Its characters are not left to languish, but are brought back to life by startling moments of grace. Any of us who remember the isolation and interminability of lockdown (and who doesn’t!) can relate to this experience of colorlessness.īut, like every Anderson film before it, “The French Dispatch” is optimistic at its heart. Gone are the typical candy-colored hues: Rosenthaler’s story, along with the bulk of the film, is shown in black and white, which reinforces the monotony and emptiness he feels. Perhaps as a reflection of this thematic shift, “The French Dispatch” takes Anderson’s aesthetic and turns it inside out. At that rate, I’m going to poison myself to death before I ever see the world again, which makes me feel-very sad.” Though Rosenthaler has known little but addiction, mental illness and despair, he suspects there is more to life than this-though he does not know why, and unlike the Tenenbaums and Max Fischer, he does not know how to find it. “I drink fourteen pints of mouthwash ration per week. Most striking of all is Rosenthaler, a convicted murderer who is living out his days in the psychiatric ward of a prison. No one in “The French Dispatch” is quite at home in their world, or with themselves. An unmarried woman-journalist-of-a-certain-age wishes to be seen as a professional instead of an object of pity. Young revolutionaries attempt an upheaval of social norms. But there is something different at work here: Unlike Anderson’s previous heroes, the cast of “The French Dispatch” does not long for the past they yearn for a reality that has never existed. Extraordinarily detailed set pieces and ’60s-era pop music abound.Īnd so, of course, does nostalgia. Following the lives and work of a team of expatriate journalists, it is stuffed to the gills with storylines (five), settings (dozens) and characters (upwards of 300). Fans in search of a cinematic escape will not be disappointed with its maximalist leanings, “The French Dispatch” seems tailor-made for those of us who spent the last two years wearily watching Netflix from home. Max Fischer gains courage through friendship Steve Zissou grows up through the loss of a son the Tenenbaums hit rock bottom and then, finding love there, are transformed.Īnderson’s latest, “ The French Dispatch,” is no departure stylistically. All of them are, in one way or another, stuck-until something (or someone) arrives to shock them out of their complacency. The adult Tenenbaum siblings move back in with their mother in search of the security of childhood. The has-been Steve Zissou longs for the prime of his youth. The teenaged Max Fischer wants to become a permanent student at Rushmore Academy. Most everyone in Anderson’s 10 films longs for some sort of glory days gone by. Like any good storyteller, Anderson matches his mode to his subject his films are drenched in nostalgia, and his characters are stuck in the past. Like any good storyteller (as an auteur, Anderson writes as well as directs his films), Anderson matches his mode to his subject his films are drenched in nostalgia, and his characters are stuck in the past. But there is much more to Anderson’s aesthetic than a penchant for mid-century style. These caricatures aren’t exactly wrong: Being a character in a Wes Anderson movie does make you more likely to own a typewriter, wear a fur coat and drown your ennui in The Kinks. Search for his name, and you will soon be lost in a deluge of parodies, homage and outright send-ups, all featuring his signature aesthetic: bold colors, retro accouterments and a rollicking 1960s soundtrack. There exists in the popular imagination a misconception that the filmmaker Wes Anderson is a man of style over substance.
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