Hotel Chevalier

In a wonderful little surprise this week on iTunes, Wes Anderson’s short film Hotel Chevalier was made available as a free download. I had read about it earlier in the week, but it was said to be available beginning next week after first debuting at a few select Apple stores. It’s very well done for such a short piece (about 15 minutes long) and gives a little history on one of the main characters in the upcoming The Darjeeling Limited.

During the opening moments of Hotel Chevalier, we see Jason Schwartzman’s character Jack (I had to look it up), who’s been living alone in a hotel in Paris for an undisclosed amount of time. A few minutes in, he gets an unexpected phone call from his ex or (or girlfriend?) played by my future wife Natalie Portman. That’s just a small introduction and it would be in your best interest to watch the rest of this delightful short, because beside it being well-shot, there’s a nice little scene involving Portman’s behind and also being partially nude. I’m sorry, but I consider that a highlight.

For most of us, we’ll never see this released as it was originallly planned. That being as a quiet lead into the main feature The Darjeeling Limited. According to a recent chat with the LA Times, Anderson said that he would like to attach it after the main film has played for a couple of weeks, while also saying “We felt they should be connected and searched for how to do that. In the end, I liked the idea that one person could see it in one way, and another could see it in totally another way.”

Who knows how everything will work out though, but here’s to hoping this comes to fruition. Download the entire short film here on iTunes to watch it for yourself.