First released at the Cannes Festival in July 2021, The French Dispatch of the Liberty, Kansas Evening Sun, otherwise known as The French Dispatch is the last film written, produced and directed by Wes Anderson. Taking place in France, more precisely in the town of Ennui-sur-Blasé, the movie describes the last issue of the magazine The French Dispatch, according to the will of its editor, Arthur Howitzer Jr. . Let us dive into this extravagant story of miscellaneous events, voiced by several narrators, displaying Wes Anderson’s talent.
A story mi-figue mi-raisin
The first thing about The French Dispatch is that it is a magazine, though fictional, and as such, the movie is just a recollection of articles, and is presented that way to the spectator. This anthology follows three different storylines, completely separated and yet linked by the place where the events they describe take place : Ennui-sur-Blasé. I will not venture into spoilers and just skim through the different times of the movie, but each of them walk at a different pace, mimicking the different parts of the magazine : the local color section, the taste & smells section from pages 55 to 74 or even the obituary at the end.
As such, the spectator witnesses many ways to tell stories which are colorful, crafty, and with humor en veux-tu en voilà. This movie is really funny, it constantly flirts with the absurd, plays with your expectations and pushes the surrealistic point of view of the creator to a ridiculous and yet fabulous point. A perfect example of this fact is the constant va-et-vient between English and French, for no reason whatsoever, and as if the two languages were one and the same (Yes, it IS the reason why I’m writing this article in such a confusing way). Obviously, though it is in most cases an annoying thing to say, I recommend for this film the puritanism of the original version, because even if the film exists in a French dub, it is so much more exquisite to watch the subbed version, in which you can understand what’s said in French. Hear Léa Seydoux or other members of this cast du feu de dieu, répondre à un monologue sur la puissance de l'art par un simple No. The cast is another highlight of what makes The French Dispatch so gorgeous, there are a lot of really famous actors, like Benito del Toro, Owen Wilson, Timothée Chalamet or Cécile de France, all of them delivering an incredible performance.
The mise en abyme of the mise en abyme mise elle même in abyme
Ce qui est fou avec The French Dispatch, c’est sa capacité à rendre compte par divers récits enchâssés les uns dans les autres des diverses nuances possibles en matière de narration. In a film, talking about the last issue of the magazine, we witness through different cuts the writers of the articles telling the story, but also telling a part of themselves through it with a lot of apartés. What this film is really about is how one can tell a story, and the three main storylines show this very well : through each part of the film, you see a different storyteller, how he is affected by the events he witnesses, how his own perception lays stress on certain objects (procédé visible par l’apparition de couleur dans des passages surtout en noir et blanc, témoignage ainsi de l’importance que revêt aux yeux du conteur cet élément de l’histoire, qui peut ne pas l’être autant pour le personnage), and this even in the style of the narrator’s speech. Every story features the same wacky situations never failing to crack a smile on the spectator’s face, and in the end the movie is kind of a love letter to poetic license, to allow the artist as many liberties as he wants, for the sake of his own story. A love letter also addressed to the New Yorker, a journal which influenced Wes Anderson in many ways, even inspiring characters and stories featured in the French Dispatch.
And yet, despite all of this, the movie remains crystal clear, there is no confusion whatsoever about the narrative, as convoluted as it may seem to be, there is this clear endeavor to tell stories, to tell them as clearly as possible, and yet fill the spectator with a disturbing feeling. This feeling is the ultimate magic of Anderson’s movies. Pour citer l’éditeur en chef du French Dispatch, quand tu écris quelque chose, “try to make it sound like you wrote it that way on purpose”. Il en va de même pour le cinéma. In this movie, Wes Anderson constantly plays with everything he wants to play with, lights, camera movements, colors, silence, even time; he distorts them all to serve his vision of the story, and make this grand bazaar look as if it was meant to be this way. Furthermore, just like in other works of Anderson, the actors' movements are timed and transformed, to create a surrealistic scene, which appears to be real but as man-made as possible at the same time.
In Anderson’s works exists what’s called a visual metronome, which is the root of the strange feeling you get when the film is on. If you were to look at the movie with a metronome at your side (Bizarre mais passons), you would notice, that every movement goes at the same rhythm, whether it be the camera movements, or just the blink of an eye, and all the extras in the background act the same, just like a clockwork, which when disturbed causes une encore plus grande attention du spectateur. Celui-ci, face à cette dissonance visuelle, remarque d’autant plus les émotions, perturbations, hésitations des personnages, et le flirt avec cette cassure est la crème of the crop, if I may say so myself.
I hope my attempt to talk in our journal about a journal in which journalists talk about them and what they want to write in their journal convinced you to go and watch this masterpiece, qui n’est malheureusement pas disponible en streaming à la demande, mais peut-être loué ou acheté sur des services comme Prime Video. You have no reason whatsoever which could keep you from watching this movie : You want to laugh ? You want to cry ? You want to be impressed by Wes Anderson’s talent de cinéaste, en tant que fin connoisseur? Or maybe Timothée Chalamet’s enticing face will be the final blow. Either way, do not miss the chance to see the movie which inspired this fabulous article!
08.02.2022 - "Et pourquoi pas ?" - Yann Ours
Comments