Written by Lilli Donohue, Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures
Full of action but not so full of color like we normally see in a Wes Anderson movie. Cutting in and out from color to black and white makes viewers appreciate his perfected palettes that much more. “The French Dispatch” is an anthology, comprised of three mini-movies. Each one is extracted from a feature article in the “French Dispatch” fictional journal and publishing house. The whole movie seems quite meta, a montage of entering and exiting stories. We are introduced to these scenes via an auditorium lecture, which is in color while the “presentation,” or the first part of the anthology, is not.
The first allegory features Julien Cadazio (Adrien Brody) as an art buyer and Moses Rosenthaler (Benicio del Toro) as a slightly deranged, mad artist. The two meet in prison, striking a deal to purchase artwork. The story evolves as Cadazio leaves prison and becomes an art dealer for Rosenthaler. This scene was quite comical to watch in a room full of art school students, laughing at all the tropes of a cynical, tortured artist. Cadazio introduces Rosenthaler as a “creative savage.” We see his modernist paintings in color for only a moment, then return to varying contrasts of black and white.
We pan to the second story arc, seemingly unrelated to the first. This was cause for some confusion, masked by Anderson’s fast pace through camera movements and quick talking. A chef and a kidnapped son take the action to the next level. Anderson also throws in comic strip-style animations to describe the plot of the kidnapping, a notion of print journalism that brings nostalgia.
In the final scene, we meet kid-journalist Zeffirelli (Timothée Chalamet). He and his comrades write a manifesto to overthrow the republican authority- basically a stick-it-to-the-man attitude. Chaos and love triangles ensue. The youthfulness of the activists is amusing but impactful. In a short monologue, Zeffirelli said, “I can no longer envision myself as a grown-up man in my parent’s world.” The kids’ manifesto hangs in the balance of winning a chess game with the mayor. The tension is high, but no spoilers from this article!
Overall the movie was very fast-paced, and definitely something that begs to be watched again. For a Wes Anderson film, it was quite interesting to have such a lack of color, but still gorgeous through composition and interesting camera movements. Moments like moving set walls give the same meta feeling of “Anna Karenina,” and the chaos of black and white French film “Band of Outsiders.” Anderson does it again, creating cinematic magic with his A-list cast.
