The Darjeeling Limited: A Journey With Wes Anderson

"What I'd had in mind was to work in India, and before that, three brothers on a train." Director Wes Anderson describes the creative genesis of his latest feature, The Darjeeling Limited, with disarming simplicity. Whilst certainly, at its most basic level, the tale "of three brothers on a train", there's much more to it than that, as you would expect from a filmmaker proclaimed by some to be the next Martin Scorsese, and certainly one of the most fascinating and exciting American writer-directors. Filmed on location in Northwest India, Adrien Brody and Jason Schwartzman star as brothers Peter and Jack Whitman, summoned to the sub-continent by eldest brother Francis, played by Anderson stalwart Owen Wilson. Having not spoken to each other since their father's funeral a year previously, the three siblings find themselves sharing a cramped compartment on the eponymous train, struggling to both adapt to each other's company and understand Francis' real reasons for such a peculiar family gathering.

Perhaps unsurprisingly for a director whose CV includes quirky titles such as The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, Anderson's latest project experienced a somewhat unconventional journey to the big-screen. Co-written by Anderson, Schwartzman and also Roman Coppola, the story found its origins in Anderson's experiences on his first trip to India. The three friends then made their own journey into the sub-continent, deciding to stay until the screenplay was complete. "[The story] is filled with all our personal experiences," Anderson explains, shortly before the film closes the London Film Festival, "We had an idea that we wanted to make a very personal movie. Practically everything in it is something that happened to either one of us, or someone we know." Writing as they travelled, they went further, actually acting out scenes in public places, that often ended up being used as the actual shoot-locations. It was a method that Schwartzman clearly found a liberating experience. "We'd be walking down the street," he says enthusiastically, "and if we had a scene that took place in a temple we would take out our scripts if we happened to be in front of a temple, and we would act out the scenes. We would see what worked and what didn't work." Anderson smiles as he remembers the crowds gathering to watch three American tourists role-playing in the open. "Without realising it you're surrounded by ten Indian men," he says, "[They're] looking at the script too, trying to make sense of it all, and giving their two cents about it."

Anderson insisted on shooting on a real train for the scenes onboard The Darjeeling itself. The production acquired ten carriages and an engine, and created interiors that fused several different East-West designs. To top it all off, the train ran on live track throughout the three-month shoot. Co-star Adrien Brody thoroughly enjoyed the experience. "The most exciting aspect of that was that it was real," he says in his calm, considered tones, "I think that as an actor your objective is to connect as much as you can to not only your character's emotions, but the environment, and oftentimes in film, the actual environment is very different than what the character is supposedly going through." He adds, "In this case, [Wes] created a very authentic and inspirational environment." Anderson also points out that the train presented "a very intimate working environment" that contrasted sharply with scenes shot amongst crowds of people in the towns and train-stations. As he observed, the train station "was absolutely overwhelmed with people, and [in] the train compartment there's not room for the sound-man!" In these circumstances it's perhaps just as well that family dysfunction, Anderson's speciality, remained firmly in the pages of the screenplay, and the reality on-set was a far more amiable affair. As Brody notes, "I think the fact that we were all in such an exotic location, and we were all on such an adventure, it created a real sense of family and closeness."

In true Anderson style, the story itself has an abundance of subtle character quirks that suggest each character's emotional baggage. From Francis' recent brush with death in a mysterious motorcyle accident (his head is bandaged throughout the film), through Peter clinging onto items belonging to their late father, to Jack scrawling short, ostensibly fictional stories of sibling rivalry and relationship woes. Despite having the opportunity to present rich back-stories throughout the film, the writing team resisted the temptation to deliver too much detail. "We wanted a movie that was a bit more mysterious, that was more sparse, and would imply more than say more," Schwartzman explains, "The audience could make up their own mind about things, and create their own back-story for a lot of what they were seeing." The result is eccentricity, peculiarity and quirky humour, all of which will be familiar to Anderson's fans, and should, if there's any justice, win him some more.

Click here for a full review of the film. This article can also be read at reviews website The Smell of Napalm.