Inside the world of Wes Anderson films and his new movie, The French Dispatch.
Emily Hanna
If you haven’t watched Wes Anderson’s newest film yet, stop reading and book your ticket. Spoilers ahead– you’ve been warned!
Wes Anderson is an influential director synonymous with symmetry, meticulous mise-en-scènes, and eccentric plot lines. His latest film, The French Dispatch, is his ode to print journalism and meets every expectation of a Wes Anderson classic. It features appearances from some of his regular tried and trusted actors such as: Bill Murray, Owen Wilson, and Tilda Swinton, alongside some fresh faces including Saoirse Ronan and Timothée Chalamet.
The French Dispatch contains three main storylines as Anderson works his way through an edition of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, which is a fictionalised version of The New Yorker. We see a struggling, imprisoned artist, an intense student protest, and a thrilling kidnapping. The film takes place in and around a fictional French town called “Ennui-sur-blasé”, which translates to “boredom” in English.
Anderson’s films are renowned for their distinguishable stylistic choices, which often results in the plot taking a back seat. This is what makes watching The French Dispatch so unpredicted, as Anderson perfectly executes an intense focus on the plot which makes for concentrated, content-heavy viewing.
As ever, the star-studded cast pose as intriguing characters. Bill Murray as editor-in-chief Arthur Howitzer Jr., whose death unites his staff as they publish the final edition of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun. Anderson depicts Howitzer as strict yet caring– an authority figure who has his writers' best interests at heart. Murray’s character is very reminiscent of Harold Ross, co- founder and editor-in-chief of The New Yorker. Léa Seydoux poses as a prison guard, who serves as a muse for an insane inmate and artist, played by Benicio del Toro. Tilda Swinton is an arts correspondent who hints at hiding a scandalous past, and Timothée Chalamet is the messy-haired, chess-playing leader of a student revolt which leads to his death.
Each character is as unique as ever. Throughout each story, each reporter has a brief moment of reflection on their loneliness. This makes the final shot, where the team write Howitzer’s obituary in his office, the perfect way to end the film.
Delving into Anderson’s renowned style, one of the most prominent techniques employed is the use of symmetry. It makes the films pleasing to the eye while adding to the artistic quality due to the unnatural element of the shot. Like any Anderson film, there is a vibrant colour scheme. With The French Dispatch, its hues of blue, yellow, green and orange that take over the screen. This is until Anderson innovatively switches to black and white as a nod to the greyscale colour scheme of print journalism. This monochrome display causes a potent contrast when the screen returns back to the colour scheme, which works in favour of strengthening the vibrancy of the colours.
Detailed shot composition is apparent in any Anderson film and boasts the director’s attention to detail, turning ordinary shots into works of art. Anderson constantly pushes these artistic boundaries in his films, and in the case of The French Dispatch, an entire car chase sequence is told through Hergé-esque animation. This is not only very ‘of the time’ for the era in which the film is based, but also fitting for the tribute to The New Yorker, renowned for its comic strips and cartoons.
The most prevalent feature of any Wes Anderson film is the art of escapism. Anderson takes something seemingly mundane and uses his entirely unique artistic and visual methods to make it exciting. There is a sense of life being highly romanticised and unrealistic, but his films provide us with well-needed break from the monotony of everyday life in a highly stylised way.
Emily Hanna studies English at Queen’s University Belfast