The Darjeeling Limited

Recently, in class we have had screenings of Wes Anderson's short film Hotel Chevalier and the subsequent feature film The Darjeeling Limited.

I agree that these films tackle, throughout, the theme of dislocation. The Darjeeling Limited is a story following three brothers who haven't seen one-another since the funeral of their father. They embark on a journey to reassemble the relationships they had with each other as children, and to confront and reconnect with their mother who had not attended the funeral. Before the journey begins it could be said that each brother was dislocated from (a broken) home in reaction to his father's death. The brothers are then in turn, each seeking to mourn separately and in various different ways, dislocated from the remains of their family unit ie. each other.

Owen Wilson's character, then, by inviting his two brothers on a carefully planned journey of exploration and awakening, dislocates them from their own individual hiding places.

The theme really materialises when, at one point in their long and poorly organised trip, the train on which they travel becomes lost. Of course this is intended to represent each of the brothers' feelings of separation and dislocation and it is a very effective metaphor.

It was only in the last year or two that I stumbled across Wes Anderson's work, although several of his titles rang a bell when they were brought up. The first film of his that I saw was his 1996 feature Bottle Rocket. Since then I have been gradually ticking off every piece of his work that I can, and I look forward to going to see his next film, The Grand Budapest Hotel later this year.