would you say your primary influence is?
Wes: Probably Godard.
Me: How about Hal Ashby?
Wes: I guess. I mean I like Harold and Maude.
Me: So if someone were to say that Hal Ashby was your primary influence what would you say to that person?
Wes: I would tell them that they are wrong.

See. How come you don't listen to me?

comment #50

christian says ...

Because your name is MilkMan.