Revenge Over Nothing Personal – “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou” (2004)
As with many of Anderson’s characters, Steve Zissou is unable to free himself of many spiritual weights. In this case, it’s his fading cultural rank as a legendary oceanographer and documentary filmmaker, his wife (Angelica Huston), for whose affection he battles with his sworn nemesis Alistair Hennessey (Jeff Goldblum), and most recently, the death of his best friend Esteban, swallowed whole by the elusive and singular jaguar shark.
The search for the creature takes him across a bevy of ships and locales, such as the Zissou compound on Pescespada Island (named after an Italian dish in the restaurant where Anderson and co-writer Noah Baumbach held meetings about the film), or his ship, The Belafonte (in actuality a minesweeper vessel purchased from South Africa) seen in cutaway form. Home to a divisive moment, though, are the Ping Islands, where Steve and his cronies stage a rescue of Hennessey and his crew against Filipino pirates. The ensuing gunfight, one of the most tonally stark and clumsily handled sequences of Anderson’s career, is a rare sight, but it encapsulates the director’s focus for such an action scene: the symbolism of the act—in this case the swell of Steve’s courage—over real-life consequences or logic.
The creatures, created by stop-motion wizard Henry Selick, are an integral highlight of the film: the crayon pony fish, the Hermès eel (modeled after a Hermès scarf), and sugar crabs. They also add tremendously to the film’s climax, as Steve and his crew finally confront the jaguar shark once more. The scene, scored to Sigur Ros’ “Staralfur”, is appropriately majestic, but according to Selick the actual process of pulling the shot off was incredibly trying.
“This thing, even though it was hollow, weighed about 90 or 100 pounds, so we had to build a special rig to support it,” he said in an interview with Creative Planet. “We came up with a way to make it visible at a distance, with spots that glowed… that’s definitely the big moment in the film, and it really pays off. It’s surprisingly emotional and strong.”
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In Pursuit of That Spiritual “Thing” Across India – “The Darjeeling Limited” (2007)
If the prospect of shooting a film in India—with a foreign crew and many scenes set in bustling city centers and serene temples—wasn’t daunting enough, “The Darjeeling Limited” also finds Anderson with one of his most elaborate and challenging creations: a fully functional train, carrying his trio of squabbling sibling characters across the sub-continent.
To pull this off, Anderson and head production designer Mark Friedberg called on Northwestern Railways to supply them with a locomotive and ten rail cars. Once secured, they decorated the exterior and interior with the inspiration of the New York-Chicago line 20th Century Limited, which ran from 1902 to 1967. Their creation, The Darjeeling Limited, in reality traveled from Jodhpur to Jaisalmer in the Thar Desert bordering Pakistan, and supplied the setting where eldest brother Francis (Owen Wilson) gathers his brothers Peter (Adrien Brody) and Jack (Jason Schwartzman) for a pre-planned spiritual journey.
Repeatedly throughout the film the word “thing” is used to signify a clue to a possible spiritual awakening; at different point all three brothers plan to “meet at that thing out there” or “do the thing”. It doesn’t matter if it’s a peacock feather or the Temple of 1000 Bulls they’re talking about—Anderson cleverly lines up these items on a laminated card for the trio to mistake consumerism, or consumption, for spirituality. In this case, the latter temple is very much a key stop, as upon arriving Francis comments on the its beauty. Of course, it’s only a moment later that all three are shopping in nearby stalls for shoes, a power adapter, and pepper spray.
“Our approach with this movie was very much that whatever went wrong, we were going to make that part of our story,” Anderson told The AV Club in a 2007 interview. “If the hut was brown, and we left for the evening, and when we came back, the hut was painted blue with flowers all over it because somebody thought that it would be a good idea, that’s the way we were going to use it in the story… The bumps in the road can be so peculiar, and that was what we wanted the movie to be about.”
Production Diary – Day 1: Temple of 1000 Bulls