2007 film by Wes Anderson
The Darjeeling Limited
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![](//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/1/1e/Darjeeling_Limited_Poster.jpg/220px-Darjeeling_Limited_Poster.jpg) Theatrical release poster
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Directed by
| Wes Anderson
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Written by
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Produced by
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Starring
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Cinematography
| Robert Yeoman
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Edited by
| Andrew Weisblum
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Production
companies
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Distributed by
| Fox Searchlight Pictures
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Release dates
|
- September 3, 2007
(
2007-09-03
)
(
Venice
)
- September 29, 2007
(
2007-09-29
)
(United States)
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Running time
| 91 minutes
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Country
| United States
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Language
| English
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Budget
| $17.5 million
[1]
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Box office
| $35.1 million
[2]
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The Darjeeling Limited
is a 2007 American
comedy-drama
film directed by
Wes Anderson
, which he co-produced with
Scott Rudin
,
Roman Coppola
, and
Lydia Dean Pilcher
, and co-wrote with Coppola and
Jason Schwartzman
. The film stars
Owen Wilson
,
Adrien Brody
, and Schwartzman as three estranged brothers who agree to meet in
India
a year after their father's funeral for a "spiritual journey" aboard a
luxury train
. The cast also includes
Waris Ahluwalia
,
Amara Karan
,
Wallace Wolodarsky
,
Barbet Schroeder
, and
Anjelica Huston
, with
Natalie Portman
,
Camilla Rutherford
,
Irrfan Khan
, and
Bill Murray
in
cameo roles
.
The film was released on September 29, 2007, by
Fox Searchlight Pictures
. The film received generally favorable reviews from critics and earned $35 million on a $17.5 million budget.
[1]
The film premiered at the
64th Venice International Film Festival
in competition for the
Golden Lion
and was named among the Top Films of the Year at the 2007
NYFCO Awards
.
Anderson's
Hotel Chevalier
,
starring Schwartzman and Portman, acts as a
prologue
to the film.
Plot
[
edit
]
In
India
, a businessman fails to catch his train, "The
Darjeeling
Limited
," as it pulls out of a station; he is beaten to it by a younger man, Peter Whitman. Peter reunites with his brothers Francis and Jack on board, the three having not seen each other since their father's funeral a year earlier.
Francis, the oldest, has recently survived a near-fatal
motorcycle
accident, leaving his face and head covered in bandages, and wishes to reconcile with his brothers on a journey of spiritual self-discovery. He is also covertly searching for their mother Patricia, whom the brothers have not seen in many years. With the help of his assistant, Brendan, Francis draws up a strict itinerary for the trip and confiscates his brothers' passports to prevent them from getting off the train too early. The brothers also continue to grieve over their father's death: all three carry many items of luggage marked with his initials, along with other personal items that belonged to him.
The train takes the brothers through the countryside and to various
Hindu
and
Sikh
temples though tension builds as Peter and Jack become infuriated with Francis' controlling behavior. Francis eventually reveals that they will be meeting with their mother, who has become a
nun
living at a
Christian
convent
in the
Himalayas
. Peter and Jack are angry; Francis knows they would not have come if they had been told this earlier. The atmosphere finally comes to a head, and the brothers have a physical altercation on the train, distressing the other passengers. The Chief Steward, whom the brothers have repeatedly wronged throughout the journey, has them thrown off with all their luggage. Brendan subsequently quits and returns to the train after giving the brothers a letter from their mother; its contents imply that she does not want to see them. The brothers decide to leave India, go their separate ways, and never return.
After hiking through the wilderness, the brothers see three young boys fall into a
river
while attempting to pull a raft across it. Jack and Francis rescue two of the boys, but Peter fails to save the third, who dies. They carry the body back to the boys' village, where they spend the night and are treated kindly. They attend the funeral the next day and experience a
flashback
detailing the day of their father’s funeral. Along with Alice, Peter's wife, the brothers stop to pick up their father's
Porsche
from a repair shop on their way to the funeral. When the mechanic tells them it is missing a part and the battery is dead, Peter frantically tries to get it moving, though Francis and Jack are against this. After a confrontation with a truck driver, Peter agrees to give up, and the three drive to the funeral in the car they arrived in. It is revealed that their father died from being hit by a taxi, and that their mother did not attend the funeral.
Back in the present, the brothers arrive at the airport, but they suddenly decide to rip up their tickets and go visit their mother. They reach the convent, where their mother Patricia is surprised but overjoyed to see them, and Francis coyly admits that his accident was actually a
suicide attempt
. That night, after the brothers confront Patricia for abandoning them, the family gathers together in silence, and reconnects in love. The brothers awake the next morning to find their mother gone, leaving them their breakfast. They decide not to wait for her to return and leave.
At the train station, the brothers run for another train, the "
Bengal Lancer
," and gleefully discard all their father's suitcases and bags to catch it. On board, Francis offers to return Peter and Jack their passports, but is told instead to hold onto them. Francis says, "Let's go get a drink, and smoke a cigarette," and the brothers leave their compartment.
