With the endearingly precious Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium hitting theaters in a few weeks Natalie shared a few of the life lessons she has learned in her wise, wise 26 years. Including her regret over one revealing scene in Goya’s Ghosts that in the end wasn’t even her. Here’s highlights:The 13-minute film, which serves as a prologue to Darjeeling, is about an American named Jack (Jason Schwartzman, left), holing up in a fancy Paris hotel, who has an unexpected reunion with an estranged girlfriend (Natalie Portman, right). Shot two years ago, before screenwriters Anderson, Schwartzman, and Roman Coppola developed the character into one of the three brothers on Darjeeling\u2019s rail journey across India, “Chevalier” sees Anderson working in his customary jewel-box\/dollhouse mode, but the form and length really suit each other here. (Anderson\u2019s arcane taste in \u201960s British Invasion pop tunes is present as well, in the repeated use of Peter Sarstedt\u2019s 1969 tune “Where Do You Go To (My Lovely),” a Donovan-lite song that began to grate on me with repetition but which I now can\u2019t dislodge from my brain.) “Chevalier” is an exquisite short story where we learn not much but exactly enough about these two characters; plus, there are several allusions in Darjeeling to elements of “Chevalier” that you won\u2019t catch if you haven\u2019t already seen the short.<\/p>\n
Oh, by the way: there\u2019s been a lot of drooling fanboy talk that Portman finally gets naked in “Chevalier.” Well, not quite. Like the film, she reveals not much, just enough.<\/p>\n