I almost never do this, but I danced through the screenplay for The Darjeeling Limited this weekend, comfortable that whatever is on the page of a Wes Anderson movie will be something altogether when I see it on a screen. Story movies, he does not make.
What first caught my eye were his co-writers – Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman
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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?
So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.
And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.
There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.
I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.
So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.
But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”
My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher
“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.
~ David Simon
As long as it’s better than The Life Aquatic… can’t believe that something so bad came from a collaboration between Anderson and Noah Baumbach.
What does ‘regress’ have to do with anything?
bah. doesn’t sound like something I’d like, unless it was something made by Roger Corman. I’d prefer the characters as gangsters, really.
But I do call one of my brothers Frannie (tho I am not supposed to in public…).
The Life Aquatic was wonderful. Not as wonderful as Bottle Rocket, Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums, but wonderful nonetheless.
Melquiades, it’s one kind of wonderful. I think after The Royal Tenenbuams, there was a lot of expectation on the Life Aquatic. I personally like it a lot, but it’s not as moving as Tenenbaums was.
Makes me want to watch A Decade Under the Influence or read Easy Riders, Raging Bulls. Is the title The Darjeeling Express or Limited? How many stops on this India bound train of regression into childhood? Do the boys do naked yoga or rent rooms in a Budhist temple and hook up with yoga girls?
So I guess Wes Anderson will have to press the ‘quaint’, ‘quirky’ and ‘precious’ buttons to get this one out.
I do not much care for Anderson, his pretentious world or his fetish for the sixties which, last time I checked, started over 4 decades ago and in the realm of modern cinema, seems to never end.
Schwartzman annoys me, Coppola’s CQ was C-Shit.
No, I have no interest in this movie whatsoever.
CQ was pretty good. I don’t know what is ‘pretentious’ about Anderson but I do think he is a talented director who just happens to be stuck in a rather whimsical rut.
Is this a spoof? Surely!
Jeff, Jeff, Jeff…
We can disagree about politics. We can disagree about about religion. We can disagree about history.
But there can be no disagreement on one subject:
CQ stank!
Care to elaborate?
While it was a little overly navel-gazing and narcissistic, I thought it was thoughtful and charming and I very much enjoyed the 60s pastiche elements.
I don’t know why anyone would even think to see CQ if they hate 60’s fetishes. Unless they just wanted to bitch about it later.
I love The Life Aquatic. Like Melquiades said, it’s not as wonderful as some of Anderson’s other movies (RT and Rushmore; I prefer Life Aquatic to Bottle Rocket), but it’s wonderful all the same. And I do find it moving, albeit not as much as Tenenbaums. The scene underwater where Zissou says “do you think it remembers me?” really got to me. It’s also really, really damn funny. I remember, at the time, feeling kind of appalled — simply on a comedy-nerd level — that Sideways was getting acclaim as hilarious, even though it’s probably the least funny of Alexander Payne’s movies, whereas Life Aquatic, which made me laugh out loud several times (especially the first scene — ESTEBAN WAS EATEN still cracks me up) was more or less dismissed.
Having Anderson and Baumbach co-write something does feel a little bit like a waste, though. For me, it’s like having Scorsese and Spielberg co-direct a movie; they’re both brilliant, so how much can one really help the other? So I’m glad to see Anderson working with some other collaborators.
Related note: Baumbach’s fantastic first movie, Kicking & Screaming, is out tomorrow in a Criterion DVD (finally).
I didn’t think Roman (who is a talented DOP) added anything to his film about the 60’s that I hadn’t seen before. Perhaps it was because I had seen it after reading Easy Riders, and a lot of romantic notions of being a filmmaker in that era were starting to leave me.
I just felt like it was made by someone who had romantic notions of being an ‘auteur’ in that era by someone who would have been way too young to experience them: except through his father’s eyes.
I guess it just felt kind of false to me and I thought that Davies character came off as pretentious in it. I had very little sympathy for him.
I also think, I am in many ways, all 60’s out.
How much more can that era be romanticized by people who weren’t even there to experience them first hand?
Oh well…maybe we’ll start having films about the 70’s before I die.
Dazed and Confused is pretty great in that regard.
Citizen Ruth is Alexander Payne’s least funny movie, Jesse. By a pretty wide margin.
I’m not a fan of Life Acquatic. I didn’t find it interesting, and I wasn’t moved at all by that famous underwater scene toward the end. And the accent’s: Wilson’s and Blanchette’s were just bad. I don’t think it’s a bad movie, but I don’t think its underrated either. it’s main saving grace was the music.
Let me guess. Owen Wilson is playing the “Jack Nicholson” character? right?
What about Almost Famous, Detroit Rock City, and Boogie Nights?
There’s probably more…
David: I wonder how many people on this blog ever heard of the Ritz Brothers before you mentioned them in this posting.
Sadly, I’d heard of the Ritz Brothers already. But I’m not as old as you guys, just a classics junkie.
Has anyone read the second letter from Walter Becker and Donald Fagen of Steely Dan to the Bottle Rocketeers? The first was addressed to Luke Wilson, and accused Owen and friends of stealing the idea for You, Me and Dupree. This one is even funnier and is addressed to Wes Anderson, somehow managing to compliment and make fun of him at the same time.
