The French Dispatch

“The French Dispatch”: Wes Anderson’s latest satire (even of my own “manifesto”)

“The French Dispatch” is an anthology of satirical “literary” fiction, three stories ,with a prologue and obituary epilogue, directed by Wes Anderson, with embedded stories by Roman Coppola and Hufo Gioness.

The publisher of a literary magazine from Liberty, KS (SE KS) dies, necessitating closing the magazine, as if it were an art museum. But a love letter leads to the publication of three final iconic stories set in a town in France.

The stories are “The Concrete Masterpiece”, “Revisions to a Manifesto”, and “The Private Dining Room of the Police Commissioner.”

The outer stories involve prisoners and criminal elements in an  iconic fashion (Victor Hugo, even) and I leave it the reader to check Wikipedia and imdb before going to the film (yes, they’re complicated).

The middle story hit closer to home. Timothee Chalamet plays Zefferelli, a student revolutionary. Is this 1968 (Bertolucci’s “The Dreamers” (2003)?)  He has written a “manifesto”.  Well, my own first DADR book  (1997) had been called “The Manifesto”, but it is a word with a bad reputation because of a couple of terrorists in the past. He also plays chess (at long distance, with balcn and white pieces separated in a correspondence game) – and the movie shows White resigning a position that looks like a Sicilian Dragon with the King castled long. Then the script offers the line “white castle short”. Somewhere there is a scene with soldiers in skivvies in the barracks, with no apparent body hair, as if a satirical reference to the historical debate on gays in the military. Wes also has some fun with the idea of filming “protesters” without actually protesting yourself..

Wes Anderson uses his usual block rectangular style of building images, and oscillates aspect ratios and uses black and white for the deep embeds.

I am reminded of teenager Max Reisinger’s style in making glitzy videos about his travels, especially in France. Could he have played Chalamet’s role?

Name: “The French Dispatch”

Director, writer:          Wes Anderson et al

Released: 2021/10

Format:            varies 1.37:1 often, bw

When and how viewed:          Cinema Arts Fairfax Va 2021/11/6 afternoon small audience

Length:            110

Rating: R

Companies:     Fox Searchlight (Disney); Indian Paintbrush

Stars    *****

(Posted: Saturday Nov. 11, 2021 at 7 PM EDT)

 

CategoriesB-Movies, Cannes, satire

TagsFox Searchlight, Wes Anderson