Wes Anderson draws the France of the 1950s in a “clear line”

Wes Anderson’s new film, The French Dispatch, comes out Wednesday, October 27 with a cast to make a red carpet pale. Bill Murray, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, Adrien Brody, Léa Seydoux, Mathieu Amalric … are swept away in a film with sketches, in the unique style of the filmmaker who delights in the vision of a nostalgic France.

An American newspaper decided to give news from France to America. Fixed in the imaginary city of Ennuie-sur-Blasé, which evokes Paris, its editor sends journalists to investigate the country. Three of their articles deal with a psychopathic prisoner revealing himself to be a great artist, from May 1968, and a gastronomic investigation which turns into crime fiction.

Wes Anderson transposed the “clear line” of Belgian comics (Tintin, Spirou) At the movie theater. Its plans are boxes, its colors are vivid, precision is everywhere. This gives in The French Dispatch a festival where the filmmaker let loose. The era of the film is precisely that of the golden age of the “clear line”, the years 1950-60. Going from color to black and white, from film to animation, from burlesque to romantic and glamorous, Anderson creates a universe. The filmmaker is one of the few to have a recognizable visual style, like Walt Disney, Disney elsewhere (the studios), which produces and distributes the film.

If the cast is American, many actors (and extras) are French, Léa Seydoux and Mathieu Amalric having important roles. Film with sketches, neither is weaker than the other, which is rare in the genre. American literature is keen on news, less France, and it is more to this source that Anderson refers than to cinema. The common thread of the newspaper’s editorial staff provides an excellent link between the short stories. But if they are visual and cartoonist, Anderson’s films are also very written.

The Cassandras will mock the nostalgic vision of France with its “swallows”, its police R8, caps, white sticks, and other resurgences of a bygone era. A scene reminds us of Doulos by Jean-Pierre Melville (1962). The director’s style goes beyond clichés, the charm operates. Inventive, spectacular and lively, beautiful with a host of artists rarely gathered, The French Dispatch fill up.

Kind : Comedy
Director : Wes anderson
Actors : Bill Murray, Tlda Swinton, Frances McDormand, Owen Wilson, Elisabeth Moss, Timothée Chalamet Adrien Brody, Léa Seydoux, Mathieu Amalric, Benicio Del Toro
Country : United States
Duration : 1h43
Exit : October 27, 2021
Distributer : The Walt Disney Company France

Synopsis : The French Dispatch features a collection of stories taken from the latest issue of an American magazine published in a fictional 20th century French town.