In a turnaround from what was being said back at the beginning of September, Wes Anderson’s short film Hotel Chevalier will run in front of his new feature The Darjeeling Limited when the movie opens wider this Friday.
The 13 minute short centers on the character that Jason Schwartzman plays in Darjeeling Limited, filling in a portion of his backstory that is referenced in the feature. Although the incidences of the short – in which Schwartzman’s character has an unexpected reunion with a former lover played by Natalie Portman – are mentioned, one can see Darjeeling without having seen Chevalier. The two have screened together at various film festivals.
Although shot a year before the production of Darjeeling Limited, Anderson has been waffling about how to present Hotel Chevalier, unsure if he wanted to have the short run separately before Darjeeling or edited into the feature as a flashback. Finally, he decided to make Hotel Chevalier available for free via Apple iTunes and then include it on the DVD release of Darjeeling Limited.
During a publicity appearance at the Apple Store Soho in New York for Hotel Chevalier’s iTunes debut, Anderson hoped that people would see the short first and then watch the feature a few weeks later, mirroring the time that elapses between the two stories-
Ideally, I wanted someone to watch the short, take a break, think about it for a week and then watch the feature. That’s kind of hard to organize at a multiplex.
Previously: Hotel Chevalier Unreachable Via Darjeeling Limited
Via Hollywood Reporter
