Hotel Chevalier

Hotel Chevalier quickly charts the fallout of a complicated relationship in stylish and thoughtful fashion, it's absolutely not essential viewing for the Darjeeling Limited itself but has enough substance to match the gorgeous style making it a worthy addition.

Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman are great, in very limited screen time they establish a fiery chemistry with an engaging back and forth as they debate the future of their relationship, helped by dialogue that communicates so much with so few words.

Wes Anderson's direction is as flawless as ever. Its beautifully saturated and yellow in particular has rarely been this prominent or this good looking. All of the luscious visuals are complimented by his almost uncanny ability for perfectly timed needle drops.

Modern filmmakers seem to scorn the smaller canvas of the short film, which is a shame because beautiful things can be drawn in small, vivid detail. Some films simply don't warrant a feature, as The Darjeeling Limited exemplifies.

Hotel Chevalier is a prelude to that film, and it largely works because Anderson lays bare feelings that remain inscrutable, allows to blossom a sense of history and time past between the two lovers. In their small, intimate moments in a hotel room, I get the sense of a time that extends back and forward, that these people loved, were hurt or excited, elsewhere, in some other time, and this snapshot is all that remains.

This is memory, a sense of place and time. The flow of life suspended for a brief moment, where lives entire can fit.

Watching this also reminds me how much Anderson's original style, a subject of much celebration among his fans, is in fact Aki Kaurismaki.

Really a beautiful short piece of enticement, with tone and sight and sound and dialogue all letting you know that there's a story here, while only hinting at the many things that story might be. And it captures a particular feel that lets you in on the situation kind of like a good short story in a book does.

The way the whole thing looks, and the way the action comes across, are pure Wes Anderson at his best. Deadpan. Melancholy. Hurtfully truthful-feeling.

You know they say there used to be shorts before all the movies when you saw 'em in the theatre. Now we get a string of commercials bigger, louder, and stupider than on TV. It would be so cool if more top notch film-makers like these made more stuff like this. Viva Short Film.

And Thank You Especially, Miss Portman, for getting behind in your work.

Your talent and beauty are in a neck and neck race for first place in many hearts like my own.

I'll be there for "Darjeeling Ltd" the day it opens.

Jack Whitman (Jason Schwartzman) is alone in a comfortable European hotel room. He gets a call from a woman (Natalie Portman) who insists on joining him. She tells him that she doesn't want to lose his friendship but he tells her that he will never be her friend. They make love and afterward, they go out on the balcony.

Director Wes Anderson makes this short as a prologue to 'The Darjeeling Limited'. I love Wes Anderson but Darjeeling is not one of my favorites. This short definitely has the Wes Anderson touch. Schwartzman and Portman are fine. They're not doing anything really deep but there are snippets of interesting insights into their relationship. The one thing I love above it all is the song 'Where Do You Go To (My Lovely)'. It's classic Wes Anderson.

This was a beautiful little film that that plays out like one Truffaut's Antoine Donielle films. Not only is it the perfect prequel to (the wonderful) "The Darjeeling Limited", but it is a self-contained simple and moving story.

This whole "New Wave" feeling is a departure from Wes Anderson's usually theatrical and highly-stylized film making. It suits him well. Don't get me wrong, Rushmore is one of my favorite films and the Royal Tannenbaums is fantastic, but I am really digging this new naturalistic style Anderson is applying to his new films and cannot wait to see what he does next.

Shwartzman is a wonderful actor who never ceases to entertain. and Natalie Portman gives honest and touching performance.