WORDS Jo Buitendach
Beyond the dreamy scenes in his much-adored films, director Wes Anderson has created another fantasy – this time, of the locomotive kind.
Celebrated director Wes Anderson has spent nearly three decades creating intricate on-screen worlds in films like The Darjeeling Limited, The Royal Tenenbaums and The French Dispatch. Now he’s deployed his trademark use of striking imagery and quirky narrative style to the interior of one of the Belmond Group’s British Pullman train carriages.
The carriages date to the first half of the 20th century, and sport whimsical names such as Cygnus, Perseus and Audrey. Recognised for lavishness in their heyday, they featured on the silver screen and even hosted royals before being restored in the early 1980s to make the most of the Art Deco interiors, antique marquetry, vintage lighting and heritage upholstery. Now Cygnus, named after a constellation and meaning “swan”, has been given the Wes star treatment.
The project is a match made in rail-buff heaven, as Wes has a keen interest in train travel and has created several elegant carriages and trains in his movies. “I was eager to make something new while participating in the process of preservation that accompanies all the classic Belmond train projects,” he says of his design for Cygnus. “They are keeping something special alive – an endangered species of travel that’s nevertheless very suited to our time.”
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The finished product is like stepping into one of Wes’s films – a carriage that references history but is bold and modern too – and it relies heavily on his filmic calling cards, which include a love of balance, distinct colour palettes and a retro aesthetic. Cygnus features a delicate pastel- pink ceiling, green tones in the carpets and chairs, and dreamlike wooden panels emblazoned with clouds, stars and ziggurat-shaped sunbeams. Wes’s characteristic use of symmetry and angular equilibrium can be seen
in the space’s bold lines, and in the shape of the chairs and mirrors. The carriage epitomises the notion that travel is about the journey and not the destination.
Leaving from London Victoria Station, the British Pullman offers high tea and Champagne-fuelled day trips, and journeys to historic sites and sporting events.
Our own slice of Anderson
If you aren’t able to board the Wes Anderson Royal Pullman carriage, Cape Town’s Mount Nelson Hotel (also a Belmond property) is known for its striking resemblance to the eponymous establishment in The Grand Budapest Hotel. We wouldn’t be surprised if the film’s famed concierge, Monsieur Gustave H, was personally responsible for the Nellie’s signature pink paint job. For a more outdoorsy expression of the Anderson style, check out our feature on Camp Canoe in Franschhoek, inspired by Moonrise Kingdom ’s iconic Camp Ivanhoe
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