Comments on: Wes Anderson Goes to India; I Stay Home

By: db

db — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 11:07:05 +0000

32 maybe she was crying b/c he was able to get off the train and she wasn’t! she was trapped there, and had expressed the desire in an early scene of needing to get off of the train.

yes, yes, i know am a little late in the game here but i just saw the movie and recall this post, but did not pay attention b/c i had not yet seen the movie….

By: db

db — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 11:03:02 +0000

just saw this movie…and thoroughly enjoyed it! more so for the relationship between the 3 brothers. you folks with siblings will be able to appreciate the nuances of sibling relationships… also enjoyed the indian background as well…the especially thorough walk through the 3rd class compartments to a/c, first class, sleeper car… v. good movie.

By: CC

CC — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:48:14 +0000

Ardy – I agree with you 100% re: The River. I had the same experience – saw it at MoMA with a white friend, who was waxing poetic over it while I was laughing at how awful it was.

Puregold – I have to say, I didn’t see that situation that way at all, but I guess I can see how one would. I thought she was crying because she had broken up with her boyfriend. I actually cringed when it first became clear that they were going to hook up, but I liked that 1) her character had some real depth and 2) she seemed to exert some control over the situation, instead of just being a stereotypical docile Asian woman who gets used by the white tourist guy. She was using him to get over someone just as much as he was using her. She owned her decisions and her sexuality and I thought she was great.

I read the feminist article and I think the author makes some really good points. But I just felt that the film was a story being told from the perspective of the brothers, who are in serious introverted/soul-searching mode. It didn’t seem like it would make much sense for the peripheral characters to play a major role if the main storyline was about their familial relationships. And he’s writing from a place that he knows – the world of the white guy traveling in India. As an Indian person, I was satisfied with his portrayal of India – not overly reverential, not cheesy, not stereotypical, not racist – it just felt honest. And we don’t have to love his POV but it’s his POV and he’s entitled to it.

Anyway, thanks for posting about the film! I personally loved it.

By: Zen

Zen — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 20:22:14 +0000

I am a sucker for Wes Anderson movies - about the only movies where Luke Wilson actually has some sort of a personality instead of being the bland boyfriend of some big heroine.

Good point Pravin.

How can mainstream Hollywood let a jawline like that go to waste?

By: puregold

puregold — Fri, 12 Oct 2007 15:29:15 +0000

cool, thanks!

By: nala

nala — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 07:43:29 +0000

Here's a feminist perspective on how Wes Anderson always objectifies/exoticizes nonwhite women in his films.

By: puregold

puregold — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 07:39:47 +0000

Ok, a little late in the game here but hope I get a response. Was anyone else particularly affected by the Schwartzman/Amara situation? My heart almost broke in half when they did their thing in the bathroom the first time. I was ecstatic when she rejected him the second time (i actually did a fist pump and said “yess”, before realizing i was in a crowded theater and slinked back in my chair). I’m not sure what i felt when she was crying in the end. I thought Amara Karan’s character was absolutely gorgeous and had this air of dignity about her and strength. It wasn’t that she was having sex that bothered me. It was that she was having sex with a goofy, pathetic white guy with no particularly noteworthy qualities. That an absolutely normal white guy (in fact, a goofy, pathetic white guy), who probably couldn’t get a beautiful white girl (mr. rushmore), could get a beautiful, strong, dignified indian girl just by virtue of being white and that a “smart” director like Wes Anderson knows this but isn’t particularly bothered by it nor really considers it something that he has to worry that others would be bothered by because society is so messed up and just needed to use her as a tool for Schwartzman’s obnoxious euro-centric character and Amara was willing to play that role. I felt better with her reaction when he came around the second time, because it revealed that maybe this wasn’t the case. Maybe it was her circumstance, being trapped on a train, that made her desperate and then she came to her senses. But then she started crying at the end when he left, and so i feel like it all depends on this one question. Why was she crying?

By: Ravi the Lurker

Ravi the Lurker — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:34:34 +0000

So I did see “Darjeeling Ltd” last night and I did enjoy it. India seems to be more of a standard setting and did not seem exotified. The story was told well, in Anderson’s quirky way. I do recommend seeing it.

By: UPS

UPS — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 16:32:34 +0000

If the bar is Ray and Renoir, almost no director today would come close.

By: ylrsings

ylrsings — Sun, 30 Sep 2007 07:35:01 +0000

Rushmore is my favorite movie of all time, and Wes Anderson is a genius. I love every single one of his films and actually clapped and screamed when I heard he filmed his latest in the motherland. Incidentally, my cousin saw that lovely wilson boy in a cafe in Rajasthan while the movie was being filmed.

I seriously cannot wait. I LOVE anything by this director and all the details in his films are unbelievable.