Derek Hill is the author of the new book Charlie Kaufman and Hollywood’s Merry Band of Pranksters, Fabulists and Dreamers, now available in the U.K. (Amazon | Waterstone’s | Blackwell ) and out soon in the U.S. ( Amazon ). He has agreed to write several pieces for the Academy. This is part 2; Derek has decided to offer the section of the book on TDL in its entirety. Enjoy!
‘Is that symbolic? We. Haven’t. Located. Us. Yet!’
– Francis Whitman (Owen Wilson) has his mind blown when he realises that the train he and his brothers have been passengers on is lost.
Anderson has never been averse to addressing mortality head-on in his films, specifically the death of a spouse (Rushmore), parent (The Royal Tenenbaums) or child (The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou). Although all of his films are ostensibly comedies, there has always been an element of the impermanence of things, of people, that has delicately coaxed an emotional resonance forth from the wackiness. Not particularly original or groundbreaking, but when one considers the frequently bathetic treatment of death in much of American mainstream cinema, Anderson’s unsentimental and realistic treatment of grief is a commendable aspect and intrusion upon his lucid, intensely fabricated theatricality. As much as Anderson has become a master of the elaborate multi-layered mise-en-scene, he also astutely understands the moment to drop back, allowing his characters to feel the brunt of their sorrow without excessive ornamentation. The Darjeeling Limited is as waggish as any of Anderson’s previous work. But at its core is the black hole of loss, the invisible thread that binds us as profoundly (if not more so) than birth.
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From elloh’s Etsy store.
These are so fantastic. I hope you buy some.
Thanks, Elaine. Posted on our Facebook group.
A nice post/recipe over at the All the Marmalade blog:
I was curious and surprised to find a new citrus in my local produce store: sweet lime. Another variation on the citrus theme, sweet lime is a juicy, sweet rather than acidic fruit reminiscent in flavor of grapefruit and mandarin oranges.
In the film Darjeeling Limited, sweet lime was served as a refresher to passengers settling into their cars. I did some checking around (i.e. Wikipedia) and learned that India is one of the largest producers of sweet lime in the world, where it’s both consumed for fun and medicinal purposes.
I’ve never personally had any sweet lime juice there, but a survey of websites suggest that it’s mixed with some honey or sugar similar to lemonade for serving. If anyone has had this drink in India, where it’s called mousabi (musabi / mosabi), please comment and let it be known how it’s typically prepared.
Turning Sweet Lime into a Cocktail
Never one to stand on tradition when it comes to mixology, I juiced a few sweet limes and tried them in traditional citrus cocktails. If you come a across some sweet limes, try substituting some or all of the lemon or lime juice in your favorite recipe with sweet lime. You’ll need about one third of the total sugar than when using lemons, and it delivers an interesting, subtle twist.
I’m a gin person, so I tried came up with this recipe. Try it for yourself and see what you think!
The Sweet Lime Limited
2 ounces of gin
3 ounces sweet lime juice
2 Basil Leaves
1 ounce simple syrup (a.k.a. sugar water, a tablespoon of sugar or more to taste dissolved in a little warm water will do if you don’t have simple syrup handy)
Pinch of salt
Splash of Soda Water
Combine and serve over ice in an chilled tumbler.
Now, if we only had a recipe for this Sweet Lime…
Nice post by Justin over at Tengumaster Chronicles:
Hi everyone,
So I’m late. In more than one way, actually. First and foremost, if you’ve been checking my movie log (and I know you have), then you will notice that I just recently saw The Darjeeling Limited. Forgive me, I know I have sinned, but it was earnest- I was at school, away from limited release theaters, when it came out and by the time I returned for Christmas it was out of theaters. When the DVD came out, they were all gone in the Blockbuster in San Diego, so I finally saw it while at home for spring break. Anyways- amazing movie. Every time Wes Anderson makes a film, it becomes impossible to rank it among the others. This film was absolutely amazing, but was it better than Rushmore or The Royal Tenenbaums? It’s hard to say, really, they are all just so great. His visual style as well as his use of deadpan humor, minimalist dialog and a number of common themes tie his films together, and sitting next to each other on a shelf, they certainly feel related. I will not go on and on about the movies, as Rushmore Academy (The net’s biggest and best Anderson fan site) has done that well enough. I will say though, that each of his movies has certainly impacted me personally, and the way I look at family, friendship and the human condition. The idiosyncrasies of his characters and the perfection and detail of his sets, wardrobes, and soundtracks certainly convey his own little beautiful world, utterly separate from our own, but it would be hard to call his work fantasy. In the case of his most recent work, I felt so connected to all three of the Whitman brothers, in different ways. I certainly feel that my obsessive compulsive nature can be similar to Francis, but I definitely feel that my attachment to women is conveyed in Jack. Strangely enough, as hard as it is to say (as always with Anderson), my favorite of the three is probably Adrien Brody as Peter. I am in total anticipation for 2009’s The Fantastic Mr. Fox (I loved Roald Dahl as a child.) It is a shame that this film, along with his previous four, didn’t win the oscar.
Thanks, Justin!
Friend of the site Elaine, who is studying living abroad in France for a year, saw Mr. Wes Anderson at fnac this past weekend. She kindly posted some photographs on our Facebook group, which I have stolen reproduced here.
Vive le Wes!
Our last revolutionary struggle was a success (sort of). After many years of petitioning for a Criterion Collection edition of Bottle Rocket, one is now forthcoming. Coincidence? Probably.
Anyway, the struggle is ongoing. We now have a new petition for you to sign, asking for The Darjeeling Limited on Criterion. Please do sign. We also have a ’supplementary’ petition, about Satyajit Ray’s Apu trilogy.
We are accepting proposals for blogs on this site. E-mail edwardappleby @ yankeeracers.org (no spaces) with your idea or a link to your current blog. Metro Line 13, a blog by Owen Bates (currently under construction), will be our first Rushmore Academy blog.
We are also still offering Google Mail accounts @ yankeeracers.org. E-mail the above e-mail address with your request.
Update: Is anyone good at making Wordpress themes? I am not, apparently. E-mail me.
From reader Michael:
Ahoy,
I randomly stumbled across this just now, not sure if you’ve seen it…
I’m submitting this because a) I hadn’t seen it before, and I’d up until now been fairly certain I’d read literally every interview Anderson conducted in promoting Darjeeling, and b) I’ve been visiting your website at least once a day since I found it, which was some time a few months before Darjeeling was released.
Here’s the pertinent bit for your convenience:
“Noah [Baumbach] and I started working on a…story for a movie without really realizing we were doing it. It wasn’t ‘The Life Aquatic.’ It was something else that we haven’t even finished writing. Whenever we would go to dinner or something, we’d just start making up scenes for this thing and then we just started writing them down because [we realized] that we’ve got a lot of stuff now.”
Best, and thanks for all the work. It’s a great site, and I appreciate the good writing.
Tally-ho! And, thanks!
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.
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