Darjeeling Limited: The Prequel

For those of us who aren’t within range of the limited release of the new Wes Anderson film, Darjeeling Limited, Wes has been kind enough to put together a 13-minute “prequel” called Hotel Chevalier for us.  It’s available as a free download from iTunes, and should be up on YouTube in a day or two (depending on the ability of 20th Century Fox’s lawyers to stop time).

The film has a lot going for it: a wonderfully cluttered set design, some really funny, biting dialogue, a sense of longing and regret that harkens back to The Royal Tenenbaums, and Natalie Portman’s butt. 

I’m not in love with the song that’s playing throughout the film, Peter Sarstedt’s “Where Do You Go To My Lovely,” which is over-written and under-clever.  Natalie Portman’s character asks, “What is this music?”  when she first hears it, which is funny, but doesn’t do much to justify the song’s existence in the film.  It certainly isn’t interesting or evocative enough as a song to carry an entire scene by itself, the way Nico’s “These Days” does in The Royal Tenenbaums.