THE FRENCH DISPATCH
****
Director: Wes Anderson
Screenwriter: Wes Anderson, from a story by Anderson, Roman Coppola, Hugo Guinness and Jason Schwartzman.
Principal cast:
Bill Murray
Benicio Del Toro
Adrien Brody
Tilda Swinton
Léa Seydoux
Frances McDormand
Country: USA/Germany
Classification: M
Runtime: 107 mins.
Australian release date: 9 December 2021.
According to Wes Anderson, the director and co-writer of The French Dispatch, the inspiration for his new film came from the early years of The New Yorker magazine, which launched a generation of writers and artists unafraid to express their thoroughly modern views. Anderson went on to develop his idea with Roman Coppola, Hugo Guinness and Jason Schwartzman, wishing to create a “love letter to journalists” and an homage to the journal’s founding editors and authors. The horrors of World War I and the subsequent Spanish flu pandemic gave birth to the ‘Roaring Twenties’ and a desire in America for publications that provided sophisticated and witty short stories reflecting urban life in the Jazz Age. To meet that market, journalist Harold Ross launched The New Yorker in February 1925 and the first issue sold out in 36 hours and it’s still going strong today. In the film, Anderson and co. have created the character of Arthur Howitzer, Jr. (Bill Murray) as the editor of the fictional magazine The French Dispatch, and they readily acknowledge that he is a composite of Ross and William Shawn, Ross’s successor at The New Yorker.
The French Dispatch was shot in the south-western French city of Angoulême, lovingly re-created as the eccentric Ennui-sur-Blasé (geddit?), home of Howitzer’s magazine, a place of winding cobbled streets and small squares surrounded by 19th century buildings. The plot, such as it is, is comprised of four disparate stories written for the Dispatch by its clutch of journos and each of the writers is a composite based on real-life essayists employed by The New Yorker. For example, the character of Roebuck Wright (played by Jeffrey Wright) is inspired by a combination of James Baldwin, Tennessee Williams and A. J. Liebling, and Tilda Swinton’s role as J. K. L. Berensen, is partly based on the famous “art talker” Rosamond Bernier. Each character is as outlandish as their stories and it is occasionally frustrating figuring out what the heck is going on as we are drawn into this web of unrelated vignettes. Overall, though, The French Dispatch is a fine piece of filmmaking which keeps you entertained and intrigued by its bizarreness, an Anderson trademark.
The extraordinary production design is at the forefront of this spectacular, visual work and it creates a unique atmosphere. The large and impressive cast, taken together, presents a combination of characters as interesting as Ennui-sur-Blasé’s environs. The list is headed up by Bill Murray but features a host of famous faces, some in very minor roles. There are many who have worked with Anderson previously, such as Murray and Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Tilda Swinton, Leá Seydoux, Mathieu Amalric, Edward Norton and Jason Schwartzman, and this time they’re joined by Benicio Del Toro, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet and Jeffrey Wright, to name a few.
The French Dispatch, narrated by Anjelica Houston (another regular Anderson collaborator), is a weird but joyous ride through the pages of this whimsical magazine and, although it may divide its audience, it presents a visual extravaganza that deserves to be seen. It should engender much discussion about the oeuvre of one of the most interesting directors working in Hollywood today, responsible for such diverse films as Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Isle of Dogs, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Grand Budapest Hotel. It could very well garner Oscar nominations in the coming awards season, certainly for its extraordinary production and artistic design, if for nothing else. It may not be the best of Anderson’s movies, nor the most amusing, but you definitely won’t have seen anything quite like it before.
Screenwriter: Wes Anderson, from a story by Anderson, Roman Coppola, Hugo Guinness and Jason Schwartzman.
Principal cast:
Bill Murray
Benicio Del Toro
Adrien Brody
Tilda Swinton
Léa Seydoux
Frances McDormand
Country: USA/Germany
Classification: M
Runtime: 107 mins.
Australian release date: 9 December 2021.
According to Wes Anderson, the director and co-writer of The French Dispatch, the inspiration for his new film came from the early years of The New Yorker magazine, which launched a generation of writers and artists unafraid to express their thoroughly modern views. Anderson went on to develop his idea with Roman Coppola, Hugo Guinness and Jason Schwartzman, wishing to create a “love letter to journalists” and an homage to the journal’s founding editors and authors. The horrors of World War I and the subsequent Spanish flu pandemic gave birth to the ‘Roaring Twenties’ and a desire in America for publications that provided sophisticated and witty short stories reflecting urban life in the Jazz Age. To meet that market, journalist Harold Ross launched The New Yorker in February 1925 and the first issue sold out in 36 hours and it’s still going strong today. In the film, Anderson and co. have created the character of Arthur Howitzer, Jr. (Bill Murray) as the editor of the fictional magazine The French Dispatch, and they readily acknowledge that he is a composite of Ross and William Shawn, Ross’s successor at The New Yorker.
The French Dispatch was shot in the south-western French city of Angoulême, lovingly re-created as the eccentric Ennui-sur-Blasé (geddit?), home of Howitzer’s magazine, a place of winding cobbled streets and small squares surrounded by 19th century buildings. The plot, such as it is, is comprised of four disparate stories written for the Dispatch by its clutch of journos and each of the writers is a composite based on real-life essayists employed by The New Yorker. For example, the character of Roebuck Wright (played by Jeffrey Wright) is inspired by a combination of James Baldwin, Tennessee Williams and A. J. Liebling, and Tilda Swinton’s role as J. K. L. Berensen, is partly based on the famous “art talker” Rosamond Bernier. Each character is as outlandish as their stories and it is occasionally frustrating figuring out what the heck is going on as we are drawn into this web of unrelated vignettes. Overall, though, The French Dispatch is a fine piece of filmmaking which keeps you entertained and intrigued by its bizarreness, an Anderson trademark.
The extraordinary production design is at the forefront of this spectacular, visual work and it creates a unique atmosphere. The large and impressive cast, taken together, presents a combination of characters as interesting as Ennui-sur-Blasé’s environs. The list is headed up by Bill Murray but features a host of famous faces, some in very minor roles. There are many who have worked with Anderson previously, such as Murray and Owen Wilson, Adrien Brody, Willem Dafoe, Tilda Swinton, Leá Seydoux, Mathieu Amalric, Edward Norton and Jason Schwartzman, and this time they’re joined by Benicio Del Toro, Frances McDormand, Timothée Chalamet and Jeffrey Wright, to name a few.
The French Dispatch, narrated by Anjelica Houston (another regular Anderson collaborator), is a weird but joyous ride through the pages of this whimsical magazine and, although it may divide its audience, it presents a visual extravaganza that deserves to be seen. It should engender much discussion about the oeuvre of one of the most interesting directors working in Hollywood today, responsible for such diverse films as Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums, Isle of Dogs, Fantastic Mr. Fox and The Grand Budapest Hotel. It could very well garner Oscar nominations in the coming awards season, certainly for its extraordinary production and artistic design, if for nothing else. It may not be the best of Anderson’s movies, nor the most amusing, but you definitely won’t have seen anything quite like it before.