Staying at the Hotel Chevalier with Natalie Portman

Posted by Rob Hunter (rob@filmschoolrejects.com) on September 28, 2007

Apple finally found a way to seduce me into joining iTunes. I despise their service for both practical and personal reasons, but they’ve recently joined forces with the one person who could successfully force me over to the dark side. Natalie Portman. (Ironic isn’t it? For the Star Wars nerds out there anyway…)

And not just Natalie Portman, but Natalie Portman’s lovely derriere. And Natalie Portman standing in profile, back arched, one leg bent at the knee, wearing nothing but socks.
I’ll wait for you to go watch Hotel Chevalier for yourself, for free, at the iTunes store. Yes, I said free. Go ahead.

Back? Okay. Fox Searchlight has offered up this gem for free, not out of generosity but as advertising. Hotel Chevalier is the prelude, the prologue, the tease if you will, to the new Wes Anderson film, The Darjeeling Limited. That film opened in limited release on Friday and goes wide shortly thereafter. I don’t even know for sure if she’s in the feature film, but she and her glory are definitely present here.

So how is Hotel Chevalier aside from the sexy, short-haired nymph named Natalie? Pretty damn good actually, and of course typical of Anderson’s usual fare. That’s a good thing. It’s about thirteen minutes long and takes place entirely in a Parisian hotel room. One camera glide around the room with its impeccable design and set dressing and the impression is that someone has been here for quite some time. Jason Schwartzman is that someone, and the film wastes little time before revealing why he’s there. He’s hiding from Portman (crazy bastard!) and the obviously painful breakup they shared.

“Are you running away from me?” she asks him as they sit together on the bed. “Thought I already did,” he replies. The dialogue is sparse, but it doesn’t take much to see everything that led these two to this moment. “Whatever happens in the end, I don’t want to lose you as a friend,” she says. “I promise,” he replies, “I will never be your friend. No matter what. Ever.” No raised voices, no outbursts, very little inflection at all actually. These words are spoken by people who’ve not only given up on each other but also possibly on themselves. Broken hearts, lost love, loss of direction, it’s clear what leads Schwartzman to take that upcoming train journey with Owen Wilson and Adrian Brody in The Darjeeling Limited.

Beautiful to look at, devastating in its abruptness, Hotel Chevalier really is the only thing that could have coaxed me into Apple’s grasp. Now please excuse me, I need to go load up iTunes again to take some screen captures for my new wallpaper…

| | Read more articles by Rob Hunter