Main pic, from left to right: Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman play brothers in The Darjeeling Limited, which also stars Anjelica Huston, pictured in centre image
‘THE IDEA WAS TO GO TO INDIA AND GET INTO TROUBLE AND MAKE
A MOVIE ABOUT IT'
experiences to flesh out the bare bones scenario — brothers. train. India — which Anderson had dreamed up. For Schwart/man. making The Darjeeling Limited was an unexpected delight from start to finish. 'I was working on .llarie slmaiiietre.‘ Schwart/man says. referring to the funky history romp made by his other cousin. Sofia Coppola. ‘and Wes was on a press tour for The Lite .‘lqllllllt' and it ended in Paris. I said. “If you want to stay and sightsee I‘ve got a room you can stay in." And he ended up living with me for three months.
‘Iiveiy night after I got home from work Wes would come walk my dog with me.‘ continues Schwart/man. beginning an anecdote that swiftly starts to sound like a scene from one of Anderson‘s films. ‘Our conversations would eventually turn to telling stories and advice giving. and Wes would whip out this little notepad and start writing it down. After about
three weeks of walking the dog he said to me. “I think we should bring Roman in on this." I had no idea what "this" was. I thought Wes meant walking the dog. I w asn't sure why he wanted Roman to come walk the dog as well. So I said. “In on w hat?" .-\nd Wes said. "In on this movie we're w riting." I said. “Really‘.’ We're writing a movie together.’ I didn‘t know that." And Wes said. “I want to write a moin with you and Roman and I want it to be about these three brothers on a train in India and I want it to be the most personal script we can write. I want to base it only on real things that have happened in our lives. And I want the writing to be an adventure for tis. I want Us to go to India and get into trouble and make a movie about it.”
Scliw'art/man quickly embraced the spirit of
the enterprise. He says. 'It was decided that all three of Us would go to India to complete the script and not come back until we had finished it. We all got open-ended tickets and went to India. and there we not only researched and wrote our script but also acted out what we had written. For example. if we were walking down a street and we came to a temple we would take out our scripts and act otit a scene and see what worked and what didn‘t.‘
‘Now. in India you get stared at a lot. whether you’re acting out a scene from a film or not.‘ continues Schwart/man with a grin. ‘()ften we’d look up and find we were surrounded by ten Indian men who were all looking at the script with Us and trying to make sense of it all and put in their two cents about it. It was very friendly. Anyway. a lot of these impromptu writing/rehearsal sessions actually became some of the locations we used in the finished film. We also found a lot of the people who appear in the movie on our trip. So the trip. which was five weeks long in the end. solidified a lot of the things we were unsure of in our script and contributed to the making of the film in ways we could never have conceived.
He adds: 'lt was a real culture shock. but it was very exciting. So. yes. we felt like big kids and everyday was an adventure.’
Schwartxman says making The Darjeeling Limited has changed his attitude towards making films in general. He’s got a couple of typically offbeat films in the works — Walk Hard: The Dewey ('ru‘ .S'imjv. a mock music biopic written by Kline/{ml l’p‘s Judd Apatow in which Schwart/man plays Ringo Starr; and The Mare l’eas'e [ix/wrieiree which takes Schwartzman back to the classroom for the first time since Rushmore in a comedy about a former high school musical star who can‘t move on from his youth. And having also made a short film with Anderson. Hotel Chevalier (which is related to and precedes screenings of Darjeeling). Schwart/man has signed up to work with his friend and collaborator for a fourth time which will see him providing a voice for the stop- motion animated Roald Dahl adaptation The fantastic .Ilr 1m.
'It's always changing.‘ Schwartzman says of
his attitude towards making films. ‘but right now my favourite thing is being part of a movie. I love developing a character with a director. but more than anything I love the process of making movies. I like the feeling that we're a little army coming together to do their best to make one perfect thing. That's the spirit of it I love.‘
The Darjeeling Limited is on general release from Fri 23 Nov.
THE DARJEELING LTD
THE TIES THAT BIND
Wes Anderson has made much of the dynamism of the dysfunctional family in his films. Mark Robertson presents some of cinema's other most unconventional families
The Griswolds from National Lampoon's Vacation The farCicaI events of the National Lampoon films are less ab0ut the whole family than the hapless man of the house (Chevy Chasel who manages to unravel when faced With even the most piecemeal of challenges like packing a car. reading a map or explaining why he's in a swunming p00! at night with a naked woman. The Bakers from Sixteen Candles Being 15 is never easy but it's a helluva lot more difficult when yOu're Samantha and y0ur family has forgotten y0ur birthday because of your Sister's wedding. Throw in a dazed exchange student. embarrassmg grandparents and a Iovelorn geeks clumSy advances and you have a reCipe for familial disaster. The Burnhams from American Beauty A three-way tag team of heartbreak and suburban desperation, this trio of misunderstood, misunderstanding rnyopics — the ambitious. undervalued Wife. the browbeaten. zombified husband and the alienated. daughter — are so close but really so far away. It's sad as hell but this makes for great cinema. The Corleones from The Godfather The overbearing father, the stresses on the family ‘busmess'. the questions of legacy. Sibling rivalry, and the pesky problem of being shot at by other trigger happy mob types can get a bit grating.
- ‘ The Skywaikers from Star Wars They COuld have been quite the homely bunch in that galaxy far, far away. Obviously mum. Padme. dying in childbirth, and siblings Luke and Leia almost copping off with each other wasn't great for family bonding, though finding out your dad is Darth Vader, the embodiment of €Vll in the universe. is en0ugh to screw up anyone's reunion plans. The family from The Cement Garden 80 dad dies. mum follows swiftly after and the teenage kids bury her in the house before indulging in a spot of incest. Not exactly mainstream is it? Add to that a baby brother who isn't sure if he's Janet or John and you’ve got a potent recipe for familial chaos.
/ The Sawyers In The
Texas Chainsaw Massacre Three generations of psychotic mass murderers M's... indulge in the family trade. Chasing people, catching them and hacking them up into untidy pieces with industrial agricultural equipment. Grandpa did it. daddy did it. even young Leatherface's doing it too.
‘ 5—29 ‘lc. 27,7 THE LIST 1 1