Scene Deconstruction: The Darjeeling Limited

Wes Anderson’s 2007 adventure comedy-drama film The Darjeeling Limited relies on many elements of filmmaking in order to construct sentiment and narrative meaning.

In terms of production design, immediately apparent in this clip is its use of authentic on-location filmmaking. Principal photography, from which this clip of course originates, took place over a number of months in rural India using the country’s run-down train network. This is not often the case with Hollywood feature films that rely in part on set reproductions.

Furthermore, lighting is also used to give a sense of authentic location. Achieved through filters and colour grading, this shot and those of the whole film have an unmistakable warmth to them. In fact, very few ‘white’ elements in the mise en scene are actually balanced in the conventional sense: they are often shades of very light yellow or brown. In addition, Anderson seeks to create a diffused look devoid of hard lighting. Not only is this use of soft diffused light a stylistic characteristic of the acclaimed director, but it is also evocative of the smoggy skies that most people associate with the developing industrial country of India.

Such use of production design to create a sense of authentic location is something I would very much like to replicate in my own project for this studio.

In terms of narrative, this ending scene also holds particular meaning. Mirroring the very first scene of the film, it shows three brothers running to board a train. The brothers have spent the entirety of the film in disunity and spite towards each other. It is only in this last scene that they figuratively and literally ‘lose their prior baggage’ so to speak. Thus Anderson creates a circular narrative that concludes the conflict between the brothers through a visual metaphor.

The importance of this metaphor is also supported by the use of slow motion as an editing technique. Through the use of this slow motion, Anderson prompts the audience to reflect upon this pivotal scene more closely and for a prolonged period of time. This deliberate manipulation of the footage was used for the specific purpose of imbuing the action with solemnity and importance.

In a similar fashion, the camera movement also adds meaning. The extended dolly pan moves with the back of the train. As the actors run after it and then reach it, a distinct sense of progression or advancement can be felt. The literal movement of the camera seems to hint at how this moment in the narrative also contains a movement in sentiment: a movement into a new equilibrium.