Cast
[
edit
]
Locations
[
edit
]
Much of the film was shot in
Jodhpur
,
Rajasthan
. The Himalaya scenes were shot in
Udaipur
, and the opening scene of the film was also shot on the streets of Jodhpur. The International Airport shown near the end is the old terminal building of
Udaipur Airport
. The hill featured at the end of the movie is Elephant Hill,
Narlai
. The scenes set in New York were filmed in
Long Island City
.
Music and soundtrack
[
edit
]
The soundtrack features three songs by
The Kinks
, "Powerman," "
Strangers
," and "
This Time Tomorrow
," all from the 1970 album,
Lola Versus Powerman and the Moneygoround, Part One
,
as well as "
Play With Fire
" by
The Rolling Stones
. "
Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)
" by
Peter Sarstedt
is prominently featured as well, being played within the film more than once. Most of the album, however, features
film score
music composed by
Bengali
filmmaker
Satyajit Ray
,
Merchant Ivory
films, and other artists from
Indian cinema
. Director Wes Anderson has said that it was Satyajit Ray's movies that made him want to come to India.
[3]
The works include "Charu's Theme," from Ray's 1964 film
Charulata
,
film-score cues by
Shankar Jaikishan
and classic works by
Debussy
and
Beethoven
. The film ends with the 1969 song "
Les Champs-Elysees
" by French singer
Joe Dassin
, who was the son of blacklisted American director
Jules Dassin
.
Release
[
edit
]
The Darjeeling Limited
made its world premiere on 3 September 2007 at the
Venice Film Festival
, where it was in competition for the
Golden Lion
and won the Little Golden Lion. The film's North American premiere was on 28 September 2007 at the 45th annual
New York Film Festival
, where it was the opening film.
[4]
It then opened in a limited commercial release in North America on 5 October 2007.
[5]
[6]
The film opened across
North America
on 26 October 2007 and in the
UK
on 23 November 2007, in both territories preceded in showings by
Hotel Chevalier
.
The film grossed $134,938 in two theaters in its opening weekend, for an average of $67,469 for each theater.
[7]
The film was released on DVD on 26 February 2008, and re-released by the
Criterion Collection
on 12 October 2010 on both
DVD
and
Blu-ray
.
Reception
[
edit
]
The film received generally favorable reviews from critics. As of September 2021
[update]
, on the review aggregator
Rotten Tomatoes
, 69% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 193 reviews, with a
weighted average
of 6.70/10. The site's consensus reads: "With the requisite combination of humor, sorrow, and outstanding visuals,
The Darjeeling Limited
will satisfy Wes Anderson fans."
[8]
On
Metacritic
, the film had an average score of 67 out of 100, based on 35 reviews.
[9]
The film has a rating of 7.2 out of 10 on the
Internet Movie Database
.
Roger Ebert
of the
Chicago Sun-Times
gave 3.5 out of 4, calling the film's Indian context as one of its main highlights. Ebert singled out Anderson's script, which, according to Ebert, "uses India not in a touristy way, but as a backdrop that is very, very there."
[10]
Chris Cabin of Filmcritic.com gave the film 4 stars out of 5 and described Anderson's film as "the auteur's best work to date."
[11]
Entertainment Weekly
film critic Lisa Schwarzbaum gave the film a "B+" and said "this is psychological as well as stylistic familiar territory for Anderson after
Rushmore
and
The Royal Tenenbaums
.
But there's a startling new maturity in
Darjeeling,
a compassion for the larger world that busts the confines of the filmmaker's miniaturist instincts."
[12]
A.O. Scott of
The New York Times
said that the film "is unstintingly fussy, vain and self-regarding. But it is also a treasure: an odd, flawed, but nonetheless beautifully handmade object as apt to win affection as to provoke annoyance. You might say that it has sentimental value."
[13]
Timothy Knight of Reel.com gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and said "Although
The Darjeeling Limited
pales in comparison to Anderson's best film,
Rushmore
(1998), it's still a vast improvement over his last, and worst film,
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou
(2004)."
[14]
Nathan Lee of
The Village Voice
wrote "A companion piece to
Tenenbaums
more than a step in new directions,
Darjeeling
is a movie about people trapped in themselves and what it takes to get a movie, quite literally, about letting go of your baggage."
[15]
The Christian Science Monitor
critic Peter Rainer said "Wes Anderson doesn't make movies like anybody else, which is sometimes a good thing and sometimes not. His latest,
The Darjeeling Limited,
combines what's best and worst about him."
[16]
New York Magazine
critic David Edelstein said that the film is "hit and miss, but its tone of lyric melancholy is remarkably sustained."
[17]
Nick Schager of
Slant Magazine
gave the film 2 stars out of 4 and said "the ingredients that have increasingly defined Wes Anderson's films...seem, with
The Darjeeling Limited,
to have become something like limitations."
