Stalking Wes Anderson Part 2: NYFilm Fest Press Conference And Miscellaneous 'Darjeeling'; Bottle Rocket Criterion Confirmed

As “The Darjeeling Limited” premieres to the public tonight at the opening of the New York Film Festival, we prepare to say goodbye to the film and move on (or at least try to, read our review here).

The press loves Anderson even as much as they might not love ‘Darjeeling,’ (reviews are starting to tip into the favorable scale, but they’re generally tentatively positive), so there’s literally dozens and dozens of pieces out there on Wes and the film and it’s hard to keep track of all of them, but here’s what we’ve collated so far and deemed noteworthy.

Wes’ next film – his stop-motion animated take on Roald Dahl‘s “The Fantastic Mr. Fox” – will feature the confirmed voices of Bill Murray, George Clooney and Jason Schwartzman (Cate Blanchett and Angelica Houston are still rumors at this point]. [MTV Movies Blog]

While talking to Wes, the MTV Movies blog also confirmed what Luke Wilson had recently said – “Bottle Rocket” will finally get the long-awaited Criterion treatment. “We’ve just begun work with the Criterion Collection to do ‘Bottle Rocket’ on a new DVD that’s going to have all kinds of stuff,” Anderson said. “There’s a lot of ‘Bottle Rocket’ that was on the cutting room floor, so we have a lot to work with on that one.”[MTV Movies Blog]

Men’s Vogue did a piece with Wes Anderson soundtrack music supervisor Randall Poster. “Wes’ [projects] are something I protect with my full body and do everything possible to help him fulfill his notion of how the music should work,” Poster told MV in their audio podcast. “Each movie has it’s own DNA so you just try and follow the path of the woods, there’s a certain of discovery – you’re constantly looking for clues and the logic of the musical element in the movie.” And as Wes noted about having Kinks songs in his backpocket for use on a rain day, he and Poster are perennially on the lookout for new songs to incorporate in their collaborations together. “We’re constantly on the look for something we could include in the current feature or future features,” he said.

Their research is admirable. Poster notes the use of Beethoven’s 7th Symphony in the ‘Darjeeling’s funeral flashback. Apparently the composition was of Indian filmmaker/composer Satyajit Ray’s favorite piece of Western classical music, so again, a connection is made and kept throughout.

New York Film Festival Notes & References
Again, if you’re a big fan of Anderson and have been keeping tabs of what’s been written and said, there weren’t many major revelations at the NY Film Fest press conference, but there were a few things of note.
– ‘Darjeeling’ was influenced in part, but John Cassavetes’ 1970 film, “Husbands,” where three lifelong friends married with children go on a bender after a mutual friend dies and reevaluate their lives (Peter Falk, Cassavetes and Ben Gazzara play the three amigos). Their black funeral trench coats are very reminiscent of those in “Darjeeling’s’ flashback sequence.
– Apart from being influenced by the films of Satyajit Ray, and Jean Renoir’s “The River,” ‘Darjeeling’ takes some cues from Louis Malle’s India-set documentary series, “ L’Inde Phantome” and “Calcutta.”
– When asked about the film’s script, ‘Darjeeling’ co-writer’ Roman Coppola said there was a conscious effort to omit the characters’ true feelings and they would leave specific emotions (i.e., “how I’m feeling”) unsaid and left to be inferred as subtext. He said they would write everything out and then in edits, trim out any exterior and surface-level dialogue.
– Anderson said the experience of “Darjeeling’ was the exact opposite of ‘The Life Aquatic.’ The budget was almost cut in half ($50-odd million compared to about $23 million), no trailers, no hair and makeup (the actors did their own and how you see them dressed in the film is how the actors envisioned them) and the whole thing was shot, “quick, cheap and fast,” Anderson said.
– The train the brothers take in the end is called the “Bengal Lancer.” “The Lives of a Bengal Lancer” is a seven-time Oscar-nominated 1935 film by director Henry Hathaway.