Family Matters

Talking with Darjeeling Limited's Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola and Jason Schwartzman.

by Shaun Brady

interview

"I felt the two of you had formed into factions and I said, 'Oh, now they're cousins and I'm the outsider.' But neither Jason nor I can remember the cause of that rift. ... "

Crowded together on a couch in the Four Seasons, Wes Anderson is struggling with his Darjeeling Limited co-writer and star Jason Schwartzman to recall the cause of a spat that arose on the day of their visit to the Taj Mahal, with fellow writer and Schwartzman cousin Roman Coppola squeezed in between.

Only Coppola seems to remember what actually started the feud, and he refuses to mention it in front of prying writers — he'll simply say, "You guys had a funny dynamic sometimes."

Whatever the initial source of friction, it seems that Anderson spotted the two cousins taking a photo in front of the Taj, confirming his sense of being the third man out. But all seems to have been forgiven when they called him over to get into the shot, the actual disagreement soon fading from memory, as these things do.

"And that's called friendship," sums up Schwartzman.

Watching the trio interact, co-star Waris Ahluwalia looking silently on, it's easy to believe their claims that Anderson and Schwartzman became like family during the writing process. Tangents like this are frequent (another involves Schwartzman turning an excessive order of tailor-made Indian shirts into merch for his new band, Coconut Record), feeling more like a family gathering than an interview session.

That helps explain the strong sense of sibling relationships that comes through in Darjeeling. According to Schwartzman, "We became brothers when we were writing, so a lot of that love and respect all found its way into the material. Wes said early on, 'I want this to be very personal and I want us to go on an adventure,' and I don't think you can write that kind of movie without that kind of safety."

"We were very conscious as we were writing of wanting to use our personal experience in the story, and using it anyplace we could," adds Anderson. "People ask about the story behind what happens in the movie, but a lot of the stories in the movie tend to be the story."

Still, much of went on in those writing sessions isn't explicitly onscreen, explains Anderson. "We had a lot of material that isn't in the movie, that came from us experimenting with each other and searching for the characters. We always made the choice that if we could omit the explanation of any information, let's omit it, because we liked the idea of the movie being very spare and keeping as much mystery as we could. Anything that didn't strengthen the narrative, we tried to leave that out."

(s_brady@citypaper.net)

The Darjeeling Limited is now playing at Ritz East.