[18]
Emanuel Levy
gave the film a "C" and said "Going to India and collaborating with two new writers do little to invigorate or reenergize director Wes Anderson in
The Darjeeling Limited,
because he imposes the same themes, self-conscious approach, and serio-comic sensibility of his previous films on the new one, confining his three lost brothers not only within his limited world, but also within a limited space, a train compartment." Levy also said "after reaching a nadir with his last feature, the $50 million folly
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou,
which was an artistic and commercial flop, Anderson could only go upward."
[19]
Dana Stevens
of
Slate
magazine
wrote, "Maybe Anderson needs to shoot someone else's screenplay, to get outside his own head for a while and into another's sensibility. It's telling that his funniest and liveliest recent work was a commercial for
American Express
."
[20]
Glenn Kenny of
Premiere
named it the fifth best film of 2007,
[21]
and Mike Russell of
The Oregonian
named it the eighth best film of 2007.
[21]
Awards and nominations
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
"A conversation with director Wes Anderson"
(
Charlie Rose
interview (10 minutes+)). October 26, 2007. Archived from
the original
on October 27, 2007.
- ^
"
The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
"
.
Box Office Mojo
.
IMDb
. Retrieved
June 28,
2023
.
- ^
Karin Badt (26 September 2007).
"A Conversation With Director Wes Anderson"
.
The Huffington Post
.
Archived
from the original on 2008-06-10
. Retrieved
2009-05-25
.
- ^
"Opening night"
.
The New York Film Festival - Film Society of Lincoln Center
.
Archived
from the original on 2007-11-07
. Retrieved
2007-09-30
.
- ^
Brooks, Brian (June 2007).
"NYFF 2007 | Wes Anderson's "Darjeeling" to Open 45th New York Film Festival, Coen's "Country" In Centerpiece Slot"
. indieWIRE. Archived from
the original
on 2007-08-09
. Retrieved
2007-08-27
.
- ^
Bain, Mia (July 2007).
"Movies by De Palma, Haggis and Ang Lee in competition at Venice film fest"
.
International Herald Tribune
.
Archived
from the original on 2009-03-08
. Retrieved
2007-07-26
.
- ^
"The Darjeeling Limited (2007) - Weekend Box Office"
.
Box Office Mojo
.
Archived
from the original on 2009-03-07
. Retrieved
2007-09-30
.
- ^
"The Darjeeling Limited - Rotten Tomatoes"
.
Rotten Tomatoes
.
Archived
from the original on July 27, 2021
. Retrieved
September 11,
2021
.
- ^
"Darjeeling Limited, The (2007): Reviews"
.
Metacritic
. Archived from
the original
on 2008-12-07
. Retrieved
2008-11-27
.
- ^
Ebert, Roger
(2007-10-04).
"THE DARJEELING LIMITED"
.
Chicago Sun-Times
.
Archived
from the original on 2014-10-28
. Retrieved
2014-10-28
.
- ^
Chris Cabin.
"The Darjeeling Limited Movie Review, DVD Release - Filmcritic.com"
. Filmcritic.com. Archived from
the original
on 2007-10-05
. Retrieved
2007-09-30
.
- ^
Lisa Schwarzbaum (2007-09-26).
"The Darjeeling Limited"
.
Entertainment Weekly
.
Archived
from the original on 2007-10-02
. Retrieved
2007-09-30
.
- ^
A.O. Scott (2007-09-28).
"The Darjeeling Limited - Movie - Review - New York Times"
.
The New York Times
.
Archived
from the original on 2009-03-07
. Retrieved
2007-09-30
.
- ^
Timothy Knight.
"The Darjeeling Limited (2007)"
. Reel.com. Archived from
the original
on 2007-10-11
. Retrieved
2007-09-30
.
- ^
Nathan Lee (2007-09-25).
"Strangers on a Train"
.
The Village Voice
.
Archived
from the original on 2007-10-11
. Retrieved
2007-09-30
.
- ^
Peter Rainer (2007-09-28).
"
'Darjeeling' of 'limited' appeal"
.
The Christian Science Monitor
.
Archived
from the original on 2007-12-31
. Retrieved
2007-09-30
.
- ^
David Edelstein.
"The Darjeeling Limited"
.
New York Magazine
.
Archived
from the original on 2007-10-13
. Retrieved
2007-09-30
.
- ^
Nick Schager (2007-09-20).
"The Darjeeling Limited"
.
Slant Magazine
.
Archived
from the original on 2007-10-12
. Retrieved
2007-09-30
.
- ^
Emanuel Levy.
"Film Review - Darjeeling Limited, The"
. EmanuelLevy.com.
Archived
from the original on 2007-11-21
. Retrieved
2007-09-30
.
- ^
Dana Stevens (2007-09-27).
"Twee Time"
.
Slate
.
Archived
from the original on 2007-10-02
. Retrieved
2007-09-30
.
- ^
a
b
"Metacritic: 2007 Film Critic Top Ten Lists"
.
Metacritic
. Archived from
the original
on 2008-01-02
. Retrieved
2008-01-05
.
External links
[
edit
]
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Written
and directed
| Feature films
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Short films
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Produced only
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Related
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