October 12, 2007

NYFF podcast. The Darjeeling Limited.

This last podcast from the New York Film Festival brings us full circle. Andrew Grant and Aaron Hillis talk with Armond White of the New York Press about the film that opened the festival, Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited (site). Also discussed: The Views from the Avant-Garde sidebar. To download or listen, click here.

The Darjeeling Limited

Earlier: NYFF previews and reviews and the first round of reactions from Venice.

Entries on a slew of other films that have screened at the festival will be spilling out over the weekend.

Updated through 10/14.

Updates, 10/13: "[I]t's really just a mess," writes Nick Pinkerton at Stop Smiling. "But Anderson deserves a discriminating moviegoer's forbearance. If you're the sort of person who's unafraid to use the phrase 'film art' in mixed company, you should be invested in what he's doing: situating himself with such a respectful, knowing relationship to world film history, announcing his own desire to add to it - who else is privileged to skip the posterity waiting-list at Criterion? - he gives hope, in an age of enervated expectation, that that history isn't over just yet, and that something is happening around him.... Being faintly disappointed by a new Wes Anderson film - films whose primary form of emotional address, after all, is faint disappointment - remains one of the few consistent pleasures of American moviegoing."

"So does it work?" asks Brandon Harris. "For the most part, yes.... Mr Anderson once again tries to have his cake and eat to, and I for one, loved the frosting."

"By now, you know exactly what to expect, which is both good and bad," writes the Oregonian's Shawn Levy.

Update, 10/14: "As a movie, The Darjeeling Limited... is a grating, crushing failure," writes Christopher Kelly in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "But it also features the best and bravest acting [Owen] Wilson has ever done - a performance that might just point the way forward for this troubled soul, both professionally and personally." Via Movie City News.

Posted by dwhudson at October 12, 2007 4:16 PM

Comments

Allow me to express--I presume for many--how much I have enjoyed these podcasts Greencine has solicited from Andrew and Aaron. This particular podcast on Anderson struck a vibe, I guess, for having recently interviewed him. I was pleased to hear White praise his artistic sensibility and to remind that an artistic sensibility and personal creative expression is not necessarily the same thing as coming up with a new product every year to satisfy the bored tastes of consumers. Perhaps, with any luck at all, consumers can recognize themselves, bored or not.

I can also say that I am very relieved that I mentioned Ray and Renoir when speaking with Wes. For me this seemed obvious. I agree 100% that audiences inured to nihilism will neither recognizer nor appreciate humanistic behavior.

Thanks again to you, Andrew, Aaron and their guests for offering up this alternative way to cover a festival; though, at the same time, I state quite firmly that I still prefer print. Rob Davis may assert that the eye is the past and the ear is the future; but, I say no. When a person reads, they also read into, text. That same text can be limited by the cadence of voiced opinion. But I'm an old guy, just turning 54, not looking one day over 53.

Posted by: Maya at October 12, 2007 5:40 PM

Man - is there anyone more enjoyable to disagree with than Armond White? It's even better when he's voicing his opinions aloud.

Posted by: David Lowery at October 12, 2007 11:47 PM

I've always secretly wondered if Armond White is a real person or some elaborate joke. I can't read one of his reviews decrying some film that actually has it's own style while touting Transformers the movie or whatever as a piece of important art without LOL'ing.

Posted by: Wiley Wiggins at October 13, 2007 2:46 PM

As a writer, I should probably clarify that I was kidding about the ear's dominance over the eye. However, I continue to claim that it's got something over the little toe, and I cannot be moved from this position.

Posted by: davis at October 13, 2007 2:59 PM

Armond White is a real person. I once went to a lecture he gave about music videos a number of years ago, just so I could write a negative review and submit it to NYPress.

Posted by: at October 13, 2007 5:25 PM

Ears, eyes, little toes... all valid ways to explore film, and its good to have more than one option on GreenCine Daily. I would also like to chime in in thanking Andrew and Aaron for the podcasts, they've been fun, although I've resisted listening to this latest because I haven't seen the film, and I've already learnt far too much. Would like to come back after I have though.

Regarding Michael's text over voice point. Just as with text there is much you can 'read into' a voice. The two As interestingly used their p'casts as a way of letting us hear journalists who we usually only read on the page, thus allowing us to get a brief flavour of how they think in 'real-time', how they articulate, and what their personalities are, long before the manipulations and filters of writing and editing come crashing down. I think that was pretty illuminating myself.

Posted by: ben Slater at October 13, 2007 6:58 PM

Whereas I am beginning to think that I am a link in some evolutionary scheme as I can say--with just a tinge of horror--that I cannot move my little toes at all.

Perhaps Paste would like to conduct a podcast on the future of extremities?

Posted by: Maya at October 13, 2007 11:05 PM