Shine a Light today!
Wes favorites The Rolling Stones have a new film directed by Martin Scorsese called Shine A Light, out today in the U.S.
(buy the soundtrack here, as a CD or digital download, and support the site)
“5 Signs You’re Watching a Wes Anderson Movie” (OMG Lists)
Nice post from OMG Lists, a site that apparently specializes in… lists? Nothing earth-shattering here, but worth a look.
The text is reproduced below, but be sure to visit the original post for video evidence.
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He’s one of indie filmmaking’s biggest names. If you ever find yourself watching a film you’re not sure who directed… here’s a checklist of signs to know you’re watching one of Anderson’s films.
5- Bill Murray Being Serious
If you’re seeing this comic king in a movie that was made in the past ten years it’s probably a Wes Anderson movie. Of the last fifteen film projects Murray has done four have been with Anderson. It was his role in “Rushmore” that made him an indie-film darling with such directors as Jim Jarmusch and Sofia Coppola. Murray has a strong commitment to Anderson, backing up the director by pulling out of his own pocket to help shoot a scene and also working for free in “The Royal Tenenbaums”. Their film relationship has produced some interesting film experiences as well as a partnership of respect and comradeship.
4- Slow Motion Endings
In all but one of his films, Anderson has ended with the slow motion shot. We saw Dignan leaving for prison in “Bottle Rocket”, Max’s Dance with Miss Cross in “Rushmore”, Royal Tenenbaums’s funeral, and Steve Zissou walk the red carpet all in slow motion into the end credits. It’s a signature style that Anderson has replicated in most of his films. Also notice the credits, first name in lower and uppercase but the last name is always uppercase. The only movie that broke the slow motion ending tradition? “The Darjeeling Limited,” which began with a slow motion shot of Peter Whitman barely making the namesake train.
Wes, Jason, and Adrien offer up their own Darjeeling Limited playlists
Back in October (or thereabouts), Wes Anderson, Jason Schwartzman, and Adrien Brody assembled their own Darjeeling Limited playlists for the iTunes Store. While old news to many, this is new news to us! Thanks to Owen for the lead. Track listings after the break.
Rushmore in Louisville; and Mr. Ray Davies of The Kinks
The Louisville Film Society is screening Rushmore on Tuesday, February 19, 7.30 pm at the Actors Theatre. Admission is free, but you must RSVP ahead of time (502.584.1205).
(thanks to the Backseat Sandbar)
Today’s Boston Globe has an article/review on that well-respected man, Ray Davies. M. Davies’ new CD, Working Man’s Cafe, comes out on Tuesday.
P.S. 100 members in our Facebook group to date! Please join, if you haven’t already!
These Days
A rather lovely version of “These Days” (from The Royal Tenenbaums) by St. Vincent, found thanks to aerolls.
Squids Eye Records on the cheap
Some Yankee Racers are rather enthralled with the recording cooperative called Squids Eye Records, out of Dayton, Ohio (see what the Racers have been saying). They having a great deal going until tomorrow on their MySpace page: CDs for $5.00 including shipping. Not only do you support great indie music, but you get it REALLY cheap
New album from Sigur Rós
Sigur Rós (“Starálfur” from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) just released a new dual-disc album called Hvarf/Heim.
Hvarf/Heim is the companion album to Sigur Rós’ new documentary “Heima,” which was filmed during their 2006-’07 tour of their home country, Iceland, and shown at this year’s Madison Popfest. Hvarf/Heim is not exactly a soundtrack, but an unveiled, down-to-earth approach to their renowned transcendental sound…. Disc two, Heim, is even better. Recorded live during their tour, the lack of electricity forced Sigur Rós to go entirely acoustic. Without the dissonance, Heim has a very natural feel. The string quartet and piano materialize familiar ethereal melodies such as “Samskeyti”—also “Untitled 3” off ( )—and “Starálfur”—the familiar song from “The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,” but this version makes it harder to imagine a large yellow submarine and animated sea creatures (UW Daily Cardinal)
Darjeeling a Global Hit, and The Strife Aquatic
Public Radio International’s The World has a great feature called “Global Hit.” The Darjeeling Limited was featured yesterday (link).
We stay on the Darjeeling railway — sort of — for today’s Global Hit. That’s a song from the soundtrack to the movie “The Darjeeling Limited.” The tune is the classic French pop song “Les Champs-Elysees” by Joe Dassin.
In the off-beat musical mind of filmmaker Wes Anderson, Les Champs-Elysees works just fine as an association with Darjeeling. The soundtrack also features songs by the Kinks and the Rolling Stones. But Anderson mostly keeps things regional.
He offers up the deep strings of the sarod, played by Indian classical composer Ali Akbar Khan. Ali Akbar Khan composed this work for another film. The song first appeared in a Bollywood movie called “The Householder.”
That came out in the mid-sixties. In fact the bulk of the tunes from “The Darjeeling Limited” come from other movies — mostly Bollywood flicks.
Wes Anderson was drawn in particular to the music of filmmaker Satyajit Ray. He’s well-known in both Bollywood AND Hollywood.
And Ray serves as the ideal bridge for American audiences dropped into Anderson’s odd tale of three brothers on a train voyage across India.
As in Wes Anderson’s past films, The Darjeeling Limited isn’t just about the story.
The movie serves as a quirky delivery system for delightful and unfamiliar music.
Last night on The Daily Show, the news bit on torture featured an image parodying The Life Aquatic:
There will be more late night tv coverage as Bill Murray appears on
Letterman this evening.
A great interview with Wes and Jason on
Cleveland public radio
Check out Rotten Tomatoes’ Total Recall: The Life Cinematic with Wes Anderson
“Well, I think there are enough filmmakers like Spike Lee and Wes Anderson who will know what kind of parts to write for me. I can wear the turban and have the beard in film after film and yet play different characters. The role Wes offered me in Life Aquatic didn’t call for an Indian-looking guy. It wasn’t a typecast role. I hope that 20 years from now, there are going to be more Sikhs in the movies.”
“We just wanted a studio on wheels.”
A strong, very academic defense of Wes on the racism charge:
“The notion that art has to do, be, or reflect any one thing should be rightly understood as the least sophisticated mode of criticism.
But he (Noah Weiner) reveals something when he, seemingly out of nowhere, praises Anderson-pal Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale, a film which, though I liked, I remember to be equally “privileged, bookish, prudish, woebegone, tennis-playing, Kinks-scored.” The difference with that film is that the characters were all white. Seemingly coded in this sort of racially-based critique is the paradox that, rather than a lack of plurality in the racial makeup of characters, it is actually the simultaneous coexistence of subject and other in the same frame that is unsettling.”
The Bygone Bureau also submits a defense - of The Wes Anderson Formula
Popmatters says
“The Darjeeling Limited is an Anderson epiphany . . . idiosyncratic filmmaking at its finest.”
TDL closed the London Film Festival - apparently Ray Davies of The Kinks was in attendance.
Onboard video: train tour, and more production videos
Go see The Darjeeling Limited this weekend, newly available in 13 new markets this weekend! Also be sure to join our community forum, the Yankee Racers.
- Jason Schwartzman was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Thursday. According to Jason, he and Wes Anderson will be traveling the country by train to promote The Darjeeling Limited. Back in 1999, Wes and Jason traveled the U.S. on a big yellow bus to promote Rushmore (“On the Road” from the Archive).
- Jason also talked about his new album, Nighttiming, available at youngbabyrecords.com. We are ordering our copy, and we hope you do, too. The cover reminds me of the Hotel Chevalier:
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– - The kids over at Fox Searchlight have posted some really great production videos on the official site:
