As a bit of foreplay for that series, we give you the top five Wes Anderson one-liners:
5. Bottle Rocket: "Who's that man?"
When a handful of inexperienced (and emotionally unstable) wanna-be criminals attempt a heist of a cold-storage facility, what could go wrong? Well, for starters the safe-cracking expert seems to have no idea what's going on. Played by 76-year-old Indian actor Kumar Pallana (often remembered as Pagoda in The Royal Tenenbaums), the confused senior shows his ineptitude when he is left to work his magic on the safe, and is still sitting down, looking bored and awaiting instruction when his teammates return. It quickly becomes clear to all involved that he isn't the safe expert he's cracked up to be -- especially when he's inexplicably found standing in a walk-in freezer a few moments later, confused. But it should have been been obvious from the beginning of the heist, when things start to get serious and Kumar points to one of his accomplices and deadpans: "Who's that man?"
4. Rushmore: "O.R. they?"
When Jason Schwartzman's love interest brings an unexpected guest to his celebratory dinner, the unfortunate suitor quickly learns that Schwartzman is a relentless bully. Only fifteen -- yet half drunk with a bleeding nose -- Schwartzman's Max Fischer delivers one tormenting line after another, calling Luke Wilson's character "curly" (mocking his shaved head), and even flicking his hand with a spoon when Wilson attempts to reach across the table for the creamer, only to spill the dish on his lap when Wilson politely asks for it. But then, the ugliness began with Schwartzman's endlessly witty comment about Wilson's "nurse's uniform."
3. The Royal Tenenbaums: "Don't listen to me, I'm on mescaline."
When Richie Tenenbaum (Luke Wilson) visits his friend Eli Cash (Owen Wilson), after the two haven't seen each other for some time, Richie quickly discovers that his friend has developed a taste for mind-bending substances. Always introduced with a song by The Clash, Eli was written as a composite of eccentric authors Cormac McCarthy and Jay McInerny, according to Anderson. In characteristic Andersonian fashion, Eli reveals to his best friend -- while surrounded by hilariously bizarre paintings -- that he is "indeed, very much so" on mescaline," only to casually change the subject to Richie's infatuation with his adopted sister.
2. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou: "Revenge."
During a post-screening Q&A for his new deep-sea documentary, Steve Zissou (Bill Murray) reveals that although he does not know the name of the fish that ate his oceanography partner, calling it a Jaguar Shark ("I just said the first two words that came into my head"), he intends to return to the sea to find and execute the fish. "That is an endangered species at most, what would be the scientific purpose of killing it?" one of the audience members asks. And Zissou responds with a wildly unscientific -- yet neurotically hilarious -- single-word: "revenge."
1. The Darjeeling Limited: "I love you, too; but I'm going to mace you in the face."
Wes Anderson often deals with the theme of pretense: His characters keep up a facade to prevent the rest of the world from seeing their vulnerability; the hilarity comes when all the walls come crashing down. And here we have the perfect example: When three estranged brothers travel across a foreign land to find their elusive mother, the phoniness of their familial love begins to unravel, especially when you add drug abuse, a dead father and a can of mace the equation.
The Mayan Theater Classic Film Series (Wes Anderson) begins tomorrow at the Mayan, 110 Broadway.
Here's the lineup:
Wednesday, June 6: Bottle Rocket at 7 p.m. and 9:45 p.m.
Wednesday, June 13: The Darjeeling Limited at 7 p.m. and 9:45 p.m.
Wednesday, June 20: Fantastic Mr. Fox at 7 p.m. and 9:45 p.m.
Wednesday, June 27: The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou at 7 p.m. and 9:45pm
