Silence and India

I saw two brilliant movies this week.

The Call of Cthulhu is a move based on the HP Lovecraft science fiction story by the same name. Cthulhu is big with nerds. But, like Hitchhiker’s Guide, it’s something I have never cared to read or get excited about. What intrigued me about this movie is that it was made in 2005, but as a silent film, since that’s what movies were like when the story was written, in the 1920s.

The movie was made by members of the HP Lovecraft fan society, so I gather that it was exceedingly faithful to the original story. The silent movie style works SO well. I got really wrapped up in the story. They did a great job recreating the look and feel of those old movies.

There was a behind the scenes movie that you should watch as well. It’s very funny and incredible to see how they pulled off a lot of the effects. At the same time, I get the feeling that these are guys just like me and my friends, except with better resources and experience (and they live near Hollywood). It’s one of those movies that makes you wish you were a part of the making.

If you’re interested in watching, you can rent it from Netflix.

We also saw The Darjeeling Limited, the latest and perhaps greatest Wes Anderson movie. Seriously, I loved this movie immensely. It had all the elements of his past films, but I felt it was in a more cohesive, polished package.

There were many regular cast members, as well as the lovely Adrien Brody. I loved the opening when they left Bill Murray behind and passed the torch to Brody. Very nice. No Mark Mothersbaugh music, but good old Kinks. Unlike the Life Aquatic, I felt like the music settled nicely behind the scenes. It wasn’t such a noticeable accent, and I liked that. There were all the standard Anderson moves, like slow motion, panning between dialogue, directly overhead shots of objects, but they were gorgeously colored of India. I loved that much of the characters’ histories were left unexplained. Kind of unsual, since he usually paints such vivid character stories. The men in Darjeeling were just as quirky and intriguing as ever, but the details were left up to our own imaginations.

There’s a short film that acts as a prologue called Hotel Chevalier. Darjeeling stands alone, you don’t miss out on anything by missing the short. However I think if you’re going to watch it at all, watch it before seeing Darjeeling Limited. It’s available online for free.

If you enjoy Anderson’s other movies (Bottle Rocket, Rushmore, The Royal Tennenbaums, and The Life Aquatic) in the slightest, you should really see this one.