|
An Evening with Director Wes Anderson |
|
|
Written by Cynthia Dyer
|
|
Monday, 29 October 2007 |
On Thursday evening, October 11, 2007, the Brattle Theatre in Cambridge hosted the Boston-area preview screening of The Darjeeling Limited and surprised audience members with the 8-minute prequel short Hotel Chevalier (now in theaters) and a post-viewing Q&A with director and co-writer Wes Anderson, co-writer and producer Roman Coppola, and actor Waris Ahluwalia replacing Jason Schwartzman, co-writer number three who injured his foot and had to cancel.
“I wanted to make a movie about India, about three brothers…and on a train,” said Anderson about his inspiration for The Darjeeling Limited, starring Owen Wilson (Francis Whitman), Adrian Brody (Peter Whitman) and Jason Schwartzman (Jack Whitman) as brothers. There are no intentional themes in this movie, according to Anderson, though revelations may happen at certain points during the story. “The movie is just about three brothers traveling on a spiritual journey that turns into a bender,” said Coppola.
“The characters are all fictional,” responded Coppola when an audience member asked if the story was based on Anderson’s life. But, according to Anderson, the characters more likely mirror the three writers and their relationships to each other and summed up the characters as “guys who know how much cough syrup they can handle.”
While on location in India, Anderson’s crew filmed aboard actual trains, contending with close quarters, riding the rails and fluctuations in train schedules. “There’s a lot of those [unscheduled trains],” said Anderson, causing shutdowns production that could go on for days at a time. “Acting on the train, everything was real and makes for a much better film," said Ahluwalia. Anderson emphasized “it is always hard to make the movie” but acquiesced that “this one was an adventure.”
When asked about how one goes about procuring that coveted luggage dotted with palm trees and tropical critters that added such weight to the brothers’ journey, Anderson, at once disappointed and warmed the hearts of one anxious soul, and other audience members, as he revealed that he auctioned off the trunks, valises and carry ons (designed by his brother and constructed by Louis Vitton of Paris) to provide ambulances for the villages seen in the movie. He continued on to say, “Since the bags are present on screen, why not make them look good?”
Finally, is there something behind all that water winding its way through his creative ventures? After a big pause, lots of chin scratching, and some head turning, Anderson said, “No… No… I’m sorry.” And, what about Jack’s bared feet? “The real answer, “ said Anderson, “is Jack is philosophically against shoes.” But more likely, he continued, it was a holdover from the short and helped Schwartzman feel more connected to the land while in India.
Hotel Chevalier, a prequel that provides insight into Jack and his love interest played by Natalie Portman, is a bit of an afterthought, but well worth viewing. It can be download from iTunes.
(Photographs by Jaymes Leavitt)
Fans who waited in line for 3 hours.
(L to R) Brattle Theater Creative Director Ned Hinkle introducing
Waris Ahluwalia, Roman Coppola and Wes Anderson.
Waris Ahluwalia talks about the issues involved with filming on a moving train.
"We shot the movie on Panavision, which is kind of an old fashioned thing now.
I bet in five years nothing will be shot on Panavision."
"When I first read a few of Wes' notes and saw some sketches for the scenes,
I said 'I know this movie. I'm in.' And that was the beginning," said Coppola.
Question: Shouldn't Hotel Chvalier be seen after the movie?
"I wrote the movie first, but with the short I decided that this really was
meant to be the beginning of it," said Anderson.
Question: Are you okay with the movie having multiple endings?
"It does have several necessary endings. I'm comfortable with that. If you think
about it, The Royal Tenenbaums has about five beginnings," said Anderson.
Trackback(0)
|
|
Last Updated ( Tuesday, 30 October 2007 )
|
|
|
TrackBack URI for this entry