Film fans will get a real kick out of this, as The Dan definitely prove to be pretty cinema-literate:
http://www.steelydan.com/heywes.html
Isn’t The Darjeeling Regression the next Robert Ludlum book?
Damn, Steely Dan is one funny guy!
oops. I think I put this bit on the other thread. airhead.
“I love Steely Dan. I thought he was a “tough guy” until someone kindly informed me in high school they were one of those old 70s groups(…like Led Zeppelin & Jethro Tull) who were not *actually* people. I regard Do it Again as my birth song, referenced in that letter.
I think I am on Steely Dan’s side, they are funnier at this point.”
I responded to your boo-boo in the same thread Lota…
I simply adore the Life Aquatic
I would place it somewhere in my Top 15 films off all time, which shuffle about but pretty much reamin the same.
Murray here acts the most he has in the past 4 or so years, and the Pirate raid is the high point. Its the quirk of Wes apllied to Bond movie and I marvel at it everytime I rewatch it. Not only do we have Murray but the best role ever for Dafoe, a simply brilliant turn by Goldblume that had my theatre in stiches. All overlayed with the glorious sheen of Bowie.
Does anybody actually what Steely Dan is?…
I think I’m one of the few who really hated Rushmore. I thought the film was nearly over and then I checked the counter and it was only 40 minutes in. I don’t know why, but that’s the only thing I remember from watching that movie – the feeling of “oh god! there’s still an hour to go!” I hate that feeling.
And that’s why The Royal Tenenbaums came us such a surprise to me. That was special.
^^^Wow, I felt almost the exact opposite.
But to be fair, I only saw Tenebaums once and from my experience with The Big Lebowski, once is not enough to fully a quirky movie.
…enjoy….
I agree that, everything else aside, The Life Aquatic is friggin’ hilarious.
Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums are two of my all-time favorite films. I would probably take Rushmore if forced to choose between the two, partly because it was my first exposure to Anderson. Murray’s work in that film and Aquatic is sublime.
1. Royal Tenenbaums (GREAT)
2. Life Aquatic (MIDDLINGbutFUNandCOMICALLYWEIRD)
3. Rushmore (KILLMENOWWITHABLUNTOBJECTCOZTHAT’SMOREMFUN)
…I really should see Rushmore again, hey?
(also, I think I need to go get some sleep now)
Yeah, it makes no sense to me that one would love Royal Tenenbaums but hate Rushmore. Does not compute.
Kamikaze,
I agree with your assessment of Rushmore.
The turning point in Rushmore is when the lead character tells the little boy that his mommy gave him a blow job and upsets him.
It is an act so callous and cruel that the character becomes utterly unsympathetic from that point on.
The lead in Rushmore (I forget the character’s name) is not a lovable, underdog-nerd type like Lewis and Gilbert from Revenge of the Nerds.
He comes off like a borderline psychotic who should be institutionalized.
If they wrote a sequel to Rushmore that took place a decade later, the character would probably be on top of a university belltower with a sniper rifle.
I totally understand why you would hate that film. It was overpraised and pretentious (like all of Anderson’s work) and falls into that category of film that Gene Siskel used to talk about where it does not only cost you money to see it, but costs you two hours of your life you’ll never get back.
Bill Murray is a great actor; but to think he has turned down offers to work with people such as Oliver Stone or Milos Forman and instead works with ‘precious’ and ‘eccentric’ Gen X types is beyond me.
It may be overpraised, but I do not see how it is pretentious. Please advise.
Please advise?
What, like in I have to call up your secretary and make an appointment?
If I may…
I think the pretension comes from all the cultural references that are tossed off. Someone mentioned earlier how Life Aquatic had Bond movies and David Bowie in there. Especially the Bowie in Portugese…it can come off as “are you cool enough to get the joke?” Sometimes I like it but sometimes it can alienate those who don’t care about hipsterism.
That’s a good answer, but it seems to me that Anderson’s movies have gone progressively further in that direction, with Bottle Rocket and Rushmore relatively unaffectected by hipsterism compared with the other two films.
“7. Reviewing Scripts Or Test Screenings Is Selfish And Immoral
As usual, Drew… intentionally inaccurate.
There is no review of the script. There is an observation about the three lead character names and possible connections to real life filmmakers.
Would you really consider this a review?
Do you even know if I think it is a good script or a bad script?
Or are you just grinding that old axe because you have nothing better to offer?
Hey Drew, how’s your mother-in-law?
name one other director whose first 4 films are on par with Anderson’s. even the life aquatic which is uneven compared to the previous three masterpieces is head and shoulders above 99.9% of anything else coming out of hollywood. cannot wait for Darjeeling!
name one other director whose first 4 films are on par with Anderson’s. even the life aquatic which is uneven compared to the previous three masterpieces is head and shoulders above 99.9% of anything else coming out of hollywood. cannot wait for Darjeeling!
Hey guys look, I’m here only because I am a fan of OWEN and I also hail from darjeeling. So I am super exicite about the movie and expect a blast from the movie.Hope it will not dissapoint me.