Scene Analysis

Scene Analysis: The Darjeeling Limited

By Drew Jennison

The scene is not on youtube but can be seen here

A man in India takes a cab to the train station and misses his train, not very exciting right? Not in the case of The Darjeeling Limited. Director Wes Anderson uses music and dynamic camera angles to make this not so exciting scene, thrilling.
The music in this scene transforms it from something bland to something colorful and exciting. As the scene begins a fast paced Indian song by Ustad Vilayat Khan comes on in the background. This sets the pace of the scene and captures the audience’s attention. It creates suspense because it makes the audience feel like they’re rushing towards something. Without it the scene would lack excitement and lose much of the suspense gained with the song. The song continues throughout the scene as our character rushes to his destination, which is revealed to be the train station. The presence of the song as the scene goes on keeps up the pace and keeps the audiences attention. The song sets the tone for the scene and maintains it throughout.
Songs can also be used to illustrate a change in tone/story. Wes Anderson does this near the end of the scene. Our character is running after his train, we see a a man come running up next to him and the camera focus shifts to him as the music changes to The Kink's "This Time Tomorrow". The shift in the music illustrates the shift in focus, showing the new character to be important in the story. Without the music the focus would still shift but the effect of the shift would be lost.

Along with the music the camera angles that Anderson uses make the scene exciting. Throughout the scene the camera cuts quickly through multiple different camera angles, adding to the rushed sense that the music conveys. These quick cuts through innovative shots(ex. taxi meter) not only give the audience a better sense of the setting but they showcase each characters expressions and actions, which shows the characters looking rushed and worried, making the audience feel with the character and adds to the fast paced feeling of the scene. One shot where the camera angle really sets the tone is when the man from the taxi(Bill Murray) is running through the train station, the camera follows him as he weaves in and out of the crowd of people, making the audience feel like they're running right besides him. If Anderson had chosen any other shot this effect would be lost and the scene would not be quite as enthralling.
While the music can show a change in tone or focus, without the camera angles the effect would not be as great. This is the case in the last part of the scene where the shot is a close-up of Bill Murray from the side as he runs. As another man(Adrien Brody) enters the frame the shot remains the same but the focus shifts from Murray to Brody as the focus of the story shifts as well. This use of camera angles serves as a effective visual representation of the transition, showing the audience that the focus has changed. Without it the audience may get lost, or have a hard time comprehending the significance of the new character entering the scene.

Without the use of music and innovative camera angles, this scene would be boring and would not flow very well. But when one incorporates these elements into a scene, they are left with an exciting and effective piece of work that can aid the director and sharing ideas or changes with the audience.

Scene: The Darjeeling Limited

For my scene i chose the opening scene of the Darjeeling Limited. The video isn't on youtube but can be watched here: http://www.imeem.com/urbana/video/VrZRW-mO/the-darjeeling-limited-opening-scene-movies-video/

Movie: The Darjeeling Limited

Scene: Opening scene immediately following credits

Run Time: 2:58 (without opening credits)

Passenger played by Bill Murray and Man with Sunglasses is Adrien Brody
Description of the Scene: The scene begins with an establishing shot of a small town in India, in the background a hurried Indian music is playing setting a hurried pace for the scene. As the music becomes more hurried the camera zooms in to focus on a black car, seen from the front, as it zooms down the street. Cut to view from driver side window, showing road in front of car and a taxi meter, establishing the car as a taxi. The camera quickly pans over from the meter to reveal the driver of the taxi, a middle aged indian man wearing a turban and glasses with both hands gripped on the wheel. Camera then cuts to view from hood of car looking into the car, revealing the passenger in the back seat, with the driver still in the shot. The passenger is a middle aged white man, wearing a light colored suit and hat, looking nervous. Shot cuts to view from behind car as car zooms through traffic. Cut to closeup of taxi driver, from side. Cut to view from back of taxi to reveal the taxi driver's view. Cut to view from front seat lookign back into the back seat, passenger check watch. Cut to driver's view, close up on steering wheel as driver navigates thorugh more traffic. Cut to front view of car swerving through traffic. Cut back to closeup on passenger's face, who's looking progressively more nervous. Cut to view of hood of car and traffic in front of car. Cut to side view of car and then view out of rear window as driver narrowly navigates around two cars. cut to view from rear window looking into taxi, passenger turns aorudn in apparent wonderment that they made it past the two cars. Cuts back to view from hood lookign into the taxi, passenger looks nervous as taxi driver works his way throught traffic. Cut to side view of car as it navigates around a llama, car begins to drive away from camera. Cut to shot of car pulling up to builfing and slamming on brakes(shot from side view).shot from inside taxi in the back seat as Passenger hurries out of taxi with two bags. Cut to view of drivers window as driver yells at passenger for not paying. Cut to passenger running towards building, shot from behind as if camera is chasing behind him. Cut to long shot view from inside train station, passenger enters carrying two bags and works his way around people, camera follows him as he runs. CLose up of ticket window, passenger enters scene, says "that's my train". Scene cuts to end of train pulling away, camera quickly pans over to reveal passenger running after train. Camera starts off with a side view of passenger runnign but as he cuts around people becomes view from in front of passenger. Cuts to shot from behind passenger, shows the train a few feet in front of him. Close up on boy on caboose of train, camera pans down to reveal name of traina nd subsequently the title of the film. Cut back to close up on passenger's face who's running yelling "wait". Another man appears in the background next to the passenger, this man is also running, he is wearing glasses and has long brown hair, he passes passenger and makes eye contact with him for a second. Music changes from hurried indian music to "This Time Tomorrow" by The Kinks as shot changes to a die view of the bakc of the train. After a few seconds the man in glasses runs into the shot(in slow motion) carrying a bag. He catches the train thorws his bag on and jumps aboard. Once he lands on train, cuts to closeup on his face as he removes hi glasses(in slow motion). Cuts to his view as he sees passenger beginning to slow as he realizes he will not catch train(also in slow motion). Cut back to close up of man's face as he puts his sunglasses back on and enters train(also in slow motion)
end scene