"The French Dispatch" -- Movie Review

 

During the middle weekend of The 59^th New York Film Festival, I attended the North American Premiere of the new Wes Anderson comedy, “The French Dispatch”, featuring so many familiar names and faces in the cast that it would take too long to list them all. 

Synopsis

The story of The French Dispatch publication in the 20^th century – how it began, its most noteworthy pieces, idiosyncratic workers and how the periodical ended. 

Story

The French Dispatch was a publication from the quaint little town of Ennui-sur-Blasé, France.  It started as a Sunday supplement for The Evening Sun – a newspaper in Liberty, Kansas.  Its founder and editor was Arthur Howitzer, Jr. (Bill Murray), a hard-nose type from a long publishing career; he was tough with his writers when he needed to be and was gentle if his writers responded more to that.  He lived by one motto:  No Crying.  Howitzer tasked the writers to provide French-related articles of interest to an American audience; the subjects varied – human interest, politics, art and gustatory delights.  What follows are some of the publications more noteworthy pieces over the years:

• ·     The Cycling Reporter:  Herbsaint Sazerac (Owen Wilson) was a cyclist who would write effusively about the town of Ennui-sur-Blasé and its denizens – or at least he thought it was effusive.  His editor, however, might disagree and frequently found his articles too dark or too negative.  Sazerac would cycle around town to find stories about locals, architecture and various cultural matters that arose from time-to-time, including the town’s history.    
• ·         J.K.L. Berenson (Tilda Swinton) was known for writing and lecturing about art; one of her most noted works for The French Dispatch was “The Concrete Masterpiece” – the story about how a prison inmate named Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio Del Toro) became a famous artist when he used Simone (Léa Seydoux), his prison guard, as his muse. 
• ·         “Revisions To A Manifesto” was written by Lucinda Krementz (Frances McDormand), whose particular interest was in politics.  She learned of a group of young political activists, led by chess master Zeffirelli (Timothée Chalamet) and Juliette (Lyna Khoudri) – a pair of university students who earnestly try to start a revolution (when Krementz helps Zeffirelli compose his manifesto). 
• ·         “The Private Dining Room Of The Police Commissioner”:  Roebuck Wright (Jeffrey Wright) was remembered for this article about Lieutenant Nescaffier (Stephen Park), the classically-trained chef for the town’s police commissioner; the chef was known to have specialized in something regarded as “police cooking”.  Wright was invited by the commissioner to sample the chef’s best comestible offerings in his private dining room.   

Review

With every Wes Anderson movie that comes out, you almost get the urge to say, “That was the most Wes Anderson of all Wes Anderson movies!”.  You wouldn’t be wrong if you did that.  But it’s utterly delightful to say that with, “The French Dispatch”, you’ll be declaring that yet again – if not screaming it from the rooftops.  This is pretty near perfect, leaving you anxiously awaiting what Anderson’s bottomless well of creativity will conceive for his next film – and until then, you can either go back for additional screenings of this one or stream his past motion pictures wherever you are lucky enough to find them.    

If there is any criticism of “The French Dispatch” it’s that some segments start to feel a little long.  The reason for this varies:  sometimes, the jokes fall flat, sometimes there are no jokes at all (the story tends to lag when they get a bit too serious) and in other cases, they could have just been cut down in the editing room.  But as the editor of The French Dispatch would be glad to remind you:  No Crying.  By the way, although it should go without saying, it must be mentioned that “The French Dispatch” publication never actually existed in real life; it was an invention by Wes Anderson purely for the purposes of this film.    

Following the screening, there was an interview with some of the cast members in person and others remotely, including director Wes Anderson.  Anderson provided an introduction to the movie via video because he is currently shooting his newest work in Spain – which is why he conducted the post-screening interview remotely.  He said that his idea for “The French Dispatch” came from his love of French cinema (he lives in Paris) and he put it in a literary setting due to his admiration of the pieces he read in The New Yorker magazine.  The remote interview also included Bill Murray, who was his usual hilarious self; he said, “We’re in Spain shooting a really good movie, much better than the piece of junk you just saw”.  After that, cocktails were served to the group in Spain and things started to go somewhat off the rails from there.