THE French Dispatch tells stories within stories within stories, as we follow an all-star cast through whimsical yet heartfelt misadventures. All throughout we’re witness to Wes Anderson’s precise and meticulous filmmaking, as every frame is loaded with detail – always keeping the eyes engaged.
The title refers to a fictional magazine made up of American expatriates in the fictional French city of Ennui-sur-Blase in the middle of the last century. They have devoted their lives to documenting some of the more outlandish events and characters of the time – often to the annoyance of editor Arthur Howitzer Jr (an ever droll Bill Murray).
The French Dispatch is a unique movie in many ways, foremost among them is its format – this is an anthology of three extended short stories, as well as a couple shorter vignettes. And the three stories don’t unveil themselves in a linear fashion, oftentimes spinning off into tangents or into a nesting doll structure.
There’s a relatively short travelogue narrated by Owen Wilson as he bicycles through the historic streets and byways of Ennui. It establishes the city as a character in and of itself, as well as the tone of the movie.
The first major story features Benicio del Toro as a prison inmate serving 50 years behind bars for murder. At some point he develops an artistic streak and thanks to Adrien Brody’s art dealer character – who serves time as a fellow inmate – is turned into a celebrity. Lea Seydoux is the icy prison guard who serves as his muse. All of this is narrated by Tilda Swinton in hilarious fashion.
The second story is told by Frances McDormand’s reporter character as she documents a student protest led by Timothée Chalamet and Lyna Khoudri. This section has a lot to say about generational change as the youth rises up against the expectations that society has on them. But it’s not a simple black and white story, as McDormand’s character shows there is still a lot of wisdom that the older generation can offer.
The third tale is nominally about food as Jeffrey Wright visits the local police headquarters to write a story about the police commissioner’s chef. He soon gets roped into a madcap kidnapping saga that even features an extended animated sequence. Beneath the whimsy, there’s a story of outsiders trying to find their place in society. Wright has one of the best voices in the business, which adds a real humanity to the silliness.
The French Dispatch is Anderson’s 10th film, and at this point, if you’re a cinephile you likely have an opinion, either of positive or negative, on Anderson as a stylist. There are plenty of people who think the insane level of detail he puts into his movies – or the stilted way his characters talk – goes too far and detracts from the story or the emotions.
For its part, this movie embraces artificiality more than any of his other works and is kind of audacious in how it pulls it off. Many sets move around the characters, reminiscent of stage productions, while ‘realism’ is thrown out the window all the time.
In many ways the artifice is the point, as the characters who are narrating these stories are creative types who see the world in a heightened literary way. There’s a confidence and sincerity to the filmmaking that’s just captivating.
Much like Anderson’s last two live action movies, 2012’s Moonrise Kingdom and 2014’s Grand Budapest Hotel, The French Dispatch is often funny in how it brings its world to life, but there’s also a layer of melancholy hanging over everything. It’s reminiscing over a world long gone.
There’s a nostalgia for a different time, for print journalism, for creativity for the sake of creativity, for an appreciation of history. There’s also a meta-narrative in the sense that movies like this are hardly ever made and might soon be relegated to history, as commerce ultimately wins out over art. – The Vibes, January 6, 2022
The French Dispatch is playing exclusively at GSC Cinemas
