sex and the city

"Hotel Chevalier"
dir., Wes Anderson
2007

A prequel of sorts, Wes Anderson whets our appetite before his next cinematic feast for the eyes, "The Darjeeling Limited", with this simple short film about a man and a woman in a hotel room. I love the mustache on Jason Schwartzman and Natalie Portman has never been so commanding in her on screen sexuality. They play off each other really well although at time it feels like too much of a poured on pastiche and homage to an era of French cinema gone by. I could have easily seen Jean Louis-Tringnant and some pouty-lipped strumpet of the day playing the same roles and engaging in the same banal banter that climaxes in a quiet and sexy pause on a posh hotel balcony. Anderson's trademark wide angle lens, unrelenting esoteric pop music, and slow motion shots are there, but this feels new and more revealing for Anderson namely because of the film's overt but abstracting use of sex. Who knew eroticism and Wes Anderson would be uttered in the same breath?