What happened to your (type)face?
could it be i’ve fallen out of love with wes anderson movies? i took a much-anticipated look at The Darjeeling Limited’s trailer and was disheartened to find myself not as cinematically erect as i thought i would be. i’m thinking i’m no longer impressed by the oeuvre he’s created. the color palette no longer seems novel, the planimetric composition no longer pops, the highly visible character quirks no longer tickle. i had a bubble burst earlier this year when i watched truffaut’s “Day for Night” for the first time and found the dna of anderson’s Amex commercial, unabashed. now i wonder whether the juice is all gone.
mostly, i think it’s that his previous films have given me characters that i’ve felt i might come across by chance in my own life, whose idiosyncracies i might notice and adore. The Darjeeling Limited seems to be giving me characters i will never meet and if i were to meet them, there’s no chance they would like me, nor i them. and these characters get to traipse through the world of a wes anderson movie. and they seem to be stinking it up, or stripping it of its sacred meaning.
alternately, i’m open to the idea that all this self-expression i’m becoming accustomed to as of late (thanks, tumblr!) puts me in no mood for appreciation of The New Sincerity. a wes anderson movie has always been like a cat stevens song - to be enjoyed to ones’ self with a cup of tea on a rainy afternoon. i hope i’m as wrong as that last sentence was fay.
ps - note the last frame above: featuring music from the films of SATYAJIT RAY. does this strike anyone else as a bit of an obvious reach?
