It’s been three years since the king of quirk, Wes Anderson, released “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou” to mixed reviews and middling box office. But the New York Film Festival’s selection committee has given his new film, “The Darjeeling Limited,” a major vote of confidence by selecting it as their opening-night film.

In it, three estranged brothers (played by Anderson alums Jason Schwartzman and Owen Wilson, plus Anderson neophyte Adrien Brody) reunite in Jodhpur and embark on a spiritual journey across India aboard the titular train. Plans get derailed, however, when a chain of events leaves them stranded in the middle of the desert with nothing but baggage—emotional or otherwise.

Anderson, Schwartzman, Brody and co-writer Roman Coppola were on hand at the festival to chat about the film, sans a conspicuously absent Wilson. Turns out, the director’s fantasia on brotherly dysfunction had twists even a Sufi guru couldn’t foresee. Here are a few things we found out.


That’s no set built in Burbank.

After his experience shooting “Life Aquatic” on Cinécitta’s legendary soundstages in Italy, Anderson was ready to make a smaller movie with a more intimate cast and crew. During shooting, the “Darjeeling” team lived in the same hotel in Jodhpur, and much of the movie was filmed on a real working, moving train, as well as in the villages of the Rajasthan desert. As Schwartzman, who also worked on the script with Coppola and Anderson, told the festival audience, punctuality was paramount. “If you were late to the set,” he said, “it might not be there.”

Screw the Samsonite.

The stunning collection of Louis Vuitton luggage featured in the film were stars in themselves, sending an otherwise subdued screening audience into a luxury-coveting tizzy. (It solicited one of the first questions posed to the panel.) They included 12 numbered trunks, suitcases and carrying cases, and were adorned with stampeding animals drawn by Anderson’s artist brother, Eric. (Given how tight Roman Coppola’s sis Sofia is with LV designer Marc Jacobs, the product plug is a no-brainer.)

The audience of critics was tempted to refer to the luggage as “baggage,” but Coppola quickly pooh-pooh’d that: “You’re giving them too much emphasis,” he said. Were they anything symbolic? “It wasn’t our plan,” he added. “It’s just where we arrived.”

Art imitates life.

In a creepy, prescient plot twist, it’s revealed that Wilson’s character once tried to kill himself—an eerie parallel to the actor’s own reported suicide attempt last August. Wilson, who has collaborated with Anderson since their days at the University of Texas, has been a no-show at all publicity events for the film, including the Venice Film Festival (where it debuted) and, now, at the New York Film Festival. In “Darjeeling,” Wilson’s character shoots his brothers a deeply dejected look as he shows them his self-inflicted wounds. It’s an image that would make even TMZ squeamish.

By the way, there's a prequel. And it’s not “The Phantom Menace.”

Before seeing “Darjeeling,” we suggest you download “Hotel Chevalier” from iTunes, a 12-minute movie starring Natalie Portman and Schwartzman. It’ll fill you in on Schwartzman’s character’s backstory, which includes a fraught love affair that is referenced in “Darjeeling.” (“Hotel Chevalier” was shown before the main feature while making the rounds of the festival circuit.) As Anderson observed, “It’s not a commercial idea to make a short film that precedes a movie, but you need to see it to get the whole thing.”

Also consider watching Jean Renoir’s “The River,” about three sisters in India (Anderson, Coppola and Schwartzman watched it together in a hotel room on their research trip); anything by Indian auteur Satjayit Ray; and the Louis Malle documentaries “Phantom India” and “Calcutta.” According to Anderson, all of these seminal films influenced “Darjeeling.”